Marketing - A Learning Curve Part 4

In yesterday's post, I missed out on the excellent suggestion by Stephanie Zia in the comments from Tuesday, which has given me a brilliant idea, but you will have to wait to see/hear my version. She suggested creating twitter accounts for the characters in your book, which I think is an excellent idea especially if the character has a really strong voice or possibly not enough page space in the book to tell 'their' story... Also check out Stephanie excellent post on Self Promotion here.

Now for the final (as in we're at the end of what I have learned so far...I think there will be more as I progress through this half year until publication)....

Family and Friends

Yup, your near and dear. I know that many writers don't get the support they need or have earned from family and friends...that saddens me no end. However they, if on side, are your best marketing tool.

As a parent of teenagers I aim, even sometimes live, to embarrass my children - hell, it's one of perks of having given birth to them. Having a mother who is a writer is a blessing and a curse for them - so they tell me. They are proud and deeply embarrassed...but pride normally wins. Because it normally wins....um, well, they tell people 'my mum's a writer' and most people usually ask 'oh, what does she write...' You catch my drift. It's the old word of mouth thing. One of my son's friend is over the moon my book is coming out in May in time to solve the problem of what to give his mother for her birthday...

DD said to me not long ago...'You will mention me by name in the book...' I nodded then asked why. She said, 'Because I want to be able to show my friends that it really is you...' The more friends she shows, quite frankly the better....because I know from my experience with her- she recognizes the books of all my writer friends she has met and she points them out to me in supermarkets and book stores....if her friends do the same when out with their mothers...

DH is also a walking spokesman...no, he hasn't read the book yet, but only last night he said, "When can I read it?" He has been proudly telling people all over the place that his wife is a writer and her book is coming out...now I don't think generally and I may be wrong that people at petroleum related conferences are my target market but one never knows....

Every book sold counts and DS2 has grasped this concept...he's eyeing the future - his that is...Mum's success means royalties now and he thinks royalties later when he's in charge of my estate (hey, he can dream).

Friends carry the same weight and with THE CORNISH HOUSE coming out not just in the UK, but in places like Canada, Australia, South Africa.....and then there are the translated versions in Holland and Germany....they play a huge roll in what little marketing I can do in those countries. Friends may know a journalist for the local paper...they may be in a book club...and so on.

So the heart of my marketing plan....family and friends. Quite frankly it couldn't be in better hands....