rocking horse publishing « Robin Writes

I got to thinking today, and reading social media, and there are tons of ways to get your name noticed—and, by extension, your books. So I decided to list these, in no particular order. Some will work better than others, some might not work at all, but I know authors who have used them all. It’s up to you to decide what works for you, and which ones are worth your time.

Speaking of time, do keep that in mind—if you spend your entire day looking for publicity, you’ll have no time to write. And, too, some of these may only target other writers and not readers. Sure, writers read, but don’t focus all your energy on “exchanging” links and books with writers.

Social media—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and many others

Local author fairs

Book signings

Interviews

Blog tours

Your own blog

Your website

Make yourself an expert on____

Local libraries

Library associations

Writers guilds

Writers groups

Bookstores

Other retail stores

State book associations

Speaking gigs

What will keep any of these from working? You. Your lack of consistency, your lack of trying—or only trying one thing, and waiting for weeks for it to “work.”

Take advantage of every free and cheap resource—and I define “cheap” as anything under $50. Avoid expensive marketing and gimmicks and packages—the exception being hiring a publicist, a good one.

Run far away from expensive contests—do your homework and check out the company sponsoring that contest. Too often, I see authors all excited about “winning” when all they’ve won is a sticker that the legit publishing industry will laugh about.

I’m sure there are many more ideas that you’ll come up with—try them all, and keep track of what works best for you!

How does an author create a story? Imagination.

Of course, there are other elements: timing, language, and the technical knowledge necessary to put down the words. But the first thing needed is imagination.

Everyone has that, to some degree. Don’t you daydream?

My biggest problem with both, daydreaming and storytelling, is accuracy. Yes, yes, a dream is just that, and a story doesn’t have to be true, but even as a child—and still—I always wondered about the daily, mundane things that characters surely had to accomplish. Why didn’t anyone mention those things?

Kind of like in a movie—the hotel rooms are huge, the bad guys never stop to use the bathroom, and no one has to take time out to cook or clean!

This is why I find it hard to daydream. I keep stopping and thinking, “Wait, that couldn’t work! What about . . .” If you’ve read REDUCED, you’ll see that too—a lot of boring, day-to-day stuff. But I learned from that.

So now, with our recent farm purchase, I really can participate in The Reduced Series. Well, within limits. I certainly don’t plan on using any C4 . . . although, now I think about it, we do have that big trash pile and a couple other dumps around the edge of the woods. Hmmm.

Kidding, kidding!

Mostly.

I mean, Abby seemed to have no problem finding the stuff, but I think I might get in quite a bit of trouble if I went looking for it!

While we do have electricity, at least until SHTF, and that runs the well pump too, we could definitely get by without it. I’m used to cooking outside over a fire; I can make anything that I cook inside on a stove or in an oven. When we camp, I heat water for bathing and dishwashing, and very soon we’ll have an outhouse and a solar shower.

We already spend most of our time down there on the deck, but to be fair, we have no furniture inside yet. And being 20-30 minutes from any kind of store, we’re learning to plan ahead or do without.

The garden is proving to be a bit tricky, but mostly that’s a matter of time. One of the first things you should do when starting a homestead is ensure a food source. I have seeds, and seedlings here in St. Louis, but there’s a lot of cleanup work to do before we can get to that garden area.

And then there’s cleanup to do there, too, before we can mow and plow. So we’ll have a late garden this year, but the ground will be ready for next spring—a full acre, to provide enough food for a year and a bit more.

So while I doubt I’ll be out kicking ass and fighting the government like Abby did, I’ll surely be living out at Walt’s place . . .