Promotion

Does anyone enjoy promoting their own books? I'll admit to a certain fascination with it, but it can soon become a drag. But it seems that without  some solid PR, then book sales slide and dwindle to very low figures.  There is a school of thought which says have something up for free on Amazon all the time - and think of it as a PR item, or maybe a loss leader. Right now, after the way Yahoo has gone through its groups with a dose of salts, the idea is unappealing to say the least.

I aim to write for my blog three times a week, and more often than not I keep to it but I rarely talk about my own work and still less do I promote it. I have a separate page for My Published Titles, but I suspect few people ever go look at it. I have a Facebook  page, so my posts go up there on a regular basis plus any other comments I make direct to Facebook. I'm on Twitter, but I'm not a natural Tweeter and find it a struggle to be amusing and interesting in 140 characters. Some people seem to do it so easily! But at least I'm there. I think those people who are articulate and can think and speak at the same time are the winners at PR, but I suppose, like many other things, it's partially a learned skill.

I'm thinking of writing a short story and putting it up for free. I read an American blog where the author aims to write 1,000 words a day, therefore a new book every three months. Allow for editing etc and that means 2 new titles for sale a year. Well, I can manage the 1,000 a day (most days) but then I want to edit and edit ... I must be one of those authors afraid to let the book go.

In case you're wondering, the pic is a close up of heather!