I love it when I receive a magazine/ezine with one of my articles or visit a website and see my article posted. After all of these 30+ years, I still appreciate the thrill of it all.
Article-writing was my mainstay for many years—I earned my living by writing articles for magazines. I guess you’d consider me a commercial writer. I wrote what was needed/wanted—what would sell. There were times when I would have rather written a piece on how to participate in the effort to save feral kittens, but the editor needed something on alternative medicine for cats. I remember a time when I wanted to write an article on this country’s wild horse controversy. But editors were more interested in human politics, at the time.
Now most of the articles I write are designed to promote my books and to provide the information and resources authors and freelance writers need and, hopefully, want.
Yesterday, I received my copy of Freelance Writer’s Report featuring my article, “Money-Making Tips for Freelance Writers.” Writer’s Weekly ran my piece, “Do You Have a Purpose and a Platform?” in their December 19th edition. The most recent edition of Publishing Basics published my piece on “What’s in Your Subject Line?” And, while doing a Google search, I discovered that Tamara Sellman wrote a recent blog about my blog—urging writers and authors to visit often. < href=http://tamarasellman.blogspot.com> http://tamarasellman.blogspot.com
So how many people do you think saw these most recent publications and posts? How many people just within the last few weeks have learned about me, my books, my online courses for authors, SPAWN and my editorial consultation business? How many authors learned something they can use from one of my articles or blog entries this month alone? One hundred? Three thousand? Thirty thousand? A million? The possibilities are mind boggling.
Are you writing articles to promote your book? Are you making opportunities for exposure or are you still sitting back waiting for the right opportunity to come along? When you Google your name, how many hits do you get? When I type in my name with quotation marks around it, I get 980 hits for “Patricia L. Fry†and 11,600 hits for “Patricia Fry.†Matilija Press (no quotation marks) gets over 10,000.
If you want to sell books or gain credibility in your field or genre, take every advantage. How? I’ve written so many articles on this topic that I am at a loss to recommend just one or two. Every article listed under Book Promotion at my site http://www.matilijapress.com/articles.htm , will show you the way. If you still need help, consider enrolling in my NEW online, on-demand book promotion course. For more information contact me at plfry620@yahoo.com.