Wednesday 5 July 2017

Fifteen Days and Fourteen Nights

It’s two weeks since Escape to the Cotswolds was published, and what a two weeks it’s been.

The build-up was amazing enough with pre-sales going along nicely. The blog tour began three days prior to publication and I don’t think my feet have touched the ground since. But what about the dreaded P word. Promotion! My publishers, HQ Digital, provided me with some eye-catching shareables which certainly enhanced many of my posts and even made me want to read the book.


But promoting oneself isn’t something that comes naturally, either to me or, as I understand it, to most other writers. My biggest problem was where to draw the line. If you don’t advertise yourself then no-one will know you are there. That’s undeniable. But is there also a danger of over-promotion? Being irritating? Prompting people to think ‘Oh no, not again’! If this has happened to you I apologise here and now, and wholeheartedly, if I have been guilty of over-egging it.  

So what have I learnt? Amazingly that I like Twitter! I’ve always enjoyed Facebook. To me it’s a friendly place where I’ve met many people, writers and others, and it’s truly a sociable medium. Members of groups I belong to who have nothing to do with the writing world have been incredibly supportive. Some have even bought my book! But I’ve struggled for some time with Twitter, knowing that my knowledge wasn’t sufficient to take full advantage of its possibilities. I still have much to learn but I’m getting better, finding it easier to negotiate my way around.

Yesterday I ran a campaign on Twitter. Well, it felt like a campaign. There was the opportunity to win a free copy of Escape to the Cotswolds – all you had to do was retweet to be in with a chance. Not having participated in anything like this before I was staggered at the response. I carefully noted and cut up the names of all who hit the RT option and put them in…a shoe box. Here’s me picking out the winner.



For me this blog post is an opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those bloggers, reviewers, Facebook pals, Twitter supporters and anyone else who has taken the time and the interest to become involved.

See you next time.
Natalie






No comments:

Post a Comment