Day 22 - Promotion Day

I am genuinely excited today. Part of any job is the learning curve. We jump in feet first and then we go through trail and error over and over again until we learn the best ways to accomplish our goals. One of the things I struggle with as an author is getting my name and my work out there in front of the readers. I am terrible with online promotions or almost anything that has to do with social media. That is one learning curve I can predict will take a very long time to master.

I do enjoy attending book shows but I have little marketing material to help push me or my work. I have bookmarks, though I need to redesign them, business cards that were redone a few months ago and wristbands that have the name of one of my books on them but that is all I currently possess. When I went to my first big book show I saw tables with banners across the front, signs behind the table and swag all over that tied in with the stories.

The swag was what gave me the idea of the wristbands. I wear one myself and they are available at my table when people purchase the book. I am still working on ideas for swag to promote myself and my work but I did finally manage to design and order the banner and sign like I have seen other authors use. They are coming in the mail today. I have a signing on Saturday this week and while I do not think I will have the room to use them there I am thrilled to know I can use them at the signing coming up in a few weeks called Authorpalooza.

I attended the show last year and was amazed as I looked around at all of the authors with their banned, signs and sign up sheets for their newsletter. I didn't have any of those things, at the time I didn't even have a website. I fixed my shortcoming on the website aspect just about a month ago. With the sign and banner coming I am feeling more like a professional author, prepared to take on the next show.

I cannot say at this point how much it will help to have these items but the visibility cannot hurt. Just as my goal of having another book ready to publish can be nothing but an asset to grow my business. I am working to create a newsletter but still have some research to do on that checklist item. For right now I am just going to sit here excited and wait to get home so I can see my new promotion purchases!