I enjoyed meeting members from the newly revised California Writers Club, San Fernando Branch yesterday. My talk on two steps to successful publishing was well-received and members had some great questions. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with authors and writers and hear about some of their projects.
It seems that most authors and writers I meet these days are new—just starting out writing a book or thinking about selling their writing work. Many express the sentiments I heard yesterday, “I just want to write. I don’t care about all of that marketing stuff.”
At one point, yesterday, I suggested bartering. I said, “Maybe you know someone who is a great marketer—promoter. What do you have to trade that person for his/her expertise and work on behalf of your project? Do you teach dancing? Are you a massage therapist? Maybe you could trade writing or editing services for promotional work or housecleaning.
I am a great advocate of the bartering system, as long as each individual can use or desires what the other has for trade. I once traded an editing job for a week at a beach house. That was an excellent trade for both parties.
I also believe in doing what you do well and farming out the rest—even if you have to pay for it. If you hate promotion, you won’t do a very good job and you won’t do it for long. Without promotion, your book will die.
I’m using my time today to catch up in the yard—my poor neglected yard—and to edit the new SPAWN website. It is live. But it will need some tweaking and repairing in the next few days. Please, if you see a problem, let us know. There’s a lot to pay attention to and it’s easy to miss something. http://www.spawn.org
Don’t forget to join the hundreds of other authors who are experiencing success because they studied my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
I love bartering!
Actually, though, I’m enjoying promoting my new book. I realize a lot of authors don’t, but my subject is my passion. It is a lot of work, though. And not all book stores have responded well to my request to do a book signing. Instead, I got great publicity because of it! This link takes you to the article in this week’s local paper in Sarasota, FL: http://bit.ly/IQHCE (If the link doesn’t work, you can click on my name.)