Today the Round Robin Blog Hop is focusing on promotion and marketing of our books. It's a love it or hate it for most of us. 

   Once upon a time, if you got a contract with a publishing company, they did all the promoting: arranging book signings and tours, advertising etc. Today’s world for authors is very different. I’m sure James Patterson does not pay for the TV ads I sometimes see, but all he does is the pitch while his publishing house does the rest. Indie authors have to do it all and most of us, whether traditionally published or totally indie fall somewhere between.

   And that “in between” is closer to doing it all than ever before for most of us. Some authors excel at the marketing thing and are savvy enough to follow clicks to see what works and what doesn’t. The rest of us muddle through hating the fact that we have to do promoting when we’d far rather be writing.

Personally, I am horrible at the whole marketing thing. I don’t survive on my income from writing, but I continue to write because I enjoy telling stories. I have so many ideas in my head, I feel like I’ll likely pass on with a book half written rather than ever stop writing.

   One fairly inexpensive and totally painless option I’ve chosen is ALL AUTHOR. I have an annual membership which gives me an author page where all my books are displayed and I can for a very reasonable fee, I can feature any of my books for 6 months or more. And there’s no limit to the number of books I can feature. I get a weekly email with graphics of all my featured books which I can download and post on any social media or my website. Or I can log in an personalize the graphics with text. Once a week, All Author also posts each of my books on X as well, and they also provide me with a list of tweets to use myself.

   When I have a new book out, I do send out an email announcing the new release. I also submit releases to all the author publications of Writer groups I belong to. But that’s about the extent of my efforts.

   I used to be entirely traditionally published but in recent years began releasing books independently. For one thing, I realized that after my small regional publisher lost their go-getting marketing guru, and her replacement was not nearly as effective, I was more or less in charge of all my promotion so why share a large chunk of the proceeds when I was doing all the work?

   Since both of my previous publishers have closed their doors, I've become a completely indie author and as such, I recently submitted the first of my newest series to the Annual Indie Author Project Contest and am pleased and proud to report that the book was chosen for their Indie Author Project support which includes presentation to local libraries and independent bookstores. I have a new logo I can add to my covers and website to announce that fact. Click on my book cover to purchase - I'm doing my bit to get you to purchase the first book in this new series.....

   But my bottom line is I AM NOT A SALESMAN and I never have been. It’s not my area of expertise or one I have any talent for. So, you might want to hop on over to see what a few of my Round Robin Blog Hoppers do to promote their work. I bet they have far better ideas and a stronger grasp on the promotion than me.

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Anne Stenhouse 

Connie Vines 

Diane Bator 

Dr. Bob Rich  

Helena Fairfax 

Sally Odgers