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You love to write and you’ve decided to translate that love into writing your first novel. You write on weekends, in the middle of the night, maybe even sacrifice a few dinners with friends, just to find the time to do it. And then you edit, beg your friends to look it over, and edit it some more. It seems like an endless process, but you do want it to be perfect. (Is it possible to have a perfect book? Ha! That’s a whole other blog post).

Back to your story.

Your time is so precious. You don’t have much of it with the job, family obligations, and oh yeah, you do need time to sleep. But then, all those stolen moments and carefully crafted reasons to write that you’ve given to everyone have paid off. Your novel is finally finished! “The End,” sits staring back at you from your monitor. You lean back in your chair, cross your arms behind your head, and smile. And with just a few more clicks of that mouse, you’ve uploaded your book to that huge online book retailer. Presto! Your baby – your eBook – has just gone live.

Now what? Oh, yeah, sit back and wait to become that big best-selling author.

Uh-huh. Nope. Wait one minute.  I’m here to tell you, “It doesn’t work like that.” Remember all that time you spent toiling and sweating to get your written work just so? All the friends you lost along the way because they grew tired of hearing about your book, over and over? Well, that wasn’t the half of it. As a matter-of-fact, it has been said that writing is only about ten percent (oh yeah, you heard me right, 10%) of getting your book into the hand of the readers. The other ninety percent (90%) is marketing. So, you’d better go and find all those friends that you lost along your “writing” way, because you’ll need them now to help talk your book up.

Marketing your book is a full-time job itself. And finding success in getting your newly published book is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be diligent. I’ve heard one estimate that more than 9,000 books are published every month. So, not every book is going to be able to surface [image error] above the rising sea of all the new “literary works of art.” At least not without a lot of help. That means you’re are going to have to work hard at promoting not only when it’s newly released, but long after as well. You were right to call it your “baby,” because it’s going to need a lot of care and nurturing for a long while to come.

There are many theories on the best way to market your book – write another book, find your target audience and market initially only to them.  Or, become “friends” with other on social media and try to turn them into possible readers, or if you can afford it, hire a publicist. But what it comes down to, in my opinion, to get your book out there where readers can find it is you pounding the pavement, whether that pavement is virtual or concrete. Try some of everything and then go with what works.

Moral of the story? All your craftiness in finding time to write the book will come in handy because you are going to need to find a lot more of it to market your book. And don’t forget to allot some of that time to writing the sequel.

What kind of marketing have you found helpful in promoting your book?