Beginning with a shameless plug for my book, not out yet but awaiting final approval — The Obeahman’s Dagger.

You’ll understand that I had to do that. What’s a self-published writer with no marketing budget to do? But I have to tell you — this whole marketing thing, well it’s no fun. There were parts of the book creation process that I really enjoyed – I had a lot of fun watching myself think through the complications of the plot, coming up with solutions in some really tight spaces. It was fun too, going over the writing, tuning the expressions, finding the right words to express what the character was thinking, or turning the clever phrase to describe something, painting pictures with words. Okay, maybe I’m overstating my case here. The point is that while I enjoyed the writing, I’m not liking this marketing that they all say I must do.

Here’s someone with a different point of view. This link is to an article by David Zweig who has written a book on the subject of self-promotion. (I intend to read it and post a review here.) The article is ‘Success without Self-promotion‘ which, for a self-published author, is an impossibility. My question is whether there’s an effective compromise.

I don’t have the resources and connections of a large publishing house. How does my book get noticed without my turning myself into a full time literary agent/publicist? It’s quickly becoming obvious why most self-published writers give up on marketing and resign themselves to selling only as many books as they can afford to self-purchase.

I’ve already begun writing the next book and the third and fourth have been planned. I don’t have titles for any of them but I’m playing around with The Encampment for the next, with The Musinator to follow. Then it’s back to The Obeahman’s Dagger for a prequel that will relate the origins of the Obeahman. I’ve little energy for marketing.

Wish me luck, well-wishers.