And so not only have you finished your first novel, you have actually published it – whether on your own, or with a publisher. Wow, those are both huge accomplishments.  Now all that’s left for you to do is to sell your work to the reading public!

Um, er, and how does one do that, exactly?

Part 3: Promoting Your Book

Challenges - Well for starters, there are the two biggies: time and money.  Effective promotion can cost a lot, both in hours and in dollars.  And how do you know if what you’re investing in will pay off in book sales?

There’s also, again, the issue of volume.  There are a lot of writers trying to sell a lot of books.  If your particular book isn’t on the front racks of Barnes & Noble, how are readers going to find you?

Helpful Hints - Most of these ideas I got from talking to other writers, and if you’re feeling lost, other writers are always a good place to start.  Bounce ideas off each other – chances are, you have tried some things that others haven’t, and vice versa!  And in the meantime, here are a few other things you can consider:

Find your brand.  You may have heard this before.  But what does it mean? Well, the simplest definition is this: it’s your identity as a writer.  Your brand is intimately tied to the genre in which you write.  And no gender-bias intended, but this appears to be much more important for female writers than it is for male.  Men tend to be “horror novelists,” or “science fiction authors.”  Their name and writing style itself tends to become their brand.  Not so for women.  We may be “horror novelists” and “sci fi authors,” but for some reason we have to code ourselves as “romantic thriller writers,” or “paranormal authors.”  Why is this? Your guess is as good as mine!  (And if you think that this is a bogus observation, feel free to discard it.) 

You can get a good idea of how writers are branding themselves by checking out their websites.  For example, the following brands are evident on the websites of these bestselling authors: Brenda Novak – “Sophisticated, evocative romantic suspense.”  Debbie Macomber – “Wherever you are, Debbie brings you home.” We could probably do a whole blog about this subject in an of itself.  But the bottom line is, finding your personal brand will help your readers identify with you, and that will make them more likely to want to buy your books.

Explore the Internet.  Ah, the majestic power of the mighty Interweb!  Where would we be without it? (Back in 1989, I guess!)  Explore the Internet and find where readers are hanging out, and where writers are meeting up with them and getting to know their public.  Facebook, Goodreads, Kindleboards, Amazon discussion threads are all good places to start.  Remember to be friendly and polite: readers respond better to writers who aren’t only trying to hock their wares.  Learn the etiquette of whatever website you find, and you could find your public, ravenous for your books!

Figure out what works for you.  Promotion can take hours and hours and cost lots of money.  Don’t try to be everywhere and do everything.  Take it slow, see what’s out there, and figure out what will work for your time and budget.

If you like, you can start by telling us, here on this blog, a little about your book!

Read more about writing:
Stages of a Writers Career, Part 2: Publishing for the First Time
Stages of a Writers Career, Part 1: Finishing Your First Novel
See all of Misha’s writing blogs.

Well, my writing blog has been on hiatus for the past few weeks, and now that it’s back I thought it might be fun to take a broad look at the life and career of a novelist.  Just like any other career path, writing has certain stages of evolution – rungs on the ladder to fame and fortune (or so I keep telling myself!).  The following isn’t based on any scholarly work or expert opinion, it’s just a few observations of myself and others.  I hope you find it helpful!

Stage One: Finishing Your First Novel

Deciding to be a novelist is a little bit like saying, “I want to be a mountain climber,” and then running right out to tackle Mount Everest!  There isn’t a lot of middle ground.  We don’t usually say, “I want to be a mountain climber; I think I’ll start with that hill over there!”  No, typically we say, “I want to be a novelist,” and then sit down and attempt to churn out a 300,000 word volume of painfully personal material, trying to make it both entertaining and literary.  Or maybe that was just me.

So where does that leave us?

Challenges – One of the biggest challenge that I’ve found with trying to be a writer is that no one can really teach us how to do it.  I mean, we can (and should!) learn grammar and punctuation, story structure and characterization, how to phrase action scenes and how to handle exposition.  But the truth is we don’t know how to write until we actually sit down and do it – and do it a lot.

Another challenge is that when we first start to write we don’t know if we’re any good.  Writing can be a fairly painful exercise.  What if we’re terrible at it?  What if all this suffering is for nothing?

And last but not least is the subject of motivation.  It can be very difficult to stay motivated, to push through the rough parts of your book – the parts you don’t want to write – and keep working at it.

Helpful Hints – When it comes to writing, there are no easy answers, no cure-alls, no tube of magic cream that says “apply to forehead and become a genius writer!”  (And believe me, I’ve looked!)  But there are a couple things that you may find helpful:

Learn your craft.  Okay, it may seem like I’m contradicting myself here!  Didn’t I just say “no one can teach you how to do it”?  Yes, it’s true, I did.  However, what I have found time and time again is this: knowing your craft will give you something to fall back on when the writing gets hard.  Or when your muse has gone off to play someplace else, leaving you bereft and alone at the keyboard, staring at an unmoving cursor.  So buy some books, take some workshops, find some good writing blogs (ahem!), etc.  Learn your craft and write, write, write.  You’ll be happy that you did.

Figure out where and when you write best.  Every artist is different.  Our work looks, sounds, and reads differently from one another.  It makes sense that our production habits will be as unique as we are.  Personally, I write best either in a busy public place or sitting in the big chair in my living room.  A friend of mine can’t write in a coffee shop, but she can write while watching TV, which is something I’ve never been able to do (and yes in case you’re wondering, I am totally jealous of her!).  So don’t think that you have to chain yourself to your desk; maybe you need to chain yourself to a lawn chair, or lie on the floor of your dining room.  What works for you? Wherever you’re happiest writing is probably the place where you’re going to get the most work done.

Find a writing buddy.  When I was trying to finish my first novel, the thing that saved me was having a “writing buddy.”  Somebody to crack the metaphoric whip and ask me, “Where are your new pages?” on a weekly basis.  It’s interesting how much can be accomplished when someone’s demanding it!  So consider finding a writing buddy, or an accountability partner, or a critique group.  This may not work for everybody, but give it a try and see if it helps.

Next week we’ll look at Stage Two: Trying to get published for the first time!
(See more of Misha’s writing blogs.)

What kind of challenges are you facing (or did you face) in finishing your first book?