Daily writing prompt

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?

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My skill, no secret there, is to write. The skill I wish I had was how to market what I write.

I’ve been writing since I was eight years old. I started on the road to publishing greatness in 1980. Thirty-two years later, 2012, I self-published my first book. I self-published because the publishing houses wanted known authors, not wannabes. Now, nine books later, I feel like I’m still a wannabe.

I’ve read about marketing. I attend Writer’s Guild where we either discuss marketing, or we have speakers who show how to market. Okay, so how do I implement those marketing ideas and guaranteed to sell my book to everyone sales pitches?

I’m fighting with myself, have been for as long as I can remember. Fighting – how? Rejection. In my formative years, when I should have had positive input in my life, I was told I wouldn’t amount to anything. I was a nobody, and nothing would work out for me. How do I combat that?

You have no idea how much I would like to implement every marketing idea I’ve heard or had, but am too afraid to try because of rejection. So, I use the only marketing tool I can think of that so far has worked – Word Of Mouth. I sell more books with word of mouth than any other method. Simply because, I don’t know the first thing about implementing the other marketing strategies.

I tell people the honest truth about my books – what other people told me when they read my books – My books cause insomnia. People simply can’t put them down. Does it work? I used that method a few weeks ago at the Winter Market and sold three books. I’ve also had people come back and tell me how good they are and yes, they couldn’t put them down.

I recently got an e-mail from KDP about a royalty I’m getting this month. When I logged into my account, I saw I received a royalty every month this year. Now, I know the year is only three months. However, it’s the most I’ve gotten a royalty in a long time. I go months without a royalty, and then I get a streak. My goal is to have a steady stream of royalty checks. I would also like to make more than single digits, but hey, it could happen. I only need to figure out this marketing thing.

For more information about my books, you can find them on this site and Amazon.com.