Blogging blues...

I have not had much motivation to blog recently... by the time I've caught up on Twitter, Facebook, emails, etc I try to knuckle down to the reason I started all this - WRITING FICTION!

It is very easy in this day and age to get lost in the frenzy of social media and lose focus. I know, I have done it a lot.

Also, after you have a few books out it becomes a bit of an obsession to keep checking your rating and to see how many sales (or lack of) you have made. I find the issue of selling, especially on Amazon, fascinating.

I have recently began to understand the power of "buddy" sales and can see why a book like Fifty Shades went viral after a massive following online spread the word. This is the key to sales for any unknown author who has been published via a small press or self-published! You need readers...

Readers are easy to find if you interact with them on a daily basis. They will rally around you, protect you, and most importantly review.

Help! I'm stuck up here...

However, if, like a lot of writers, you have been focusing on the craft and not engaging with your potential audience then, regardless of how fantastic your book is, the truth is you might not make many sales. This is not important if you are happy with your finished product and you just wanted it out there. If you wanted to be a bestseller... you might be in for some disappointment.

I recently wrote this simple fact.

In order to sell books you have to be visible.

In order to be visible you have to sell books.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

So, my advice is this... if you want to sell books join a book-club on Goodreads and start to make contacts. Do it because you love books - after all, what writer doesn't?

I have met some amazing people online. I have to think of the positives not the negatives! I hope you do too...

All the best,
Vanessa

P.s. I have also finished my novella - click on this link of you want to know more => EMILY