To Write or To Promote….That is The New Question!

By Liz Crowe

I don’t know about you but picking books to read these days is overwhelming.  As writers we are lucky to be in groups of fellow authors who are all doing their Promoting Thing and telling us about their upcoming releases and/or backlists and/or amazing reviews and/or readers choice awards.  I’m just as guilty.

What it does for me is force me to create a To Be Read list that grows daily.

It also reminds me what a huge job it is to promote oneself in a crowded market.

There are a lot of Us Out Here.

I’ve been privy to several discussions amongst writers about how much the promo side of the job takes away from actual writing.  One of the BEST bits of advice I heard was from a woman who is fairly new to the scene, like myself, but is extraordinarily prolific and professional.  “Writing and getting a new book published is the best promo you can possibly do!”

Yes, that is true But….

So what to do?  I try to draw a line down the middle of my day. One side is for beer.  Since I own a microbrewery and am responsible for promoting all aspects of it plus sales I gotta give that some time.  Then, I take the other half of my day and divide IT in half:  writing/editing on one side depending on where I am in the process (heavy on editing right now so I’m getting a little antsy to write something new) and promotions/networking on the other.

I post.  I review. I guest post. I host guests. I Six Sentence Sunday myself into a frenzy.  I comment.  I facebook and try not to wince at all the whining going on there (and then try not to whine there).  I tweet.  Then I do some more.  Oh and ADVICE FOR BLOGGING NEWBS:  Pick one day where in you write 3-4 posts (or get a few fellow writers to write guest spots for you) and pre –post them to release through the week.  Then your “blogging” is done.

But beware of over-commitment…it can ruin you!

But then I stop.  That’s the key.  Sort of like “portion control dieting”.  It’s hard.  But you gotta call a halt to it at some point, usually for me it’s around midnight.

Then I get up and start over.

I want to thank Breathless Press, Justyn, Honoria, Clarissa, Victoria, and Dara for allowing me to bring The Brewing Passion series to light.  We’ve had some fun with it, some fights over it, and all hope it will sell well based on all the work that’s gone into it.

Congrats on the new website!