Be thankful for the bad stuff.
Typically this time of year, folks think about being thankful for being successful, healthy, having good friends and family – or a job.
No one ever wants to focus on the bad stuff, and yet, those horrid moments that gave you major heartburn can be some of the finest learning moments of your life – and can save you a lot of heartache in the future. This is especially true about tough marketing lessons.
Top three tough lessons of 2009 authors should be thankful for:
- Bad reviews. Never forget that sometimes, reviewers are just not that into you.
- Trolls. Some people get stupid, idiotic, mean and vicious when they don’t like something you say online. Even the nicest person can turn into a troll and make your online life hell. Have a policy for dealing with trolls on your own site, and force yourself to ignore their chatter on other sites (which works, for the most part). Be sure NOT to become a troll on a blog or site that didn’t like your work.
- Social media overload. As stated over and over again throughout this blog, you MUST be a good manager of time. Find the right networks for your audience and work them – but don’t let them work you. Word smart, not hard.
This list could go on and on, but these are the three major areas authors can really be thankful for lessons. Once you’ve been burned, you never forget the right and wrong steps it took to correct. What bad stuff happened to you this year that you learned from – and are thankful for that lesson?
Related links:
One Author Speaks Out about the Bad Side of Online Promotions
The cool pumpkin photo above was found at ChainLeader.com.
I call one of my repeating life lessons the “side step.” Technically, my small-press publisher went belly-up last year (right around the time the second book in my series was to come out), but I didn’t learn about it until this year, right around the time my partner was hospitalized for major surgery.
That combination of events led to my rethinking some of my own sacred cows. Once I got my rights back, I re-released the first book in my Deviations series, released the second in May, and am about to release the third, all as free downloads. I’ve just become a participant in Operation E-Book Drop, which delivers free e-books to servicemen and women.
My partner’s second hospitalization this year occurred eight days ago, necessitating my second author event cancellation. I’ve been lucky enough to be on several radio programs this year, and have been encouraged to try podcasting my novels as audiobooks. The prospect of decreased “face time” has led me to study that option.
I am particularly thankful that I can transcend some of the dictates I’ve held for decades about how to function as a writer. I still submit shorter pieces to magazines (the Oct/Nov 2009 Asimov’s contains my poetry and fiction), but my main priority for my series is to produce the best work I can and to get it out there, while researching ways to promote it. I am thrilled to have picked up a readership.
You can find my Deviations series at Manybooks.net, Smashwords.com, and my website.
I waited to the last minute to get my book together for production, and then had to work long, hard days (10-12 hours) to get it ready for the printer. Definitely time management challenged. Everything worked out — my book got out in time for my national RWA presentation in July 2009. Next time, I’d like to be more organized, start the production sooner, and be better prepared to start marketing as soon as the book is in production.