Chasing Tails

When I was young our guidance counselors encouraged us to have a life plan. We were supposed to choose goals and work toward them to achieve our life plan. I think my initial plan was to be an Archeologist. Didn't make it.

I'm sure I had quite a few other goals and plans in there. Life kept interfering with them. The guidance counselors didn't tell us what to do when that happened so I winged it. I'm pretty good at winging it. I've had a lot of practice.

My latest life plan was to be a published author. Lo, and behold! I actually accomplished that just in the nick of time. At one time, having a book published--going through the process of submitting it to an established publisher, signing a contract, dealing with edits and all that other stuff--meant something. It was an accomplishment.

And then life or karma or whatever you want to call Amazon stepped into the breach and now having a book published is just a matter of uploading a file to the Internet. Anybody can be a published author. Matter of fact, many established publishers are going out of business or changing tactics to get in on the self-publishing gig.

Many aspiring authors are so focused on getting published, they fail to take the next steps into account. As I said, anyone can be published now. But selling a book is an entirely different kettle of fish.

So now that you've caught your tail...what are you going to do with it? It's not enough to post it and sit back waiting for the money to pour in.

Let me tell you some of the things that don't work.

Posting your book info on my social media pages without permission.

Begging me to buy your book because you have bills to pay. Everyone has bills to pay.

Begging your friends to write a review for your book. (Especially if you also tell them they don't have to read it!)

In case no one's noticed, the competition is overwhelming. There are thousands of books just waiting to nab up available dollars. Thousands. So before you toss your book up there on Amazon or Smashwords or some other site, consider what your next steps will be.

Or...just get a good grip on that tail.

anny