Last year I had a vision. No, it wasn’t the Virgin Mary in my peanut butter, or a visitation from a deceased great-aunt (as described in next week’s Book Recommendation — I can’t wait to share THAT one with you!). Instead, I thought about how I’m better at marketing others’ books vs. my own.
Don’t get me wrong. I write because I love to, because I have to, because without writing my life feels dull and empty. I don’t want or need to be a bestselling author. However, I would like to find more of an audience.
So, I thought, what if we writers got together and helped market each others’ books?
Fortunately, someone else thought of this, too, and she’s done a far better job than I could have envisioned. Melissa Foster, author of the award-winning novel Come Back to Me and others, has conceived a website of breathtaking scope. If you love reading books, this site is for you. If you are an author, this site is for you. Brava, Melissa!
I’ve known about the World Literary Cafe for a while, but I’m just getting into it. To start, I’m connecting with fellow authors through their Facebook author pages, I’ve been able to “talk shop” with people who are generous about sharing information. For example, one author pointed out to me, in the nicest way, that my Amazon author page wasn’t easily accessed. This led to some conversation with Amazon and some updating on my part…and this is just one little piece of how World Literary Cafe helps authors.
If I’ve learned nothing in life, I’ve learned this: When you want to succeed, find people who know what they’re doing and learn from them. As I surround myself with the expertise of people such as Joanna Penn, Joel Friedlander, and Melissa Foster, I’m developing a new plan for marketing my books, both current and future. I am deeply grateful for their wisdom and generosity, and I look forward to putting their recommendations to good use.
Do you have a team of experts to help you in your creative endeavors? Anyone you want to recommend?
I don’t have a team of experts, and I’m not sure how to go about creating one. I’m in a bit of a rut, I think. Thanks for telling us about World Literary Cafe! It sounds like you are getting some great support there.
Those ruts can be painful…I have them periodically myself. The thing that sustains me when I’m in one is that when it passes, I usually end up with new ideas. It’s almost as though my ruts are a signal to me that something needs to shift. In fact, I’d say that I found my team as a result of one! That said, I’d be happy to elaborate in a future post the thought process that led me to my current team — and that includes others I didn’t mention in this blog post. Maybe it will be helpful to others.
Thanks for reminding me of WLC. When I go to it, though, there is so much “there” there, that I droop with exhaustion. There are so many good writing sites online that if I actually used them I’d have even less than zero time to write (not that I’m getting a lot done, lately). I still haven’t figured out how to prioritize all the writing related things that don’t involve actual writing — e.g., reading, blogging, blog reading, connection on social media, etc.
Great point, Julie. It is exhausting! I think what I’m learning to do with this site is to find one piece of it and focus on that…then I’ll move on to another. Also, I think a “time management” discussion on this blog might be worthwhile. I’m finally starting to find some balance between the writing and the marketing, which involves all that you mention. How about I throw out some ideas in a future post, and you can see if any of them work for you?