Renewing the faith

This week I was at the annual Meet the Authors event in Selsey, West Sussex.  Along with thirty other authors I was sitting at a table, smiling at the reading public, and hoping they'd buy my books.

Since I've self-published I've had second thoughts about the idea several times.  It seems that unless you're an on-line marketing guru it's hard to get anyone to notice your book.  And it's become clear from my research that effective marketing means an awful lot of hours spent on-line, hours that I would rather spend writing.

And many marketing experts also suggest that you pay for advertising too.  That's something I simply don't have a budget for and can't do.  And it's also become clear that the big selling genres on-line are crime and romance.  The usual suspects.  So I've begun to wonder if I'm wasting my time self-punishing.

And then I sold some books at Meet the Authors.  I've been to this event for three or four yeas now, and it's never been successful in terms of book sales for me.  Most years the afternoon turns into a catch-up with writer friends I haven't seen for months.

But this year I had quite a lot of interest in my books.  A lot of people picked them up and read the back blurb.  Several more said they loved the cover image.  That's the most interest I've had from the general public for ages. I also recently had another writer friend say that she loved the cover, so I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not too bad after all.

I went through a phase a few months back when I thought I'd made a lot of mistakes in self-publishing these novels.  Why did I use my initials for my name instead of claiming who I am?  I also had my doubts about the titles, wishing I'd gone with my original ideas.  I even considered pulling the books from Amazon.  But now I've decided that I'll just leave them there.  I'm not doing any active promotion of them, because I'm still thinking about which way I want to go in future.

But I do get a boost when a total stranger is attracted to my books and buys them.  And I have to remember that I sold books in the huge dealer's hall at the World Science Fiction Convention in London, competing against bestsellers.  I must have done something right after all.