Creating Opportunities

On July fifth I posted on my Facebook page about a promising meeting I had with a Barnes & Noble associate where I live. The chain is huge of course, and the location I visited is vastly popular among those cultured urbanites who wish to buy books, or have great Wi-Fi while they sip their coffee and browse. 

The meeting itself was actually a face to face cold meet where I went into the building to the Customer Service desk. I asked innocuously about the local events they host, such as a local book club, and how space for potential events gets booked. After a few exploratory questions from the Customer Service representative (someone really nice and down to earth), I eventually explained that I am a local author and that I'm looking to potentially do a reading there.

I was met with enthusiasm and a genuine interest in helping me; which, despite my minimal cynicism, was as equally surprising as it was refreshing. I was given the name and business card of the manager in charge of putting together events for that particular branch and was told to phone or email her with the particulars of my questions. 

A small chain of emails followed, but unfortunately, because Amazon sells the only paperback edition of my book and therefore a physical edition can't be ordered through barnesandnoble.com, I was told I couldn't hold an official reading/signing there. 

While disappointing, the manager and even the customer service associate were kind, genuine, and made my questions feel welcomed and encouraged. This is the type of service that you dream of as a customer and potential business client looking to forge new ties. These are the type of people that you want working for your company and I'm absolutely satisfied with everything that happened during our exchanges. 

This does, however, pose a slight problem. 

If you're an independent author who has published through nontraditional avenues, how are you to get your foot in the door with even local branches of a chain, or somewhere that has high visibility and would therefore boost your profile? 

I once tweeted to my followers that you should be your own agent. Regardless of if you already have an agent in the traditional publishing world or not, you have to be ready to advocate for your own work and to seek out opportunities to put it out there to people. Like an agent, you only get paid when you make sales, and you can only make sales if people know about your book. 

Marketing, as an author, has been something of a mountain to slog up thus far. I have a facebook page but it has minimal followers comprised of family and close friends. I have a GoodReads account but not many people have friended or followed me. I have a twitter and that is my most active base, with access to trending tags, and a community of writers I am slowly integrating into.

I am trying some guerrilla marketing techniques on the ground locally but I'm not sure the reach is going to maximize for some time. I think that has been one thing that has consistently come up in my journey through marketing and authorship thus far. It takes time. You cannot escape it.

You can go the traditional route, spend months getting even preliminary responses from potentially interested agents, then months more until you strike a book deal with a publishing house, and then a full year until your book is published into major stores and sent to reviewers (I'm not kidding, this is the process). You can go the independent route but you will spend likely an almost equal amount of time putting the word out and trying to get people to pick this thing up. 

I initially chose independent publishing as the avenue for Vein Bound because of this very factor. I believed in the book, had not/have not seen anything like it on the market, and just wanted to be able to have direct control over the process as I built a base of readers and new friends. While I don't regret this decision because of the sheer amount of knowledge and will-power that I have gained, I still have not escaped the original thing I sought to escape. 

Even as I write blog posts about being your own agent, and, marketing existing through the life of a book versus a defined period, I still must face the reminder that there is one other thing you need to be successful. Patience. 

That is something every author has to have (aside from a healthy tolerance and appreciation for rejection in all its many forms). If they don't have it, they'll have to develop it. It is a lesson I am learning for not the first time. It is one I imagine I will have to relearn again. 

Still. This does not change my message here. 

I never would have known any of this was even possible if I hadn't gone into that store, full of belief in my project and the audacity to act on that belief, and ask about how to do a reading at a major chain. Isn't that what agents do? Sure, they have inside contacts and pre-built networks, but essentially they get things done by making requests and gathering information. When they have the hoops laid out before them, they jump them, and then they get paid. 

The same is true for authors. 

My father once told me, 'All you can do is ask, and the worst they can say is no.' 

That is my philosophy behind writing about 'creating opportunities' and 'being your own agent.' As an indie author trying to get your foot in the rapidly revolving door of commerce and visibility all you can do is ask and the worst anyone can say to you is no. So many people I know out there would struggle to even ask the question and at one time I would have been one of them. 

Be fearless. As Brene Brown would say, 'Dare greatly.' 

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Grey