Saturday Sample: So Now You're Published, What Next, by Gill James, black coffee

 

Introduction

At a recent meeting of the Society of Authors Joanne Harris told how, when her first book was published, she asked the publishers if there was a marketing budget.

"We might run to a book of second class stamps," was the reply.

So, she made her own posters and hawked them around local libraries and bookshops. She seems to have succeeded.

Chances are if you're published by the small press your publisher won't have a lot of time and certainly won't have much budget to promote your book. In fact, though, if you're published by one of the Big Five, they'll hardly have any more time or money though they may have a little more influence.  So the habits and routines described here are good to get into anyway. It should all become easy and should not detract from the main task in hand: becoming a great writer.

You probably won't want to do all of what is described here. Establish that which you find the easiest and can enjoy and start with that. If it’s not effective enough, look to see what else you might try.

If I'm your publisher I'll flag up your work for about a year on social media and thereafter every so often. I'm also delighted to be invited to a physical or online launch if time and geography permit.

I'm pleased, too, to answer questions or look over things such as press releases.

In the end, though, there are only so many hours in the day so please be patient.

You may also like to look at my blog, A Publisher's Perspective http://apublishersperspective.blogspot.co.uk/  where I also deal with many of these issues.

Do get in touch also with your own ideas.