Street Teams

I have to tell you -- while writing books is what I love to do, there is SO MUCH MORE that goes into getting those book into peoples' hands. 

While I've been editing the next Elle Barclay book, I've also tried to juggle marketing the first one. And the production of the audiobook for Horned Owl Hollow. While the audiobook was a fairly seamless process overall, distribution ran into some snafus. It passed through the QA process pretty quickly, and started distributing. They tell you it can take up to 30 days, but the audiobook was available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon within two weeks. I was very excited things were going well. Until they weren't. At the 29-day mark, I was notified that the audio files were corrupted. Wait. Didn't they pass QA? So I reuploaded all my files and waited. Two more weeks and they told me, again, that the files were corrupted. After they passed QA AGAIN. I ran the files through a validator, and they were fine. So THEN I downloaded the files from the distributor and found some that were corrupt on the site. How does that happen? I replaced the corrupted files, downloaded them again after I'd uploaded them again and validated them. Again. This time all was good. I'm happy to say the audio is now available everywhere it's supposed to be. But all of this takes time away from writing. 

I'd planned more marketing, because people can't find your books unless you market them - I mean, there's only like a bazillion authors out there competing for your attention. But I was holding off on marketing until the audio was ready. Which it is now. So marketing restarted. 

And now I'm back to trying to get the next book ready for market (September release date, for those of you anticipating it!). The working title is The Demon from the Crypt. This is where I always consider if it wouldn't be easier to have a traditional publishing house do the heavy lifting for me, but then I remember. Traditional publishing houses expect their authors to do the heavy lifting, too. So what would I gain? And I'd have to share my royalties with them. Which brings me to the subject of this blog post.

The one BIG marketing option all authors DEPEND ON is word of mouth advertising. Did you like the book? Would you recommend it to a friend? There are a bunch of gimmicky ways to get folks interested, like building street teams, or fan pages, and the like. I'm an introvert by nature, so reaching out is a challenge for me. I try to do my part, to wear all the hats publishers expect me to wear, but I always wonder if it's enough. So this is my call to action today. 

Do you like my books? Tell your friends! I see authors like Jill Shalvis telling people to buy her books so she can keep writing and doesn't have to get a job at Taco Bell. I doubt she'll ever have to go to that extreme. So this is me. Asking you to share the love so that I can keep doing what I love. Mount up, people. Hit the streets. I would be ever so grateful!