Marketing | BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye

Here’s a little peek at how I as an indie contemporary romance author often feel: Hello? Is this thing on?

I recently read a very good blog article about why indie writers need to avoid underpricing their books. The author made several very good points, but one in particular stood out to me. Unless we write as a hobby, we’re hoping our writing will eventually support us. It’s hard to do that when you’re selling your work for 99 cents.

I’ve spoken up several times on this subject in support of writers selling their work for whatever the hell they want to sell it for—provided they can find buyers. It’s survival of the fittest out there in the publishing world, and anything you can do to give yourself an edge is fair game.

The problem is, pricing your ebook at 99 cents is no longer going to give you that much of an edge. In fact, giving it away is no longer going to give you an edge. The only real way to get an edge in today’s market is to study your craft and write and promote and study and write and promote…and pray. Yup, that’s right. Pray. Pray to God or Buddha or your muse. Pray for that magic moment when, for some unknown reason, the words you wrote catch on. Something snags the attention of the reading masses and it’s your book that’s being tweeted and talked and posted about.

I’m still waiting for that. Reviewers (for the most part) like my writing. But hey, most of them get my books for free. (Want a review copy? Email me. I’ll send it out. Kindle or paperback. Your choice.) So I’m still trying everything I can, including different price points, to catch that wave.

Just the other day, I dropped the price of Ducks in a Row from $2.99 to $1.99 in the hopes that it would spur some sales. The sequel, Saturday Love, is with an editor now and I hope to publish it in January. I think there are literally dozens of people waiting for that sequel, and I have no intentions of disappointing them. If I could grow those dozens to hundreds by January, that’d be pretty awesome, though.

And, can you keep a secret? Next week on July 1, Close Up Magic will be free for one day only. I’m not telling everyone yet, just you guys. I’d hate to discourage anyone from paying for the book now.

But as I wait for that moment when it all comes together with pricing and readers and promotions and magic, be assured I’m writing. And I’m striving to write each book a little better than the last one so that eventually my readers won’t even look at the price of my novels. Eventually, they’ll see another book by me and buy it without worrying about how much it costs because they know it’s worth it.

There is a huge part of writing that no writer enjoys, although without the result of it, we might as well leave everything on our desktop and not worry about sending our words out into the world.

Selling.

Let’s face it. Most writers are not born salesmen. We don’t know how to hawk our wares effectively, and when we try, we’re fairly awkward about it. We don’t want to bug you, but darn it, if we can’t get you to read what we wrote, what’s the point?

Which brings me to my current situation. I’ve written and published five books now. I’ve sent two more out to a publisher to be considered and I’m planning to publish a sequel to one of my self-published books, Ducks in a Row, in the next few months. If all goes well, by next year, I’ll have eight books out there.

So, how do I get you to read them without feeling like a nuisance when I ask? Every time I tweet or blog or post on Facebook about my books, I feel like one of those idiots who shoves her way to the front of a crowd without regard for the feelings (or toes) of those already there.

I don’t have the answers yet. I’m working with a very talented lady who is really trying to help me navigate the Internet and blogosphere with a little more grace, but I still feel awkward about the whole thing. It certainly helps to know I’m not alone out there pleading for attention. Many of my writer friends are right there with me.

And what really helps me is the knowledge that what I’m selling is not necessarily on the same level as Ginsu knives. Like most writers, I’m not in it to make a quick buck. I’m in it to try to keep all my hard work from going to waste. You see, my payoff doesn’t come from selling a book. It comes from you reading it.