Tag: book marketing

New Ideas

Building My Community, One Step At A Time

carolyncordon

Writers, especially those who have no high range publisher holding their hand as they write, have to find ways to fund their writing, if they are going to be able to keep on writing.

I am a self-published writer, a freelance writer and a volunteer member of the community. I edit the local newsletter, and am able to use it that to further various of my other community outlets. I, of course, am mindful that I need to keep things in the Town newsletter relevant to as wide a range of residents as possible.

At the moment, my novel writing is taking second place to a community project I am promoting, and in fact organising. I am interested in working on building a greater sense of community in the township I live in, a small place around 60 or so kilometres from Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia.

Now I am not a great shopper, buying high fashion, at high prices, I am happier buying a much loved item in the right colour and style, and I usually find such things at op shops, and garage sales. I am also pretty terrible about having a tidy home, because I have far too many ‘things’.

I’m a big ideas kind of person as well, and when I get one of my ‘big’ ideas, I love it if and when I can get started on the idea straight away. If I have to hang around waiting, I get bored sometimes, and want to move on to the next big thing.

So I am thrilled to be working at the moment on my new big idea, taking actions required, and getting the word out to see who else wants to be involved. I am taking all of the steps needed so I can run a fantastic Yard sale for the whole of the township I live in, Redbanks. Well, for as many of the residents who I can get interested, anyway.

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(This photo was taken at my place in Redbanks, where I live. Can you see the dancer, just above the (real) tree? Cloud images can be so inspiring!)

I’m hoping to get the Mayor of Adelaide Plains Council involved, and already have one of the councillors interested in it all. The writing related thing about it is that I have written in one of my other blogs about it, earlier today, and used images of two of my self-published books in the blog post, and said copies will be available for purchase at the sale.

I hope I can have some information about my writing group available there too, and it would be fun to have some of my writing friends there too, if they interested in being there. I want to know more about the people living around me, why they moved here, what they do, what they like. I love people, and if I can help them dispose of their unneeded treasures, and make some money too, that will be great.

As I indicate in that other blog post, I will be collecting the fee from those who get involved in it, and giving the money to Mallala Primary, the local Primary School. I’m so excited about this, I hope the weather will be fine, but if it rains, well at least I tried!

Any hints and tips from people who know about these things would be very welcome!

 

Uncategorized, Writing

Marketing Books, Some Previous Thoughts

carolyncordon

Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs

The link just above will give some information about marketing a self-published book. It isn’t the only way to market our books, it’s just information about how I did it. It may be useful, I hope it is interesting.

That information is ten years old, and while some things have changed, certainly other things remain the same. I am still doing small print runs of the book talked about, “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs”. I have a soft spot for that book which I still send copies of, every now and then, in fact I sold another copy just a week ago, at an event I participated in.

For me, having books available if I am out and about at things where at least some of the people present, are open to the idea of buying books, is always a good idea. I in fact sold, not only Dig It!, at that event last weekend, but I also sold the two books that come after Dig It! I put the price down low, but I didn’t mind that at all. The person I sold the books to is a friend, she is a dog owner too, and I have already sold enough copies of the books to cover my costs, so any further sales are profit …

So if you go and look at the link above, which is also here, you’ll see that I was pretty laid back in my attitude to producing books. I am still more or less like that. I have moments when I chastise myself about missing out on sales, opportunities and so one, but really, the most important thing is that I’m not sending myself broke with my bookish things, and that I am having fun with what I do.

And isn’t that a key to living a book life? Having fun, having enough money to do what you want to do. I’ve sold more copies of this simple little book with illustrations, than many big name authors, published by actual publishing companies, I think. I’m not sure on that, unlike those publishing companies, I don’t have any accounting types of people collecting the numbers for me.

The book mentioned in the article I link to, the one that I published through Lulu, has pretty well disappeared from my life. I no longer know my log in details for my Lulu account, and I barely even remember what that book I wrote said. I could look it up, if I really cared, I supposed, but my level of interest in it has just disappeared.

Oh well, such is life!