The importance of being professional

First impressions are important. There's that saying that people judge you within the first few seconds of meeting you. I suppose you could say that goes for online presence as well. And especially with readers and your books.

Being a self-published author is about being a professional as much as being a writer. You have to do a lot of the leg work yourself. And when you do, you have to do it professionally. You have to be courteous. You have to keep track of everything that you've got to do and keep on top of dates, jobs, and emails. And you have to be humble and accepting of "no" when it comes.

You are your selling point. Your face and your reputation will be known to the readers and to people in the business. If it gets around that you're unprofessional, people aren't going to want to work with you. And that can be the kiss of death for a writer's career, especially if you're a self-publishing or an indie author trying to get their foot in the door of a big publishing house.

So here are some tips on how to be professional in your online presence:

1. Use people's names. If you know last names, use proper titles. 
2. Don't send mass emails. Tailor emails to individuals.
3. Double check your emails. You don't want to have to explain why you sent an email to someone with the wrong name on it.
4. Answer promptly and courteously, even if the answer is "no."
5. Be on time with things. If you get a "yes," make sure you get things to people by the deadline they give you or, preferably, earlier.
6. Follow up with people. 
7. Say thank you. This is the best thing you can do to show you're a professional.

Why you should ALWAYS double check your emails

When you're a self-publishing author doing everything on your own, sometimes you get a little overwhelmed. Sometimes things slip through the cracks. But there's one thing that should never, ever slip through: emails.

You should double check every email before you send it. Every. Single. One. ALWAYS.

File this one under lessons learned, my friends. When you send two to three dozen emails every day to book blogs requesting reviews and looking for stops for a blog tour, sometimes you overlook things. Which isn't always the best thing. Especially when you send an email to one blogger addressed to another. This leads to the first of the lessons that I learned: don't copy/paste entire emails. The body is great. But not the entire thing. You definitely want to write the salutation individually for every single email. And secondly, you want to make sure that the email is addressed to the right person. Right name, right spelling, everything.

Spell check those things. Make sure you have all the information the blogger asks for. Because if you don't give them what they asked for, it looks like you didn't read their policy. And that's a quick way of getting into their trash file. Or a straight forward no. And while dealing with "no" is a good learning experience, it should be because the blogger or the agent isn't the best fit for your story, not because you don't know how to read their policies and submit correctly.

Read those emails. Double check them. Triple check them. Don't send them until you're sure they're going to the right person.

Because you look like an unprofessional idiot if you send it to someone with the wrong name on it.

Trust me.

Playing publicist

Multitasking is something that we have to do. Every single day, we have to do two or three things at a time just because there are so many things that need to be done and only a limited amount of time to do them in. I'm used to multitasking. Working two jobs at a time, teaching a class and running a church program all at once, I'm used to it. It's been useful when I started working as my own publicist.

Self-publishing is good to just get your book in print, but that doesn't mean that you'll sell a lot of books. There's some leg work involved. Lots of multitasking, long days, and late nights. Especially when you have another job or two to pay the bills. Multitasking and time management are two of the most important things--other than writing skill--that a self-published author can have. Because no one else is going to do the work for you, not unless you're willing to fork out a lot of money for a professional or semi-professional tour group or publicist to plan your blog tours and get your name out there.

Multitasking as a self-published author not only means writing and editing your own novel, but it means playing your own agent and fighting for your work. It means playing your own publicist. It means spending hours upon hours sending out emails to book bloggers, putting out feelers for book reviews or interest in participating in a blog tour. It means coming up with ideas for blog posts. It means spending a lot of your time doing things for yourself.

At least for me, writing isn't my method of income. Sure, I've made a little money with my writing. Not enough to keep my bills paid, so I have to work a day job. So I have to manage my time to make sure I get my day job done as well as take care of all the writing and promotional things I need to do. I spend at least four to five hours a day on my writing between blogging, writing, and working on promotional things. That's good on my days off or when I'm on holiday from work. Not so easily done when I have to work all day.

I'll never regret the decision to become a self-published author. But I know now that it takes more than writing a novel to really become one. There's so much more involved. You have to be your own publicist, your own agent, editor, and cheerleader.

You have to fight for yourself, because no one else is going to.

To re-launch or not to re-launch, that is the question...

Because I self-published, I'm responsible for pretty much everything that has to do with my book. I have to promote it. It's up to me to get the book out there and make people aware of its existence. I'm editor, publisher, PR department, everything. And that has become a full time job. I didn't know that when I started this journey, but I'm glad I've learned it now. Time management is an important thing in anyone's life. But it's especially important in the life of a writer who has a job away from the writing desk.

With the release date for my second novel fast approaching, I'm looking for ways to bump up the awareness of The Forest's Heir in the indie young adult community. It would be nice to be another Amanda Hocking. That's the dream, not necessarily the reality. Definitely not at this point. But I'm going to put in the work to get it done at this point. Until I go back to my "day" job, I'm looking at writing as my job. And that means promoting my book.

So, with that in mind, I'm thinking about a springtime re-launch of The Forest's Heir. Promos, a giveaway or two, new book trailer, blog tours, and author interviews. I'm going through every reviewer database I can find to get some feedback on the novel, some blogs to host the tour, some interviews, and some giveaways. Paperback or digital versions of the book. Maybe some bookmarks or things like that. I'm looking into doing some designs like that.

I'm also working on a press kit to send to some local news outlets to raise some interest in my local area. I live in an area with a lot of schools and a lot of libraries. It would be awesome if I could get the word out about the book.

The re-launch is a go for the spring, and that's going to take up a lot of time. But it might just be the step to a dream I've always wanted.