Book Finally Published? Your Job is Not Over!
Whether you’ve been traditionally published, truly self-published, or vanity press published (Createspace, LuLu, etc.), your job is not over once your book is out. Even if you have a PR person or a dedicated marketing team, after publication you shouldn’t just sit back and kick up your feet. As an author, it is important that you continue to engage your readers. Show your fans you’re really there.
You must talk to readers, news agencies, book stores, and event coordinators. Schedule signings, readings, and plan to attend at least one event every year—more is better! You need to stay on top of your fan mail from current readers and do things or offer goodies to continue to attract new readers, too.
Being an author is more than just writing a neat book and sticking it on a shelf or on a website and waiting for sales. You must be the one to put yourself out into the world, showing your personality, your wit, your intelligence, your charm—whatever it is that makes you an interesting enough person to write that book in the first place. Thanks to the internet, that’s a lot easier now than it used to be. Social networking, email, websites—the often tangled but intricate World Wide Web—these are the wonders of our modern age. You can touch the heart and soul of a single person on the other side of the globe, all with the click of a mouse button. But all that technology and all that reach won’t do you a lick of good unless you make the effort.
Why should a reader spend their money on your book and waste their time on reading it if you can’t be bothered to engage them beyond the pages?
These days readers expect a connection to their favorite authors outside of the book itself. Don’t look at this as an inconvenience. Look at this as an opportunity to receive feedback (good and bad), hear stories of how your writing touched your readers, and build relationships with theses incredible people. You owe them your time, your effort, and your attention.
Without readers, writers aren’t heard.
Charity Becker–Author of the best-selling Presence series
**Charity Becker is the author of our top-selling supernatural series “Presence” as well as several kids and family books. In addition to writing, Charity is a professional editor. She writes for video game companies both in the US and internationally. She loves chatting with her fans and meeting new people, so find Charity on Facebook!
Blysster Press puts the power and profits back into authors’ hands. 100% profits for authors, 0% for the publisher–as it should be!
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