Thursday, September 24, 2009

Friday Odds and Ends

I was going to write a post today about the marketing planning I've been doing, but I've been doing so much of it, I haven't had time to write about it. (Notice I said marketing planning, and not doing.)

Truthfully, I'm not the person to dole out marketing advice. There are lots of others out there who can give great, professional advice. I really have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm workign it out, and I thought I'd share at least my struggles and plans with you - you know... my journey.

But the one part I can share is this: I have a website!! Well, I'll have a website up and running by Monday. YAY! And since I will have a website, I'm redesigning the blog to better match it. (Hint: it's going to be green!) So once again (I know - again), things will be changing around here. For the better, I hope. And a little more permanently. (Well, I could hope.) But I will still be here, writing the same kind of stuff week after week. I hope you'll be here with me.

The only other marketing news I have to share is something I read yesterday.

If you are a writer, you HAVE to read this article from the Washington Post about how new authors, even those at major publishing houses, are having to do their own marketing. I've heard about this book and author featured in the article. I've had friends tell me I had to read it. But come to think of it - I don't think I've read any reviews or seen any ads for it. But where the publisher cut corners, the author stepped up.

And she has a bestseller.

They tell you how she did it. Mostly by herself. With supportive friends.

She can do it. You can do it. With any hope, I can do it, too.

Have an awesome weekend!

7 comments:

  1. Heidi, this post fascinated me. Thnaks for sending the link to the Post article. Book trailers!! Great idea. Something I would have never thought about. Are you going to do one?

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  2. Marketing is so intimidating to me but I'm also a little excited about it. Thanks for the link! Very helpful stuff.

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  3. Looking forward to reading the article. Marketing is a very scary word to me, because it means talking to people in person, something I'm not great at.

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  4. Well, you already have a website :)

    Still, look forward to seeing the new one. I'll read that article you linked, as well.

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  5. Erin - I've thought about book trailers. For years I had a media production company where I did just that kind of thing for big companies, so it's not like I don't know what I'm doing.

    Still, I'd have to have license to use the music, and the free stuff on the internet is not what I'm looking for (even though I keep looking!!).I'd like to do it - it just takes a lot of time and thought, so I dabble here and there, and then move on to something else! :)

    Natalie - it was intimidating to me too at first, then I was excited. Now I'm back to being intimidated.

    Patti - the good news is that so much of the marketing now is via internet and such, so you don't always have to do that person-to-person thing. I'm not great with that either. At least, I'm not great even telling people I wrote a book, let alone telling them to buy it!!

    paul - the website was the one thing every site about marketing tells you to have. My publisher says this blog is actually better and more useful, but I figured I'd cover my bases!

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  6. Looking forward to the website, Heidi!

    Interesting Post article. Thanks. ;-)

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  7. Great article. Are you going to create a book trailer?

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