Where do I go from here is the question I asked myself after finally hiring an illustrator for my children's book. It was a relief actually, the idea that I'm handing my book over for the final touches to bring it to life. It felt like handing a baby over to a well-qualified nanny after many sleepless nights. With that feeling though, comes a little bit of uneasiness. What do I do now? Should I be doing something? That's when I learned that what I should be doing is marketing! Now this is when it got uncomfortable for me. I can write, create, act and sing but marketing is a whole other thing that doesn't come naturally to me. This may be surprising to know, but I can be very shy. For years, I would do plays, and I would often stand out in the show, but I would be the last to come out of the dressing room. I was hiding out y'all! If I could, I would give Oscar award winning performances every time I performed and then hide in my house watching hallmark movies and eating tortilla chips guac. I mean this really is my dream life. The point is, putting myself out there to market myself or anything for that matter did not come easy to me. This is when I had to find the best way to go about it, and I definitely needed help with that.
On one of my many late-night google searches, I was on the Ingram Spark website reading about marketing when you are a self-published author. In my search, I stumbled upon a woman named Crystal Swain-Baits. This woman is awesome! Now, awesome is not a word that is usually in my vocabulary, but it is the best word to describe her. Crystal is a successful children's book author that supports self-published authors on their endeavor to become just as successful as she is. Crystal created the Author's Success Society which provides marketing tips and tools, monthly meetings, resources, and Q&A calls with her. Despite my nervousness, every time I ask a question on our zoom calls, I have learned a lot.
As we all know, times have changed. These days people market with social media and Crystal gives tips on how to go about that. I have never been one to post much but I am certainly trying. I am sure that there is MUCH more that I could and should be doing with marketing on social media. One thing I can say for sure is if you know me, you know I have a book on the way and that's half the battle. I mean, I told EVERYONE! It's great to know how excited everyone is for me, and I don't plan to let them down. Here's to stepping out of my comfort zone. Talk to you soon!