Author Guest Post: Carol Warham

Today I have the lovely author Carol Warham on writing her book Resolutions.

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Many thanks to Emma Louise for inviting me along to her lovely new look blog. I opted to do a guest post as I’ve had something very much on my mind recently. That is my debut novel Resolutions, which was released on August 9th this year.

I thought writing a book was hard work. I thought editing it was extremely hard work. Little did I know that the real hard work was only just starting- marketing and promoting your work. This has turned out to be very difficult. 

There is a lot of advice ‘out there’. As ever, most writers generously give their advice and support. As you’ll appreciate a lot of marketing and promotion is done over social media and it’s a worry that you are boring the same people with your posts. I’m very grateful for the help, advice, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’, which friends and other writers gave. It’s also quite a trial to force yourself to promote yourself, when it doesn’t come naturally!

As Resolutions is an e-book, I couldn’t hawk it round some local, independent bookshops. Neither could I organise myself a talk with ‘signings’ (should anyone actually want to come along!). So, what do you do?

I’m lucky enough to have had the support of my local library and community. I was offered our small village library as a venue for my ‘launch’. My daughter helped me put together a power point presentation on the locations I’d use, all which would be familiar to my audience. I was delighted with the turnout. The local Women’s Institute helped with the refreshments but the star of the night was the cake baked by a friend with the book cover iced onto it.                                                          

My husband designed and made some bookmarks for me to give away that evening. They proved so popular I’ve since had them professionally printed. A number of people have even asked me to sign them, which has been most unexpected! I’ve also taken to sneakily leaving a few around in hotels, the gym changing room, anywhere I can. Well, you never know who might pick one up!                           

Two local newspapers gave me a little coverage. I think this was particularly because I’d based the story around localities people would recognise. I was also invited onto a podcast that the library runs for the visually impaired. That was great fun going down into the bowels of Huddersfield Town Hall to record it. Although it was nerve wracking, I hate the sound of my own voice.

Of course, there are websites and books which will tell you what you should be doing. However finding the time to read, write and market is proving difficult. If you discover a way of juggling all three, please do let me know!

I’m so thankful for the bloggers and reviewers that have invited me onto their sites, either for guest posts or interviews. These wonderful people are the life blood of the author. I’m about to hold my first blog tour, organised by the amazing Lucy Felthouse. In the last few days I’ve also taken part in an online ‘party’ covering the UK, the US and Australia. That was hard work but great fun. Both the winners of a PDF of Resolutions and a Yorkshire calendar live in America. Hopefully this will lead to some new readers. Yes, I did put some signed book marks in with the calendar!

I’ve learned how to tweet – at least just about! To be honest I’m always looking for new ways in which to promote the book.  I’ve been advised that the work put into promoting this novel goes a long way in helping to promote the next, and the next and so on. 

Whatever your way of trying to market your book, I wish you good luck with it. 

Meanwhile, I’d again like to thank Emma-Louise for giving me this opportunity to be on her blog. Without bloggers like her I’d struggle to know what to do and be well and truly stuck.

Many thanks to all of you who have come along to read my thoughts. It’s been good to meet you here.

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Thank you Carol for your amazing Guest Post. If you want to check out Carol’s books you can do so via the publisher link here.

Carol’s Facebook, Twitter and blog can be found on these links.

Thanks for reading.

Emma-Louise x