Writer's Words of Wisdom: Promoting Yourself While Promoting Others

Writing a book and getting it published is just the beginning of the long journey ahead. Once you've been published, you must also promote yourself and your work. As if you have the time, right? Make the time. Become an active member in various social networking sites and make your presence known. Get to know other authors in your publishing house and don't be shy about posting reviews and sharing their work. Participate in blog hops, group discussions, and maybe even join some Romance Writers Guilds (if you can spare the expense). Guilds often offer conventions for members so they can network, sell books, and give away their promotional swag (i.e. gift bags, bookmarks, coffee mugs, etc.).

Some authors are under the (false) impression that they are in competition with the other writers in their publishing house. Wrong. Every reader has different tastes and every writer provides different flavors. Generating traffic to your company benefits the whole, not just you.

Don't overdo the publicity, though. Have a conversation where you don't drop your title and buy links into every other sentence- but you can have that conversation while wearing a t-shirt sporting your logo and cover art ;) .

Keep up-to-date information on your website and make it as personal as possible. Be approachable to your readers and to potential readers. Without people reading your work, you're not an author.

Don't Forget to Check Out the Other WWoW Authors' Posts:

Tammy Dennings Maggy (Tammy Smith)

Paloma Beck

Melinda Dozier (Mindy Dozier Hildebrand)

Krystal Shannan