Blogging for Self-Published Authors
By: Peter Lancellotti
Posted on: September 14, 2022
After self-publishing a memoir on June 1, 2022, it has been a new learning curve creating a marketing plan for this industry, just like any industry. Many thanks to those bloggers who have contributed to the success of the book in such a short time rising to number 153 in the Amazon category LGBTQ Memoirs + Biographies. If you hit the top 100 in any category, you’ve just become a bestseller.
At first, I wondered why nobody, especially friends in industries I’ve been involved with for many years passed right over my constant repetitious announcements of the book release on all the major social media sites. The reason they didn’t notice is that I was not listed in the correct groups to receive the attention of the subject matter, which most likely did not appear in their newsfeeds.
After looking at my profile and thinking it through, I was involved in telecommunications and internet advertising for over 25 years and then reinvented myself after the market crash in 2008 by doing graduate work in gerontology, and scientific research (the study of aging with an emphasis on older adults). While doing that, concurrently I became a home care agency owner. All this happened over 10 years. During my time with the home care agency, I blogged quite a bit about fall prevention, tips on caregiving, and gerontechnology apps for older adults to keep their minds sharp, basically blogging about everything to help older adults retain their independence for as long as possible.
When I retired, I was not done and made a career change to a new chapter in my life – writing. I was blogging about the nature of my memoir on the subjects of being gay, spiritually challenged, the inner spiritual journey throughout my life, and what I experienced when I discovered my sexual orientation at a young age. As a gay man now over 60 years old, it’s no wonder all my blogging hadn’t been penetrating the people I thought were my audience. Of course, for some of us who are only children, and slightly emotionally stunted, I took it personally. When I thought that through, my target audience was not the people in industries past. So, that’s when I stopped taking it personally due to “a momentary lapse of reason.” – Pink Floyd.
I knew nothing about the publishing industry, let alone self-publishing when I began the memoir. The cherry on the cake of the decade of tragedies took place over three years. Someone very close to me died. I was either going to drink myself to death or put my energy into something positive. I sprang forward to the latter and quit drinking cold turkey. It can be daunting, and I’ve seen how friends have had a terrible time with detoxification. But I digress.
When Deanna Brady, a highly experienced, superb editor, and veteran in the publishing industry, helped me with tightening my verbiage since I can be long-winded, she gave me the most beautiful gift in October – a very expensive free pass to attend a 9-day writing course the week after my birthday. It took place on Zoom during a tragedy we’ve all shared, Covid-19. After realizing I had my “eyes wide shut,” – Stanley Kubrick; this course opened my eyes and practically blinded me with smart and practical information, which I was able to use.
I was already on the twelfth draft of my memoir when I started the course. During one of those nine days, an entire day was spent on writing memoirs with eight brilliant guest speakers. During the first class, the speaker said, “If this is your first book, don’t try to write a memoir. They are the most difficult genre to sell. And most people don’t know how to organize their lives so that the reader finds it interesting. It’s not like writing a journal.” My heart sunk to the floor.
The second speaker talked about target audiences for memoirs, and how to reach readers with specific queries like grief, or overcoming an addiction. And then the third speaker almost made me cry when he said, “Memoirs need to be written exactly like novels with an overarching plot that follows a storyline. It also needs a James Bond 007 hook from the start.” I’ve never been in a car chase with an Aston Martin, a gunfight while skydiving from a private jet, bungee jumping off a bridge to escape capture in another country, or anything remotely similar to the stunts and hooks of an Ian Fleming story. That’s when it occurred to me that I’ve probably written the worst memoir of all time and no matter how much blogging I did, it might never get attention and would be a total flop.
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