Painting With Light

I’ve been writing about the world of independent “indie” publishing for many months. The past few weeks I’ve also had time to review some of those posts, thanks to surgery to repair a massive tear (my doc’s words) in the rotator cuff in my left shoulder.

I have to sleep sitting up (or at least I try to) and I’m up-and-about frequently at night because of the pain and discomfort.

I have to admit, it’s starting to get better … or, perhaps I’m just getting used to it. It still hurts a ton when I move my arm, even slightly, in the wrong direction.

Worse, I’m restricted to an abominable restraint that immobilizes my shoulder, supposedly to keep me from tearing out the anchors they drilled through reconstructed ligaments into the head of my humerus (the big upper arm bone).

I have to wear it for at least another three-to-four weeks and it’s dismally uncomfortable, even without the shoulder pain.

Therefore, I don’t sleep a lot.

Hence, I often find myself re-reading my own posts for something to do as the sun comes up again.

But enough with the blatant sympathy grab …

Like a plethora (I’ve always wanted to be able to work that word into a sentence) of other indie authors, I follow most posts or comments on this marvelous series-of-tubes, inter-webby thing, trying to figure out how to increase sales of my books.

Everything I discover, I pass along to you.

I’ve told you about building yourself a web site, a media page, and about being active on the Book of Face and The Twitter, and the other online social hangouts people use these days to avoid actually having to talk to someone.

Sometimes it all feels like useless effort. I mean, here I’ve got the “Swiss Army Knife” of interactive media going for me and some gangbuster book reviews, and I still can’t break into that space every indie author dreams about … the “Best Seller” list.

Worse, like wearing this shoulder restraint, I feel restricted.

I miss good ol’ conversation … about my books and the books of others. Or just about this whole crazy publishing business. It’s why I enjoy my monthly writers’ group meetings so much.

Another Eureka Moment
I decided I’d better follow the advice of a couple of my own posts for a while. I need to be out there, face-to-face with readers, and talk to them about books and writing … to get them talking to others about my books.

The old “earned media” method … the real hammer of publicity.

So, I just finished contacting my local library about speaking to their reading group patrons (I’m also going to donate some of my books). I’m going to follow-up with additional area libraries and local bookstores, and contact some private area reading groups.

Before schools start getting ready to open again for the fall in about a month, I also intend to be knocking on their doors, asking to present to their senior-level creative writing classes.

Speaking in front of a crowd doesn’t intimidate me (once I get started), and I have a nice Kirkus Review for my “Reichold Street” novel, along with a Readers Favorite Gold Medal and other endorsements as evidence I might have something to say.

As soon as this arm finally heals, I ought to be able to talk to people about writing with enough enthusiasm to create some real interest. I should have a good chance to create some word-of-mouth publicity (the best kind). Enough of this going nowhere with my “Swiss Army Knife” of social media.

Just give me a hammer.

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You can find my books as eBooks or paperback on Amazon, or at Barnes & Noble. You’re also invited to visit my web site, BROKEN GLASS, or like my Book of Face page. You can also follow my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.

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Comments posted below will be greatly appreciated.

Tags: award-winning writing, book marketing, indie writers

This entry was posted on August 3, 2014 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Award-Winning Fiction, Branding, Market Your Book. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.