HEARTICLES: Articles with Heart

THE ART OF SELF-PROMOTION: The ability to market one's work is the difference between a hobby and a career Writers, like it or not, cannot escape the fact they are small business owners. And to succeed in any small business, we need a business plan and a steady stream of activities to generate buyer awareness and desire for the product. Here are some easy tips to help you with self-promotion. 1) PROMOTION AND MARKETING - Learn the difference here . Promotion is the 'what' in sales. Marketing is the 'why'. Don't just show potential readers your book. Tell them why they need to read it. 2) BRANDING - Do you write a series, or excel in a particular time period or genre? Recognize your brand and focus your efforts in that direction. This will also help you target your reading audience. 3) ENGAGE - Be more social on social networking sites. Go to the readers, don't expect they'll find you . Being social means talking to people, sharing

No, I’m not talking about 50 Shades of Gray. In fact, if you are thinking of writing something similar, or titling your book, novella, or story Fifty Shades of [insert any color or item here], please don’t . I’m talking about submitting to a small press. While I would love for you to submit to Tirgearr Publishing , where I act as Senior Editor, some things I have seen on the acquisitions side are now fueling a short rant, hopefully filled with some useful advice, no matter where you decide to submit. Some of you are great at self-publishing. You hire great cover designers, editors, proof readers, and formatters. You understand the need and the value of investing in your work, treating your writing like a business, and making your book the best product it can be . This post is not for you, unless, like me, you want to be a hybrid author , and self-publish some things while you submit others. For the rest of you let me simply say this : If you don’t have the money to in