April was the first full month of stay at home orders. Although I was self-isolating before, I was seeing increasingly the full impact of this pandemic. … April has also been the month where … separating my marketing self from my writing self … I’m reworking the backstory to this sci-fi series … My month of May looks to be a very busy one, but one where I hope that I can find a sense of balance. I don’t want to be sped-up in the pursuit of getting things done. I like trying to keep a more mindful approach to my life. I don’t often live up to that ideal, but it’s an ideal that I do have.
March was all about helping yourself to stand out and making connections. If you’re just starting out, you can still market yourself, even without an obvious track record. The question is: how do you start from scratch? Part of marketing is networking. Even though many of us who are creatives are introverts, we still have to network.
At this point, it may feel like you have to be a magician to conjure your aspiration into existence before anyone recognizes that you ARE who you want to be.
As an indie, you’re making a lot of connections with fellow indies, freelancers, bloggers, and readers. What should you have ready when you meet a potential collaborator or reader? online or IRL. How on earth are you going to keep track of everyone?
One of the last tips in my previous post, 10 Tips for Launching Your Book, was to come with a book production budget. How do you do that? Easy. A book production budget is an estimate of what it will cost to get your book published. It includes everything from the cover design, to editing, formatting, marketing, and maybe even research materials. (I’ll explain in a little bit).