I got the idea for this blog from another writer. He's a suspense writer, but one of those with a great sense of humor. His name is Russell Blake and his blog is funny. And now I have just helped promote Russell Blake.

You see, he talks about "self-promotion" which can mean that you're doing this thing solo. But you can't. You need others to get the word out about whatever it is and they need to get the word out and on and on. He applies this to his self-published books, and from what he says, he's enjoying success at it.

As many of you…but not enough of you…know, I have a self-published novel called 5IVE SPEED. The book is self-published and sales are picking up quickly. There are a few things to be taken into account. The first being that it's a freakin' hilarious novel. Read the reviews on Amazon and you'll see. The second issue is that it is now priced at only $0.99 and I realized that seems too low, but my ego survives on volume of books sold and not on monetary gain. So, if you're looking for great reading entertainment on your Kindle then you must drop a buck and buy the book.

That's my part of self-promotion. That's about all I can do. Sure, I Tweet about it and I Facebook about it and I've blogged about it, but let's face it…that's still relatively narrow exposure. "Self"-promotion can only go so far. What I'm looking for now is public-promotion. I can't tell you how many people have told me personally that they read and loved the novel 5IVE SPEED on Kindle. So, I thanked them and asked them if they wrote a review on Amazon yet? More often than not, the answer is no. I mean, after all…that would take a good three minutes, and who's got that kind of time when you have to take a picture of your lunch so you could get it up on Facebook for chrissakes (sorry…I'm just sooo sick of seeing pictures of food on Facebook). But you get my point. If people who read the book posted a small review on Amazon for me, that would be huge. That would be public-promotion!

Another question I ask these big fans of my book is if they've re-posted my blogs about it; or Tweeted about it with a link to the Amazon Kindle buying page, or mentioned it on Facebook with the same link. I think you know where I'm going with this. This would mean a huge burst for my sales and it takes the individual about a minute to do it for me. Where is the love, gang?!

No one can make it on self-promotion. I certainly can't. And the question you may ask is, "Charley…do you do it for anyone else?" And the answer is, "Of course I do! I just did it for Russell Blake! Weren't you reading?!

So please take it upon yourselves…all of you…to be my public-promotion machine. Self-promotion, like some other things that are done by yourself, could lead to blindness. At least that's what my mother always told me.