Over the past few months, the designer in me went crazy. Instead of creating one journal, I created a few more. My normal breaks from writing turned into a funnel of resource journals for writers, gardeners, and food lovers. I’m in love with art, design, and writing down your thoughts no matter what your passion is.
After I finished my Writing Journal with 30 days of writing prompts and a few extras, I thought about mother and father’s day. Instead of buying a gift, I decided to create a gift for my mom and for other gardeners who need to plot and plan.
Then, I kept going with other topics I’m passionate about. What I didn’t expect was all the editing and proofing to take so long. I had the first draft of my Writing Journal, as a resource builder, completed by the end of March. It’s taken a few weeks to finalize the layout, edit and edit again, and change the final book cover.
Authors need to brace themselves for learning more about the final process of a book before printing. Writers need to proof and reproof copies and get ready for the marketing part. You’ve climbed a mountain and then you find out that’s just the first one. You lack sleep finishing the first novel, then you lack more when you need to edit under a shorter deadline, and then you need to go on your little book tour.
If you self publish, then publicity will mean figuring out what the big publishers already know without a team at your disposal. Luckily, social media makes this a little less daunting but it’s still work. And if you go the traditional route, you will be requested to market on your own too. Either way, there’s more work to be done after you have your final copy.
As I’ve said, focus and take one small step at a time. How can you market on your own? Here is an idea list for you that I’ve used and helped other authors use.
- Promote on your website, and the big publishers will ask you to have a website.
- Use your social media to announce and tell people about your book. Organic and paid traffic is best. Youtube can teach you everything you need to know.
- Create videos of your book and post to social media. Youtube again.
- Reach out to other authors with channels to help promote your work. Some interview other authors, write about other authors, and some record for their own podcast.
- Schedule your own book reading party. At this time, you may need to follow guidelines for gathers. You can also Zoom. This may replace book readings at book stores.
- Find Beta readers who can read, review, and share.
- Create your own fan club to help promote your work.
- Do research on your keywords and categories with your publisher or on your own. This can affect how people find your book.
I hope this helps you on your writing journey.
Follow as I post on my progress throughout the month and share the experience.
~Yoon Ju
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