Last post I talked about some of the marketing efforts I'm typically engaged in for my books and that I'd decided to take a step back. It wasn't until I dug into where I was spending my time that I realized just how many places online I was dipping my toes. I thought I'd list them out. Some are pretty obvious. Twitter, for example. Some I've established a presence on but never use (Google+). Others I'm on too much. I say too much because those sites take away too much time from my writing.

I suppose I need to focus down on just 1 or 2 of these. Especially the forums, though I do spend most of my forum time on KindleBoards. One place I really need to start spending less time on is Goodreads. Goodreads is for readers, and while I am a reader I'm also a writer. Sometimes the distinction gets blurred.

Here's the list along with profile links. How many of these are you on?

Twitter

Facebook

Web Site/Blog (i.e., thi... [More]

Writing a book is a long, hard process. It's never-ending, too: As soon as you finish one, you really need to get started planning, outlining, and writing the next. But you also need to spend time selling and marketing. Very few writers, if any, are in it for the money. It's too much work with not enough return. Especially if you're an indie writer. Still, we try to sell our goods with the hope that one day we might support ourselves with our writing and therefore have more time to spend writing.

The biggest problem with selling: it takes a lot of time. Sure, you can release your book to the world and hope it gets traction on its own. I tried that for a while. For me, it didn't work. It wasn't until a combination of enrolling in KDP Select and implementing various engagements on Goodreads (advertising, giveaways) that my books started to get in front of people and start selling. But not only does the KDP Select rankings boost fade, Amazon also tweaked the ... [More]