Self Publishing- The Next Phase

So I was started. All my friends and co-workers had bought the book. I could see it on Amazon and on the iUniverse page in all its glory. My first attempt was in using Facebook. I was a Facebook user already but not daily so this was going to be different.

The first thing that happened is that I found people from my high school graduating class that I had not spoken to since graduation. I found a friend of mine, and one thing led to another and soon I was emailing with lots of them. I talked about my book. That caused some mild interest. Then Elaine Landau (prolific children's author and friend) made an offer on Facebook. She said, "I will send you a book if you promise to send a book out to five other people before the end of the year." It did not have to be a book we had written but just a book that was something special to us. So I took her up on it.

I sent Elaine a copy of Wrinkles, Waistlines and Wet Pants and she sent me a copy of one of her hundreds of books. Then I advertised her message on Facebook. The first person who agreed to do it was one of my old high school buddies. I packaged up WWW to her and sent it off. She loved it and filled Facebook with her comments. She ordered more copies, her friends ordered more copies.

Then she started a Facebook page for me about my book. That was pretty neat. Her enthusiasm bolstered my confidence and I started being more vocal about my book. It was not unusual to see me give out my card at doctor's offices, at Weight Watcher's meetings, at libraries, etc.

Then I started talking to people who were going through the same issues I was. I got a recommendation to contact a Communications Agency that sends out press releases in order that you can offer your book for reviews. In about 2 weeks, I had around 30 requests for copies of my book for review purposes.

Out of that group of books I sent out, I got about 23-24 reviews, most of them excellent. Many are on Amazon.com. In addition I received an invitation to do an interview on a radio show. That was a lot of fun.

Next, I thought about the market that I wanted to target, which is of course Baby Boomers. I contacted a place that does marketing for baby boomers, including book reviews in their magazine. I paid a modest fee and had a book review put in their magazine and did 2 radio interviews.

All this time I was surfing the net and looking for more instances of baby boomer sites that might be of help to me. I realized that marketing was a full-time job.