The Bomber Jacket from First Page to Finally, Published!
Party’s Over—Time to Get Out There and Sell My Book
So, it’s two months since my September 15, 2024 book launch. What a day! What a high! Needed some time to catch my breath. Stare out the window. Go zip lining. See The Other American, my sister D.W. Gregory’s newest play. Spend a weekend in Avalon, New Jersey on my annual Sisters Weekend, watching the sunrise over the beach.
I also spent time playing too much Spider Solitaire on my computer and watching way too many episodes of Kdrama on my TV. Ignoring my marketing plan. Doing what I’m best at – procrastination.
Now it’s time to buckle down and get to work.
You see, as I said back in Chapter 13, unless your novel is put out by a big New York publishing house, “You, the writer, are going to be the boots on the ground when it comes to promoting and selling your book.” My publisher, Wild Ink Publishing, did all the arduous work of getting The Bomber Jacket published. Now I needed to do the work to make it a success.
Being the obsessive planner that I am, of course I have a three-page spreadsheet currently listing eleven goal categories, each of which have between one and seven strategies, all of which have target dates. These goal categories include things like:
- update and maintain my author website (with the help of my web developer),
- launch my Kdrama blog, Kdramaforllife.com,
- finish this Story of a Book series,
- expand my writing presence,
- promote myself on social media,
- gain some press coverage,
- look for author events, speaking engagements and book sale opportunities, and
- visit regional independent book stores to encourage them to carry my book.
Some of the strategies associated with those goals are:
- uploading my two journaling workbooks on my website as downloadable PDFs and marketing them. I’ve taught journaling for years and wrote two guides to the process: Pen, Power & Possibilities: A Guided Journaling Experience to Expand the Horizons of Your Life and Time—Tyrant or Treasure: 13 Steps to Embrace Life in all its Messiness,
- joining several writers’ organizations,
- looking for writing conferences where I can meet other writers and promote my book, and maybe even be a speaker,
- do regular posting on my personal and author Facebook page and my Instagram account,
- consider creating a couple YouTube videos (ugh! What a terrifying idea.),
- expand my reach through Tic Tok (hmmm….),
- research book blogs and podcasts on which I could be a guest,
- promote The Bomber Jacket as a book club book and offer to do Zoom visits with interested book clubs,
- look for book expos and events to market The Bomber Jacket, and
- reach out to other writers, read their books, and support their writing process and published works. (My editor, Ian, is connecting me to many people in many places).
And then there is the day-to-day business of writing: tracking and reporting sales tax, maintaining an income and expenses log for income tax reporting, making sure all writing and accounts are organized, filed, and backed up.
Oh, and then there is making time to work on my current writing projects—my books/s in progress and my poetry. Finding some time to dabble at abstract art. And living my every day, ordinary life as a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, and informed citizen. I have a very large family and lots of friends. I belong to two book clubs, a foreign policy discussion group, a Sunday Brunch Philosophy Club, a Scrabble meetup group, and a group of friends known as The Moosebutters who do wacky things together like themed parties.
I have a rich and full life and now I am a published writer.
Twenty years in the making.
