Promos & Ads & Chats... Oh my!

As a young girl who dreamed of one day being a published author I imagined what life would be like. I would have nothing else to do but sit at my typewriter (computers weren’t the norm then, you know) and transfer the stories from my head to the page. I would spend my days doing the thing I loved most, and once the book was written, my job was done. Oh, how wrong I was.

Since the release of my first romantic suspense in March, NOT WITHOUT RISK, and the upcoming June release of my second, AFTER MIDNIGHT, I have been busier than ever. There’s brainstorming the next book, kids, husband, three dogs… you know, the normal everyday things that as a young girl I never figured into my plan. Then there is everything else that we as authors do to prepare for a release and promote: ordering postcards and bookmarks, setting up advertisements, and scheduling chats.

The World Wide Web has made some of these things easier, and some of them more complicated. It doesn’t take much time at all to jump online, design and order postcards. This, I’m certain, is far easier than having to make telephone calls or fill out order forms and snail mail them in. Using email, it’s fairly simple to advertise with an online reader’s site. However, there are so many now, how do we as authors know which are the best? What sites should we chat at? How many chats should we do?

These are some of the issues that I, as a new author, have faced since the beginning of the year. Some of these things I believe I have done right (even if it was by luck), and some of them I most likely need a bit more work at. It’s a learning process, one that my fellow authors have made that much easier for me, since some of them have been doing this longer than I and have shared their knowledge.

So when during all of this ordering, scheduling, chatting, mailing, editing, taking-care-of-family time do I find the time to write? That’s a good question. Honestly, this week, there won’t be much time. My edits are coming, my dog needs to see a specialist who is a three hour round trip from home, and there are a few more promo items I need to order so that I can do a bookstore mailing. But hey, there’s always next week, right?

Oh my…