Promoters: Who Do I Trust?
This one comes straight from experience; no conjecture, no fantasy, no speculation, just plain facts.
Here's how it goes. The book is published. You've sold hard copies to the friends who actually remember they said they were going to buy it. A few other folks upon hearing you wrote a book, decide to take one off your hands.
And yet the box of author copies is still sitting in the spare, room half full.
You start receiving hopeful notifications that royalties have been deposited into your savings. They start we a reasonable sum, that you hope will increase over time. But the next one is less, as is the one after that.
By now you have taken advice from others and plastered your book all over social media and writer's groups. They have resulted in nice comments, but still nothing tangible.
Meanwhile the number of offers from people who claim they can make you a literary star pour in each day.
You are tempted, but you've heard the horror stories, and you don't know who these people are and how effective and more important, honest they are.
People are not going into Amazon or other sites looking for you. You are stuck in first gear.
That's the time you decide to either leave things and hope for a magic rush for your books. Or you take the big step of hiring some help.
There are good ones out there, you just need to do your homework and do a little Columbo style investigation.
I can't tell you how to do that exactly. In my case the breakthrough came from asking book shops if they would take my books on consignment. In time I found one that would not only put my books on their shelves, but offered platforms to help promote, sell, and expose my book to their readers, customers, and others in the business. The cost was more than reasonable.
I had to go out on a bit of a limb, but it was a solid branch, strong and with a long reach.
Whether they can take this up to the next level remains to be seen. But I am satisfied I have finally made a move and given myself a chance to be noticed and maybe even sought after.
Only time will tell how things pan out. The relatively modest investment has the potential to make a big difference and I am looking forward to working with this organization. And we all know that while potential is a positive thing, without moving in it and taking some action, it stays inert, as do you.
So for those of you wondering whether to take that step, while I still use the old Spy adage, trust no one, I temper that with the caveats; be open, be ready, be cautious, do your homework, and once you are confident you are on the right track, go for it.
