Category: Life as I know it

Virtual Trade Shows

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

Shortly after my book was published, I received a call asking about whether or not I wanted to participate in an upcoming book show where I would be one of several new authors. All I would have to do is register for the event for a mere $1000 USD and arrange my own transportation, hotel room, etc.

I’ve participated in a number of tradeshows over the years through my day job and am very familiar with trying to balance between being the best eye candy I could be in order to draw visitors to my booth and representing myself and my company as an expert in the field in order to keep them there. I’ve helped create large visual displays for the booth, administered contests, sent out targeted invitations, and have done the whole swag give-aways thing – I could go into depth on my opinion about the effectiveness of tradeshow swag, but will save that for another day.

In short, I’ve done as much as I could to differentiate myself and my company, and that was only against a small handful of similar product and service companies also in attendance. At this show I could only imagine the competition is much, much fiercer.

Admittedly my tradeshow experience has been in a completely different industry, but based on my royalty rate, I would have to have massive amounts of foot traffic at a time when most people in the US are visiting family in order to see a return on that investment. Additionally the time spent at the show would keep me from continuing work on my follow-up project, an activity that I now understand is absolutely critical towards establishing myself.

I politely declined this ‘opportunity.’

Still the concept of added visibility from a show is appealing. Luckily there are things known as Virtual Trade Shows, also known as Virtual Book Tours and Blog Tours. Rather than physically being behind a booth and smiling until your cheeks hurt for hours at a day, participants ‘exhibit’ themselves at a number of blog site destinations. I’ve found a number of organizations advertising ‘tours’ which they will arrange for you for fees ranging from as little as $15 to $200 depending on the level of service you need. Heck, you could even arrange one yourself for no cost at all – provided you are friends with a number of book bloggers with high readership counts. You would still have to provide any merchandise for sales, giveaways, swag, etc, but at least you are able to make your sales pitch via podcast from the comfort of your home or office rather than deal with TSA. Plus this method allows you to reach a potentially much greater audience – assuming you do your homework, are selective of your partners, and prepare ahead.

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Promoting myself as an author for the first time

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

I was recently invited to participate in my city’s Chamber of Commerce networking group for Working Mom’s. This is a normally a great group because when all else fails you can ask about a person’s children whenever you are in need of an icebreaker conversational starter and I’ve very much enjoyed that my hometown offers this program. I’ve been a participant for years; however this was the first time I was going not in support of my day job, but as an author.

I had had the brilliant idea that I would donate a couple of copies to be raffled off because my novel does deal with the stresses of being a working mom then nearly had a panic attack waiting for my additional copies to show on my doorstep from my publisher. These copies did show up the evening before the event, but it was a nail biter.

It was finally time for the big event. I arrive, copies in hand, and am invited to drop my business card into a bowl for other giveaways. Suddenly I was faced with a dilemma – what business card do I put in the bowl? Obviously I want to sell my book, but I have years of equity in my other professional brand. Would my announcement of my new endeavor help or hinder?

In the end, I decided to promote both of my jobs. These were working moms after all – very used to performing at least two jobs – of course they would understand, and in fact it gave them an opportunity to tell me about their own side projects and/or bucket list goals. For example, I met one woman who having just left a position within operations of a major computer company was now starting her own business selling baby blankets with built in cushioning, and learned of an IT manager who actually has published three books herself.

Hopefully I gained a few sales, but if nothing else, at least I gained more experience.

It does make me wonder how other writers, especially those who have day jobs in vastly different fields than writing, felt after their first public outing.

If this describes you, I would love to hear your stories.

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To sequel or not to sequel?

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

My debut novel is approximately 30 days old this week, and like any new baby, is still keeping me up at night. My gut tells me that by this point my friends and family who were thinking about purchasing it probably already have, and so any sales from this point on would be from strangers. This is a prospect that both excites and alarms me.

I unfortunately have a taste for writing now, but do I truly have the skills necessary to convert it from hobby to business? Only time will tell for sure, but until history decides to weigh in I am faced with some difficult questions:

Should I begin work on a new project knowing that energy spent on that project will take away from energy being spent on promoting my first book? Another blogger, Chris Ward wrote about his views on writing a sequel, and I definitely am taking his experience into consideration.

If so, though I never identifed my inital work as being part of a series in order to give would be readers a reason to leave it on the shelf, should I focus on creating a sequel to the first book not knowing mass market acceptance, or should there even be a sequel (have I not already put my protagonist through enough) or should focus on bringing forth one of the other ideas currently co-habitating my brain?

Can I use a life line to phone a friend?

So many hats

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

When writing an Uncertain Faith I struggled to contain the many roles the main character has into a single story. Each of her roles could have taken over the entire story. This week life imitated art. We found out that a former employee was breaching his non-compete contract and actively attempting to steal clients, I was pulled into multiple international conference calls, and had to somehow find the time to plan a five year old’s birthday party while also pulling together last minute Halloween costumes and candy runs. Daylight Savings time ended, so does that mean I gained an hour? Why do I instead feel like I lost 12?

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How did I get here?

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

A few years ago, my husband learned of his faciliy’s imminent closing when a co-worker happened to notice that their site was no longer showing on the corporate website’s locations. Determined to be more in control of our own destiny we decided to enter into the world of small business ownership. I’ve often joked since that I could write several books on the various mistakes we’ve made since then. Eventually though I decided to stop joking and wrote An Uncertain Faith, loosely inspired by those ‘learning experiences’ now available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com

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