What you should do after the sale.

After the Sale


When authors first sit down to write, the furthest thing from their mind is how, several months or perhaps years down the line, they are going to sell that writing. In fact, if an author, in those early stages, even considers the idea of selling, he or she is more likely to be thinking about how they are going to sell that writing to a publisher, not the public. So it can come as quite a shock when, after the sale is made, said author discovers that he or she is now in the position of having to sell their writing to another audience – the reader.
    Enter the Internet. In this age of digital everything, the Internet is the author’s best friend. If one is to go by the theory that word of mouth is a powerful sales tool, then what better way is there to employ word of mouth than the means by which most Americans connect these days? To pass on the word, you need to go where the people are and familiarize yourself with their modes of communication. Create a presence for yourself on social networking sites such as Gather, Myspace and Facebook, or create your own on Ning. Establish a blog on such sites as Blogger or Wordpress. Or, if that is too intimidating, why not tweet? You can follow or be followed on Twitter and the best part is, each message is only 140 characters long. Not only is that manageable, it’s fun.
    The most important thing you can do for yourself as an author is to make your presence known on the Internet. Follow the blogs of other authors, comment on them, ask to do a guest post on their blogs. Find reviewer sites and offer your book for review. Hold a contest and offer your book as a prize. The possibilities are endless. So go out there and sell yourself. You are your own best advertisement.
    You can find me at http://margayleahjustice.com, http://www.facebook.com/home.php, myspace.com/margay1122, http://margay1122.gather.com/, and I also Twitter at http://twitter.com/Margay.