In the midst of taking every opportunity I can to learn about how the game is played, be it with self-publishing, editing, marketing, ISBNs and the icky stuff, I'm grateful for Jenna Moreci's Marketing tips. Here's what I've taken away. 

 

Step 1: THE VOICE!

Who am I? three short words, I'm quirky, creative, and slightly sadistic

1. I love tiny creatures and my dogs

2. I love violin and music

3. I'm addicted to tea

These things I like influence my personality and how I act, so I am going to treat them as part of my voice. 

What do I have to offer? 

1. Tea Recommendations and recipes

2. Writing tidbits on specific subjects I love to write about.

3. Charismatic rants on what I love.

In these things I'm not selling my writing I'm selling me, I want to convey the things I love and convince people with my Voice that this is who I am and I can be likable and friendly. As far as writing advice, I want to keep things personal, to not do to death the subjects I've seen done before. 

The Merge!

In my rant on the community page I discussed a game plan for posting blog posts once a week on the things I can offer. Conveying in each post three things: 

1. My love for my hobbies

2. My unique voice and character

3. My writing. 

With a little bit of each I hope to sell my author personality

 

Step 2: And in this, the Game begins!

1. Nail down on my young adult crowd, my 12-16 year olds, and give them a safe, clean, figure to follow blindly into spiraling madness with me!

2. Engage them with book and movie reviews, tea rants and recipes, artworks and puppy pictures! Whilst creating blog posts for them to be introduced to my writing through.

3. Post blog entries on my personal website and spread excerpts and images across Instagram,  Facebook, and Twitter. 

4. I'm going to post on Thursdays! Why? Because it's the highest pressure day since I work fri-mon. 

5. How will I be noticed? By screaming really loudly until someone shuts me up. (just kidding, see no.2)

 

UPDATE TIME! it's been three weeks now and here's how the war effort is going!

I have been posting blogs every Thursday, one on a tea recipe, one on the movie A Monster Calls and one beginning a miniseries on characters sketches. 

I have doubled down on capitalizing on Instagram, Wordpress, and Twitter, and I've dedicated my midweek to writing and my weekend to marketing. 

But most of all I have finally found myself an editor for my first book Fire's Hope, and I'm actually on schedule with getting my first book published, based on goal and projections I set in May 2017. It's hard to believe it's actually happening, and I'm getting really excited!

 

Best of luck to all my writing buddies out there!