My new five-a-day

Just after The Incomers contract was signed I was given the advice that I should try to sell as many books as I could in the first two months after publication.   I abandoned my fiction writing at the beginning of the year, three months before publication, to become my own publicist.  I made phone calls,  my publisher sent out review copies of the book, I wrote articles.  It was almost a full time job.  

I thought after The Incomers was launched it could be left alone for a while to sail in the safe waters of my hard labours from the pre-publication months.  I imagined I could get back to fiction writing, to what I wanted to do.  But after one month on the market I realise I am deluding myself.  

The sales have been good in the first month but I now know that the pressure needs to continue until the bow wave of word of month begins.  I find that I am not satisfied unless I have done something to help nudge the sales along.  I have put too much work into the project to leave sales to the chance that the reviews and articles deliver.

Yet I still want to write fiction.  I have another project I am excited about. I don't want that enthusiasm to die. I am a writer not a publicist.

So in the same way as I sometimes set myself goals for writing I now set myself goals for publicity.  

Every day I must do five things to sell my book.  I could be something as simple as making five phone calls or sending five emails but I must do five somethings every day.  Once they are done I am free to write and research.

Yesterday I made a couple of phone calls, sent an email and made a couple of posts in Linkedin.  The results are that I now have two book signings in the diary, a firm yes for a magazine review and three kindle sales.

I may run out of ideas on the five a day but as long as I keep coming up with new ways to sell the book I will keep to my five a day regime.

And this blog post counts as one of today's 'fives'.