A really good post.

Recently, I was talking with a good friend of mine about my publicity campaign for FIRST DATE. I mentioned that I was going to write a regular blog for today. After a pause, in which I could almost hear the wheels spinning in her head, she told me I should write a good blog, a really good blog. A blog that would draw readers and potential buyers to FIRST DATE.

Um, yeah.

Seriously folks? This friend is the bomb! She’s taken on the hat of virtual assistant (she printed me out a schedule so I wouldn’t forget where I was blogging during the week) in addition to the web-mistress garb she wears on a regular basis. Don’t laugh. The leather and that whip? Hot!

I can almost hear her telling me to stop going off on a tangent and get back to the blog, the really good blog. *tee hee*

So I’m going to write about pressure. (She’s going to kill me)

As a writer, you work your butt off to get published. It’s hard. In fact, it’s my personal opinion that most writers have a few screws loose because we love this. The constant rejection, the edits after edits after edits are all made worth it by a single “Wow! I loved it.”

However, the goal isn’t just the writing, or the publishing, it’s the selling. After you’ve found a publisher and it goes into production, you start wondering who is going to buy it. And, for me, here is where the pressure begins to mount. Some of us are natural-born salespeople. I am not.

I will be perfectly honest with you and say I was overwhelmed (blogs, reviews, interviews. Did I post that? Should I post that? Did I say too much? Too little? More revisions? Ack) but I was hanging in there until it came time to make the trailer.

By the way, hanging in there is subjective. My house is here somewhere under the clutter. And those bills? I’m not sure the vendors think that a looming deadline is a good excuse for not paying them.

*crack*

Did you hear that? I must be off on a tangent again.

Oh yes, the trailer. In attempting to make the trailer, I lost it. Bulging-eyeballs-ripping-hair-out lost it.

Voice in my head: “But you see, all your favorite books have trailers. It’s the thing to do, an excellent marketing tool, you want to sell your book don’t you? Well, don’t you? You better get on the ball!” And yes, the voice in my head talks in run-on sentences.

I couldn’t find the right music or the right pictures and quite frankly, I was getting frustrated. I couldn’t concentrate on the galley because I was so stressed about everything else I had to do. For me, the trailer was the straw that broke the publicity train. (Yeah, I know. I mixed it. I am not editing. So there.)

So what did I do? I gave myself permission to not have a trailer. Will I sell fewer books because of it? I don’t know. But this is my first publishing experience ever and I wanted to enjoy it. Letting myself off the hook regarding the trailer made all the difference in the world.

And you know what else I’m going to do? Tonight, I’m shutting off that inner voice that says I should be blogging or reading and commenting on them, and I’m watching a movie. Yeah, a movie. 17 Again. I haven’t watched a movie in over a month.

You might have all your ducks in a row and not have a problem with any part of the process. You might think the trailer part of it is a piece of cake and something else stumbles you. It might not even be promotion; it could be the editing process, submissions, queries.

I’d just remind you, whatever stage you’re in, don’t forget you. It’s true that pressure makes diamonds, but it also makes for a stressed-out person. (And, hello? I don’t know about you, but I’m not coal) It’s hard work, no doubt about it but if you’re not enjoying yourself, find out why and be sure to take some time out for you now and then.