Media Frenzy

Any and every aspiring creative person thinks about how they would handle the onslaught of media attention and notoriety that their marvelous, thought provoking endeavors would most assuredly receive immediately post their global release of their yet to be established name coupled with their associated unknown works.

In my case the deafening silence immediately following the email announcement I received from Amazon informing me that my first book in the contemporary romantic trilogy Wantin was now available globally, hit my amusement button while simultaneously tickling my funny bone as the words ‘Now what?’ came to mind.  When I finally settled myself down from my impromptu belly raw, I smiled, looked around the room I was working from and heard the sound of crickets chirping. Should I have taken that as a sign?

Writing is only a fraction of the journey. If you want to become a well established household name than you need more than just your fabulous concepts and good writing. To become successful, the chances are exponentially increased when you mesomorph your persona into a technology savvy, well polished public speaking, advertising and marketing machine. There is no room for hesitation or doubt. Its not about who believes in you but whether you believe in yourself and are willing to back all the way.

The best advice I could give you at this stage of my own journey is to believe in yourself. There is a tonne of information available to help guide you through any of the steps you need to take. One of the most important ways to get your good self establish out there on the web is to plan and implement a solid SEO and page ranking strategy. You don’t want to have the search engines presenting you on page 32. You want and need to be in the first two pages with a target of ensuring you get on page one and stay there. This takes effort and a hella lot of consistency. If you don’t know what I am talking about, then consider buying a few e-Books on the topic. Its important for new starters to get a real appreciation of the need to create a high ranking presence across all the search engines. Google, Yahoo, Bing are the most popular but there are others out there.

Honestly before launching your book I would suggest having a webpage. It does not have to hold too much information but enough to hold the curiosity of the readers you are wanting to attract. It can be a one page website or landing page that gets expanded as you begin to be more involved. I know plenty of people who have said that they don’t need a webpage and focus instead on promoting the sites that their books are available in. Instead of building their own brand and label for the work they are producing, their advertising is being gifted to the platform selling millions of books which are your competition. Its completely up to you but my recommendation would be to at the very least learn some more about the benefits of holding your own website to showcase and market your work. Its not as difficult as you may think.

In order to start to attract some pre and post launch media attention you should consider posting articles that can be picked up through media distribution channels. You can reach out to the local radio stations to pitch to the station manager the story you want to promote. They will look at what its about and decide if they are willing to invite you for a free promotional time slot. Don’t overlook community radio station and podcast free to air radio producers. There is a growing number of people out there listening to these alternative DJ’s surfing the inbetweener airwaves. The whole intent is for you to reach a maximum number of people and hold their interest long enough to want to find out more.

The same applies to newspapers and magazines. They do reserve editorial space for certain stories and are often willing to have people from their local community who are venturing into new ground promoted as a good news event. The reality is that you don’t know unless you ask and my message to anyone who is trying to promote anything is … ask. The worst they can say is no. The best part about this is that regardless there is one more person in the world that knows the name or your book.

There are so many avenue that you can pursue, bloggers, book festival attendance or representation, public speaking with book clubs and literary groups, reviewer. I promise you there are more opportunities to explore than you will have time to execute. I am not suggesting its all smooth sailing and everyone is willing to welcome you with open arms. In fact it can be the polar opposite, especially thanks to those few who have walked the path before us and have not done so with the respect and gratitude it requires. Regardless just keep moving forward, believe in yourself and your work. Do what it takes to get your creative outputs in the hands of the readers who want to read them and enjoy the process along the way.

Blessings – Truth Devour