Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Full Time Job?

I have to be kidding in my last blog. Marketing is a full-time job? Nonsense. I have a full-time job, I am a reading specialist in a busy elementary school. That's my full-time job. In addition, I tutor about 6 hours a week and am working on a second humor book. Throw marketing into the mix. Well, the first thing I had to do was set a parameter. I had to give up one thing. I temporarily halted work on my second book so that I could work on spreading the word about Wrinkles, Waistlines and Wet Pants.

My next attempt was an event called the Senior Expo. At first thought, this seemed right up my alley. I thought to myself, "Self! Here is the venue for you. Lots of gray haired people who are at that time in their life where they say what they want, do what they want. My kind of people. Well, it turned out not so good for my book. As a matter of fact, the only people who bought my books were my gracious critique group who came out in force to support me. The senior citizens at the Expo seemed more interested in anything free than in my book. However, I took down some email addresses and some phone numbers for a mail list and it netted me 2 definite speaking engagements and a couple of others that I have not followed up on.

I've heard that radio stations prefer to set up interviews with an agent or publishing company. I tried to contact a couple of baby boomer stations that I found with no success in getting an answer. Then I contacted my favorite oldies station that I listen to all the time. I emailed the station manager, gave him the facts that I was an avid listener, and got an interview on the air on the morning show (aired twice). So I will be trying for more of that.

My next step was to initiate my blog, with the help of a couple people. Thanks to Ashlee and Matt I am up and running. I never even heard of a widget before so I am glad to have help. They connected my blog to my books which is really cool. Ashlee is now redesigning my entire website so that it will not look like a techno-dinosaur did it.

This week I plan to contact all the local libraries and send them a bio of me with a picture of the cover of the book. And I will contact our local newspaper to see if they can do an article. Local magazines will be a target too as I get going.

I am currently reading other blogs and getting to know bloggers and hoping they get to know me.
The more I read, the more I find out that I am getting confused. So now I am thinking I need someone to put all the inbetween parts together. And I am debating? Do I advertise on Facebook? Do I pay to have my blogsite linked to a whole bunch of others? It is probably time for an expert to step in.

1 comment:

Susan Callery said...

Jeanne

I started the other way round with the blog and am working on the book now. Trying to promote a blog is challenging too. Keep up the good work!