IWSG - Treading Water

Photo by Li Yang on Unsplash

Happy May! The end of the school year is upon me. The Teen reminded me they have only seventeen more days. My lack of focus is about to get some louder distractions.

But we're not here for that. Nope it's the first Wednesday of the month and that means IWSG blog hop day. For the last two months my posts have been rather doom and gloom. I’m sadly in the same head space and thought about skipping this month’s post because I didn’t want another month of the Debbie Downer talk. But this group is about the support for the ups and the downs, so here I am.

Treading water. 

As the title of the post states. I do a weekly segment called Music Monday. Last year one of the songs features was “Head Above Water” by Avril Lavigne. That is how I’m feeling. One step forward about ten back and just trying to say ahead of the game. Some days are better than others. I mean that’s the way life goes right? 

I had a heart-to-heart with the ladies of my Squad after a series of bad days. I was (maybe still am) ready to throw in the towel. Everything felt like an uphill battle and I was tired of climbing. My Squad threw down a rope so I’m still hanging on. Moving forward. Or trying to. 

So, I’m switching my focus. Marketing continues to be a struggle for me. I’m emotional writer, if my head space is cloudy the words don’t come. In the interim I’m working on learning all I can to become better at marketing my books. I write standalones, which as I was told, is harder to market. :( Apparently readers like series, to be able to sink into a set of characters for the long haul. But I have to let people know I have books out some way right? 

To get started, I needed a plan of sorts. I have five books out, two of which are novellas. Trying to focus on all of them all of the time won’t work, so I’ve decided one book per month. There are so many options out there for advertising so trying to figure out the best way to go isn’t easy. This will be a lot of trial, with even more error. I’m aware of this. Therefore it’ll be a mix of paid advertising and looking for free options. One of the free options is learning how to do better graphics to post on my social media. 

I’m not a techy person, so sorta figuring how video clips was a huge undertaking, but not bad for my first time right?

Anyway, I’m hoping after trying different things over the next few months as I promote my books, I’ll find one or two things that work and I can narrow down the focus on getting better at those and improving the sales outlook across the board. 

Do you enjoy the marketing aspect? Have a go-to thing that really shows results? I’m open to trying things so feel free to let me know your best suggestions.

Until next time

~Meka

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The awesome co-hosts for the May 1 posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin!