The process of crafting a book is an immensely fulfilling and enlightening experience. It enriches the mind and sharpens one's thoughts, bringing clarity to even the most complex ideas. Each page turned solidifies one's credibility and establishes one as an authority on their chosen subject. Like a powerful engine, it drives forward the dissemination of ideas and serves as a vital tool in marketing oneself or one's message. If you have not yet undertaken this journey, I highly recommend you embark on it. It will surely be one of the most rewarding endeavors of your life.
Navigating the world of book marketing can feel like a daunting task. As an author, you've dedicated countless hours to crafting your manuscript and now it's time to share it with readers everywhere. The process from writing to publishing to marketing can be overwhelming, but with the right approach and attitude, you can conquer this journey with assurance and triumph. Here is a helpful guide to support you in effectively promoting your book.
Embrace the Journey
Marketing your book requires dedication, creativity, and resilience. Remember that every effort you put into marketing brings you one step closer to reaching your readers and sharing your story with the world. Stay positive, believe in your work, and keep pushing forward. Your book deserves to be read, and with the right marketing strategies, it will find its way into the hearts of readers everywhere. Marketing your book is not a one-time effort but an ongoing journey. Be patient, stay consistent, and keep experimenting with different strategies. Celebrate small victories along the way and learn from any setbacks. Remember that every effort you put into marketing brings you one step closer to reaching your readers and sharing your story with the world. Stay positive, believe in your work, and keep pushing forward. Happy marketing!
Marketing Tip Of The Day: Donate
Donate your book to relevant organizations. Be proud of your book. Give it to those you think need it. Don’t be random. Find the group of people that need to hear what you’re saying and give them the book. It’s worth the small yet generous investment. If you have chosen wisely, they will become your best advocate.
And now a fiction break
Deliberate Parents
By Liz Dubelman
Susan was a Googler, which is how she found Resolve. At 35, after three years of unprotected sex and no baby, she told her husband, Steve, that they needed to get tested. She loved the idea of community, but not a community of strangers because they might be weird. A controlled group. So, with the help of Resolve, she formed a fertility group because an infertility group would sound too negative.
She knew Kelly and Jeff were trying to have a baby. They lived next door. Kelly had no filter, so Susan knew Jeff wanted a baby more than Kelly did. Kelly told Susan that they had never used birth control, not in the four years of going out nor in the three years of marriage.
Kelly was a big believer in fate, which absolved her from responsibilities. It was Jeff who made her go to the fertility doctor and start on the path to seriously pursuing having a child. She welcomed Susan’s group because it took the onus off of her. The group would provide emotional support to Jeff.
Kelly produced online videos for Vice and she knew Lily and Hannah, a lesbian couple, because they had been consultants on the mini-doc, “And Marriage For All.” So, that’s how Lily and Hannah came into the group.
And then there was Rose, whom Susan met in the parking structure of Dr. Ross’ clinic. Rose, 24, was a dour young woman who was trying to have a baby without a partner and in the wake of her mother's recent passing. Rose's mother had left enough money to have and raise a child, although that was decidedly not the intention of the inheritance.
There were seven people in the group. When Susan first contacted Resolve they’d wanted her to join an existing group, but she explained to them that she had formed her own group and just needed a leader, a professional.
First, they gave her Alaina, a matronly woman with a master's in social work. She was about 65, dressed in flowing things, and she mostly listened. Which led to long silences. Which led to a lot of collective anxiety.
Alaina would say things like, “Conception takes place in silence.” Or “Feel the sorrow and let it go.” This did not play well with a high-strung West Los Angeles fertility-drug-fueled group. They couldn’t hear the soothing message. They couldn’t do the guided meditations. They wanted to verbally throw up and have someone else clean up the mess. They wanted to shout without the volume but with the intensity. So Alaina was out.
Ruth was next. She was 23. What could she know? She was annoying and enthusiastic, like a fertility cheerleader. She wanted everyone to talk all the time. Her motto was, “Silence perpetuates the despair.” Kelly, not meaning to be funny said, “Doesn’t not being pregnant perpetuate the despair?”
Ruth lasted longer than Alaina, maybe because by the time she showed up everyone was in some stage of IVF, rather than just insemination or testing. IVF is a much more intense and invasive process. One day at a particularly unfortunate moment — consoling Susan, who was crying and still bleeding from her first miscarriage — Ruth got a text. Her three-year-old had the chicken pox.
The group had no sympathy. She had two children — at 23! — and she potentially brought chicken pox into the unknowing group. Angie was the first to say what everyone wanted to. “Fuck you and fuck your two little brats! Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.” It was good for this group to feel collective anger. In a sense, Ruth brought the group together.
So, when Gina showed up, expectations were low. Gina started off strong. She let it be known that she had twin IVF babies who were now in their first year of college. That made the partners a little shaky. Most of them had only calculated the cost of medical intervention for conception. Eighteen years of raising a kid, plus four years of college, was a very expensive proposition. Hannah picked at the dry spots on her fingers, causing little spots of blood.
Gina had everyone introduce themselves by where they were in the process. Susan said, “I’m Susan, and Steve is my husband. We’ve just had a miscarriage, but,” she added hopefully, “we have five frozen.”
Kelly said, “I’m Kelly, married to Jeff. One IVF, one failure. Two frozen.” Jeff tried to hold her hand but she unintentionally moved it.
“Lily and Hannah. Had a bit of corrective surgery for polyps. Just started Luprin. ”
“Rose?” Gina said. Rose was like soundproofing. She absorbed and gave nothing back. It was hard to stay optimistic around her and it was even harder to remember why they were all fighting so hard to perpetuate the species. Rose didn’t speak for a long time. Kelly and Susan exchanged a glance. Maybe she would drop out. That would be so freeing. Susan thought Rose was just trying to have a baby because she couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Kelly hated that at this moment she had to think of Rose at all. Couldn’t Rose just have gone to any bar on ovulation day and fucked some guy? That’s what Kelly would have done if she were 24 and wanted to get pregnant, which was in itself a stupid idea.
“Honey,” Gina said.
“Oh, for the love of God. Just say it,” Kelly said.
“I’m pregnant," Rose said, without emotion.
In most usual group situations — a book group, sorority sisters, Alcoholics Anonymous — the members would be happy for the woman who had been trying so hard to get a desired result and had gotten it. However, being pregnant in a fertility group is not usual, and can easily get on the nerves of the emotionally and physically frayed members. And it was Rose, for god’s sake.
An emotional tsunami hit the group. For Susan time slowed down. She had a million thoughts: Why did Rose show up today? Had she never heard of bowing out gracefully? Susan tried to turn her grimace into a smile.
Kelly, on the other hand, tapped into her rage pretty quickly. She wanted to rip that fetus out of Rose, who had no business being a mother. Rose was as cold as the temperature at an embryo storage facility. Kelly was about to scream something — even she didn’t know what — when Gina stepped in, like a first responder at a natural disaster.
“Women who get pregnant through IVF often don’t feel comfortable relaxing into the new state of carrying a child.”
“I didn’t have IVF. I got pregnant on my first insemination.”
“Ok,” Gina said. “Did you have many miscarriages?’
“No.”
“Any?”
“No, not that I know of.”
Kelly was the first to say what they were all thinking. “I think you should get the fuck out of here.”
Rose looked at Gina, who said, “I think it’s best, dear.”
Thank you for the reminder of how important it is to market one’s book! Even though it is easy to get discouraged sometimes, there are so many ways to market a book. There are always many small rewards along the way . . . and they all add up to bigger ones. Always an adventure!