OK, so now my book was published. What should I do next? I felt almost like a new mom bringing the baby home for the first time, asking myself “Oh my God! What now?”
I needed someone to read my book. But how did I get it out there?
I bought marketing books: Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and Twitter: Tips, Tricks, and Tweets. I studied and studied hard. I set up a Twitter account and began a furious tweeting campaign.
I also decided to send letters to organizations I thought might be interested in my book. Because Is Harvey Dunne? is a book about a gay man finding himself, I sent letters to PFLAG (an organization uniting LGBTQ people with friends, family, and allies), DGLA (Dallas Gay & Lesbian Alliance), the Dallas Voice newspaper, SMU’s (Southern Methodist University) Director of the Women’s Center for Gender and Pride Initiatives, Ellen DeGeneres, Equality California, and GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). I offered to send my book to these organizations for their use in promoting equality and acceptance for the LGBTQ community.
I only received one response, from SMU, so I sent my book to them for their lending library.
Here is what I learned:
- It’s totally worth it to gain as much marketing knowledge as you can, even if it seems it doesn’t pay off in the short run.
- It’s never a bad idea to reach out to people and organizations, even if it doesn’t produce any measurable results. You never know who might pick up your book later on.
- DO. NOT. QUIT.
More to come….
