Tiptoeing into the Melee

Almost all of the people who talk/write about doing this (I’m not supposed to think of it as onerous) task of promoting, suggest doing it in small increments. 10-20% of your work time should be devoted to marketing. I’ve found that in the last three weeks, it’s been closer to 80% of my time as I try to get educated and organized.

One of the sites I’ve learned from and really like is Goodreads.com, which bills itself as: “The largest site for readers and book recommendations. Chances are your friends are discussing their favorite (and least favorite) books on Goodreads.” I’ve established my presence there under both Lynne Scott and L. Scott. Anyway, in the process of completing my profile, I rated some books, answered some author questions, and in general made a nuisance of myself. But at least I got out there and did something genuine and real.

[In the interest of full disclosure – I made such a mess of setting up my L. Scott account for the Blood Link series that it took their poor customer service rep three days to straighten my mess out. They were very nice about it, but I’m still apologizing.]

Goodreads is also a place where readers, authors, editors, and just about everyone else mixes freely. There are groups for every taste and a lot of self-help areas for the clueless like me.

In the course of bumbling along, I managed to make a new friend. Her name is Rachel. It turns out that Ms Rachel has some public relations and marketing skills. And we all know that I’m desperately in need of those things. Ms. Rachel has foolishly agreed to assist me. I’m not sure there’s enough wine in the world to save the poor woman now. She’s already helped me get organized, set up a targeted approach to obtain reviews, and talked me up to some friends of hers who are now (just as foolishly) also interested in helping me get seen and noticed.

Why am I being so vague? Well, Ms. Rachel is still setting up her business and not ready for a full-scale launch. [And ya’ll back off, she has her hands full with me!] And as for the ladies at The Spontaneous Reader, they’re uber busy with plans for me in October. Big plans. Plans I’m really excited (and maybe just a little freaked out) about. Abbie’s interviews are wildly inventive and unique. I can’t wait for you to see what she’s doing to me next month. It’s the first time I’ve done an interview that I had fun with. You’ll have to wait until next month to see it, and even then, you may not believe it.

These women are making this so much easier and fun for me. For the first time, I’m feeling not only comfortable with the process, but even moderately hopeful.