Promotion Is The Hardest Part by Annie Edmonds

Thank you, Marie, for letting me talk a little about writing and my debut novel. I love your blog and I can see you have a bright future when it comes to informing readers. 

You asked me for some insight on writing so what I would like to say is I read everything about writing and promoting. What I kept hearing was start promoting before you finish your book. What I don't understand is how on earth I could have ever done that. 

Promoting takes up all of my time now. It's a full time job. Between blogs and websites and pages and all the places to add your book it can and does get crazy. I wrote a blog about this. 

Promotion is the hardest part of being an indie. I have heard time and time again writers would much rather be writing than promoting themselves and their books. Ask any indie and they will tell you the same thing. 

As indies, we realize quickly that our newly published books can and will get lost in a sea of whatever genre you are writing in if you don't do some promoting. I made two mistakes that I won't make again with my next book. First, I didn't have the money to get my book edited so I did my best to go over my book myself. That was a huge mistake. I wound up re-editing my book a month after I published it with an editor. What I found was there are editors out there that will work with you. So do your homework and make sure you edit your book one more time before you publish. 

Second, I would start putting your cover with the synopsis out there. And now they have trailers for books. Like a movie trailer. Put that out there on your author Facebook page. Yes there is a difference. you don't want strangers coming to your page where you post family pictures. You want to start a buzz which will have people asking what is this cover I keep seeing. Direct them to your author page where you can have the cover/synopsis and maybe a few excerpts.   

These are just a few things I would do differently and I wish someone would have told me. Take a deep breath as you upload that book you worked so hard on. 

The day you publish your book is a proud moment for you as a writer. And once you become that published author, you should know that you will now be in the one percentile of writers. You see, most writers will never finish their books and therefore never publish. So hold that head up high. I wish all indie authors out there much success. You can do it and yes, its worth all the long nights of re-writes. 

Guest Blogger Bio
  

Annie is a Jersey girl born and bred. She has been happily married to the one man that stole her heart 30 yrs ago. She hopes to one day move to the sunshine state as the winters are hard on someone who lives with chronic pain.

She loves to write and has been doing it her entire life. In 2013, she reached a milestone birthday and decided it was now or never to write and publish her first erotic novel.  Second Chances Sammy's story is the first in her series of erotic romance novels. Annie is currently working on Master Mike's story.

Being an independent author or indie isn't always easy. But it can be fun when you start to write a blog that you love. She started Sex w/Annie on WordPress and it seems to have hit a sweet spot where followers are concerned. She post a Sexy Sunday blog for couples, singles every Sunday by 4 pm. http://www.aedmonds315.wordpress.com.

When she's not writing/blogging, Annie loves to spend time with her husband and family.  And being at the beach is where she gets her inspiration and can collect treasures from the sea. Her interests also include photography, gardening and she is a foodie that loves to cook.

Links:

http://www.aedmonds315.wordpress.com 
http://www.annieedmondsauthor.blogspot.com 
http://www.facebook.com/annieedmondsauthor/

https://twitter.com/aedmondsauthor

Book trailer:  http://youtu.be/c1z2bfqy0GQ 

Book: