The hardest part, I find, about self-publishing is marketing. For one, I'm not the PR kind of person. I am content facing my computer in solitude without having to interact with anyone on a face-to-face basis. I don't have any marketing experience and I know I am no expert when it comes to selling stuff. In fact I have absolutely zero experience when it comes to that. I haven't tried eBay or any other auction or buy-and-sell stuff. It's just not my cup of tea.

A week after I published my book, on September 17, I had an idea to create a Facebook page to raise awareness that my book exists. My idea was this: to post quotes from the book with a picture serving as a background.

I have thousands of pictures from the travels I've had through the years--from Europe to Asia to North America (where I lived for more than three years)--I've accumulated so many that it's just a matter of sifting through the pictures that I could use for my Facebook page.

So for the nth time, I reread my book and lifted some lines and used those texts in my Facebook page.

The next step I did was to promote my page for at least a week (Sept 17-24) and see how it goes.

Today, September 22 (EST), I've already had 2,200++ likes on my Facebook page. Two more days before my awareness campaign ends and I think the campaign has surpassed the expectation I've set (My goal was to have 1,000 likes within a week.)

I don't know how everything will turn out. But letting people be aware that my book exists is a step in the right direction. I believe that self-published or independent authors have with them the capacity to succeed. This is, after all, the 21st century, where technology is available wherever we are and wherever we go.