I am delighted to welcome Jennie Ensor to Swirl and Thread today with a very honest piece about the struggles of getting exposure for her latest published book Blind Side
Having read Jennie’s post, I came away with a new insight into the struggles facing many writers today.
Please do have a read and let me know if you too felt the same….
Getting my book ‘out there’
There’s an awful lot of hard work for an author to get one’s book visible to potential readers.
I’m sure this is true no matter whether you’re self published or have a large traditional publisher behind you. There are so many titles coming out all the time, which I didn’t properly appreciate till I started looking at the multitude of new books mentioned in book blogs when setting up a blog tour for my debut novel Blind Side.
I hate to think of how many psychological suspense novels and thrillers my book is competing with in its categories on Amazon (women’s psychological fiction, women’s crime fiction and psychological suspense).
Though the response from readers has been fantastic – to date Blind Side has 30 Amazon reviews in total with an average 4.5/4.8 stars – I know that for a book to reach large numbers of readers, many things need to happen along with a certain amount of luck.
My publisher is the digital arm of Unbound (which published the recent zeitgeisty essay collection The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla featured recently on BBC Radio 4).
Like many independent publishers, they have finite resources available for publicity and promotion. However they are working with me on the visibility of Blind Side and have provided guidance on all sorts of things that will help bring it to readers’ attention. I’m grateful for the support – at times it feels like an overwhelming task, especially since as a first-time author I haven’t done much of this before.
Some of the things I’ve been doing:
- Setting up the Blind Side blog tour (it ran for 10 days around publication in July)
- Writing guest posts like this one and giving answers for Q&As
- Keeping up my own blog. I try to post every two weeks and feature a mix of news about my book, guest posts and interviews with other authors, reviews of books along with occasional short stories
- Going on Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook etc
- Requesting reviews of my book from bloggers, magazines and other media
- Doing interviews for articles in newspapers and magazines
- Giving talks at libraries and book festivals, and trying to set up talks
This list could go on and on!
There’s so much that I’ve haven’t even started yet – Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, you name it…
Sometimes I have to tell myself that I can’t do everything, there’s only so many hours in the day – and I can’t expect the entire world to be reading my book, no matter how marvellous it is!
Like many authors, I don’t hanker after making pots of money but would dearly love my book to reach as many readers as possible.
What I’m finding the most challenging is combining the publicity/promotion aspects with writing, not to mention daily life.
I’m now in the later stages of editing book 2, a dark and unsettling psychological suspense novel. There seems to be a different part of the brain involved for writing fiction and once inside that deeply focused state of mind I find it difficult to leave it.
It’s as though there are two hungry, demanding creatures who both need my total attention – that’s besides my husband and dog 🙂
Lately I’ve got into the habit of working on book 2 in the mornings (or until the dog gives me so much grief I have to take him for a walk), spending the afternoons writing blog posts/ Tweeting/emailing/doing online stuff and reading/reviewing during the evening.
I’m sure I’m not alone in finding lack of time a challenge… Goodness knows what it would be like to have to do a ‘proper’ job to do as well!’
Thank you so much for writing so openly here today Jennie. It really is appreciated and I’m sure it’s an eye-opener for many of us…
Book Blurb:
Can you ever truly know someone? And what if you suspect the unthinkable?
London, five months before 7/7. Georgie, a young woman wary of relationships after previous heartbreak, gives in and agrees to sleep with close friend Julian. She’s shocked when Julian reveals he’s loved her for a long time.
But Georgie can’t resist her attraction to Nikolai, a Russian former soldier she meets in a pub. While Julian struggles to deal with her rejection, Georgie realises how deeply war-time incidents in Chechnya have affected Nikolai. She begins to suspect that the Russian is hiding something terrible from her.
Then London is attacked…
Blind Side explores love and friendship, guilt and betrayal, secrets and obsession. An explosive, debate-provoking thriller that confronts urgent issues of our times and contemplates some of our deepest fears.
Purchase Link : Blind Side
You are so right, Jennie! This is way more than one expects when first published! One difficulty is maintaining a balance, but you’ve done well to identify mornings as the best time for that “deeply focussed state of mind” needed to write fiction. At some point I eased off the publicity and got back more to writing, but it’s never quite gone away and I suppose it never should if I want book 2 to have some readers. I’ve made some good friends and connections along the way too, that I wouldn’t now be without, but the time spent is worrying and the house is very dusty! Sounds like a dog is very good idea in the circumstances to keep you exercised and in the fresh air. I wish you luck with both books.
Thanks Jessica for taking the time to respond. Your feedback is always so appreciated. xx
cheers Jessica, it’s good to know I’m not alone. my house is dusty too!
Yes – being an author is a full-time promotion job. I too am working on my 2nd novel but constantly pulled away to spend the afternoon marketing, blogging, yada yada. And we thought just writing the book was tough. And it is true – we’re not concerned with the money as we are with the potential of getting the book read. But it sounds like you’ve got the beat going. Best of luck. I hope you sell a ton.
Brad. Thank you so much for your feedback. So appreciated. I have an increased respect for all you authors… You work so tirelessly at what you do.
a belated reply…
I really wonder how some authors manage to have a ‘proper’ job as well. all the best with your book too, Brad