A lot of people have asked me about my plans for marketing. I’ve written this book (soon to be plural!) and put it out there—how do I expect readers to find it? Since I’m starting the whole marketing process in depth today, I thought I’d post a little bit about my plans.

When I finished Three Girls and a Baby in July, I was so excited to get it into the hands of readers. Having spent many months on the author forum of KindleBoards, I had done quite a bit of research on which promotional strategies help to get books read. I started compiling a list of book bloggers and book review sites that would accept indie authors. The list was extensive—and overwhelming. I realized right then that if I started concentrating on marketing it could quickly take over my life.

So I decided to put it off for a while. With the exception of some twitter and facebook promo, I didn’t do too much to get Three Girls and A Baby out there. I wanted to focus on my writing until the sequel, Three Girls and a Wedding, was finished. I figured that once my draft was done and the book was in the hands of beta readers, I would have more free time to focus on marketing. And hopefully by the time it started to generate some traffic, I would have two books ready and waiting for the masses of readers coming my way (one can hope).

The draft is done. Beta readers have the manuscript and are (hopefully) reading and making suggestions. Next up it will go to the editor and a few final proofreaders. The book is out of my hands for a while and there’s not much I can do for it.

According to my plan, that means it’s time to start marketing.

To say I’m apprehensive would be an understatement. I have never found it easy to pimp my own work. When Baby came out it was all I could do to start posting about it on facebook. It just felt…weird to me. Now I’m faced with the prospect of sending my book out to as many reviewers as will take it. Once I’ve done that, I’m looking into starting a blog tour, which I think could be really fun. There are a few advertising sites that seem to make a big difference for indies, but they’re pricey, booked well in advance, and usually require a book to have more reviews than I currently do—but hopefully I can explore that avenue in the not to distant future.

So that’s the grand scheme. I don’t know if any of it will result in new readers, but all I can do is try.

I’ll let you know how it goes.