I am about three quarters of the way through writing my second Tarot book, and looking forward to focusing on my fiction (mystery) writing. A lot of things are coming to mind that I never would have thought of before, such as the fact that we do not write in a void.
What I mean by that is that each project, each book, is part of a whole, it is part of what will become the body of our work. We don’t just write a book, promote it for a period of time, hope like heck that it sells, then move on to something else. What we write and promote becomes our “back list”. Our backlist is more than work that we have already done – it is where people originally became interested in us, which draws people to our newer work. Conversely, people who are drawn to our current work have prior work to become interested in too.
We can promote ourselves so that we encompass all of who we are, and all that we have done. I am doing this with my first Tarot book, “Tarot, Birth Cards, and You”, in that I have the Birth Cards out there conversing, reacting to changes on Face Book, and really embodying in real like the energy that they carry. This will, I believe, help me move forward into my next books.
We want to write content that has something to offer, whether it is in a specialized non-fiction genre like Tarot, or the fictional cozy mystery genre that I want to move into. We always want to have something out there to offer our readers, so that our name remains on their mind when they are looking for something to read or work with.
We want to connect with our readers, and we want them to connect with us. We do that through our writing, and we do that through how we promote our writing. If we write in a void, viewing each project as an isolated “happening”, then IMHO we place limitations around ourselves, and on the scope of any possible success.
What are you doing to keep your material alive? How are you connecting with your readers? How are they connecting with you? It is indeed a brave new world out there!
© March 2012 Bonnie Cehovet
I feel it too, Bonnie, that all bits and pieces of an individual author make kind of mosaic or kaleidoscop... When it comes to contemporary authors - personally, i am down to some dozen authors whom i follow religiously, i read everything they write and i feel its like growing up in real life, from hundreds of acquaintances in teen age one narrows the circle as they mature and their interests become more specific. Thank you for wording something that i also somehow always felt - yet never verbalized! (One of the reasons you personally are on my 'follow religiously' list ;) )
ReplyDeleteLena Ruth
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your wisdom and vast experience of communicating through writing in this post, Bonnie. This certainly gave me food for thought!
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