Pimping and whoring…
I love the name of that infamous blog Pimp My Novel. It encapsulates everything that we writers do. We pimp, we sell, we market, we whore – all in the name of securing an agent, publication, sales or even just notice.
In the end it all comes down to the story though and if its good enough to be bought, read, talked about and shared. In the case of fellow writer and friend, Guy Saville, he has come in at the top. His book The Afrika Reich 
is to be launched this week, has garnered huge press in the UK, reviews to die for and he has tantalized us all on Facebook with glimpses through the window of fame. It’s the sign of a truly good book with a brilliant story to tell.
For me, it’s a quieter way. I belong to the same stable of writers that Guy started with. My books were published in 2008-09 and garnered a small niche-market following. The first volume was e-booked for Kindle two weeks ago and attracted early interest. (http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B004LLIIY4)
Unlike Guy, who now has the full-force of a mainstream sales team to assist him, other writers like me must hike our skirts to mid-thigh, deliver the most smouldering come-hither look and hope reviews will encourage word-spreading and then sales.
Be under no illusions folks, this is hard work. Every minute on the social media or any media is minutes, sometimes hours away from writing. The Shifu Cloth languishes, Gisborne is getting in a state, and the Kindle edits for the sequel to The Stumpwork Robe have ground to a halt.
I need a pimp! I need a sales team!
It will happen! It will! *Sends positive prayers to the Great Pumpkin on your behalf*
Thanks, Aimee.
It’s not the publication so much as that’s already happened although on a smaller scale.
But it’s the need to have sales-marketing team to guide one through the rapids (which are real white water stuff, trust me) and to have an agent who can answer major questions.
The London Consultancy I use for editorial work are brilliant the way they answer my questions and never fail to help, but an agent has the ear of the Great Pumpkin…
It’s true–marketing ourselves and our books takes time. I read an interesting post by my agency about creating velocity around one book release. Basically the advice was to devote a lot of time on social networking the month before your book is released and try to create a social media blitz (with help from your online friends) to generate big initial sales. Interesting!
It truly is the social networking that takes the time and the pressure would seem to be much higher than ever, even for mainstream marketed authors.
It’s no wonder mainstream writers’ tours have diminished … most writers ‘tour’ and ‘market’ madly from their own computers apart from the radio and print interview blitzes and the occasional book-signings. You see it every day on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Because despite the sales a writer generates, the profile must be kept in the public eye and the only way to do that is to ‘mingle’.
So ‘indie’ or mainstream, it’s essentially the same except ‘indies’ don’t have the doors opened for them.
So true…and I fear I’m terrible at sales, especially selling myself 🙂
That’s the nub of it, isn’t it, Rowenna? One can write a great book, but does one necessarily feel comfortable about hawking it around?
By the way, I have some superb links for you and Clare on vintage clothes and fabrics. Shall try and email through your blog.