The book was done. You had given it everything, sitting at your computer, days on end, writing, reading, editing, re-reading and rewriting. Finally you hit the ‘Publish Now’ key and it was released to the reading public at large.

What will people think, you wondered.

You waited for reviews, reviews that never came. Friends you thought would come through for you, didn’t. The doubts began to set in. They didn’t like it. They didn’t understand it. It just wasn’t the sort of thing they enjoyed ….

Marketing. That was it, you realized. Not that you hadn’t thought about Marketing. Following the advice of the many who’d gone before, you had developed a solid marketing plan on paper but at crunch time had discovered that going from paper to real-world was a lot more difficult than it had seemed, sitting in the comfort of your lair. This was going to cost real money, money you didn’t have.

So you dropped the ball and left the playing field. Your job was writing, you decided, and you needed to move on, write more books. You left the little orphan out there to make its way, or not, on its own.

You actually sold a few books after that. Nah, that’s not correct. People bought a few books after that and two of them (that’s an actual number, not a metaphor for ‘some’) asked for a sequel. You thought about that, for a while, until the idea took hold in your own head and the characters began to talk to you, telling another of their stories. And things changed. The orphan returned and asked for some help meeting readers. You agreed, deciding that it was time to get real, find some money and do some Marketing.

You began to talk about the book, to urge people to read it. You bought a few copies and gave them to people, all the while wondering whether it was ‘good enough’, whether they’d ‘get it’, understand what you were trying to do, accept the book on its own terms. You took a hard look at your book and realized that it had settled into a very small niche. You thought some more about Marketing and decided to take the plunge with paying for professional help.

(To be continued.)