Isa Millot's Blog: A coffee with… Isa - Posts Tagged "self-publish"

The stages of writing a book are a real emotional lift. Putting your feelings into words, expressing your creativity, letting your inspiration rise... Seeing other authors climb the ladder of success and thinking "one day it will be me". These are just a few examples of the ups and downs of an author's life that disrupt the intense mental phase of writing... Afterwards, when the last words are put down on paper, the author navigates between stress and euphoria...
Proofreading, correction, rewriting, layout, synopsis, application to literary agents, creation of cover... The task is still long!

Work piles up, unforeseen circumstances arise, delaying the well-oiled machine of our perfect author-in-the-making schedule.
Fortunately, the goal is stronger than the doubt and once the obstacles are overcome, the author's bête noire comes out of its lair... It was on our to-do-list of course but when we are busy writing we always tell ourselves we'll come back to it later... Do you know what I mean? No, no, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about because this plague has a name: promotion!

Because yes, there is still a long way to go on the road to bestseller!
It's not enough to have written an incredible story, highlighting all your creative genius, now you have to sell it!
And there begins the obstacle course of making this creation that is so dear to your heart known.

When you are already established in the literary world and have a network of readers, you have a great advantage. But what about the author-poet who doesn't have the marketing muscle?

There is no such thing as a perfect plan and reality can sometimes quickly catch up with the dreamer who wants to get his message out to the world.
These days, the Internet is the best way to communicate, so trying to make a name for yourself on the web is at the top of the promotional plan. Social networks, blogs, emailing... We post, we tweet, we share links in search of the exposure that will make us known to millions of followers who will snatch up the fruit of our hard work...

At the beginning, the interest of others in our great ideas is minimal, so in order to broaden our exposure, we have to pay for it!
And there is no shortage of book promotion services!
A very lucrative field for these marketing experts who dazzle us with incredible statistics that can only convince the author who wants to be known... But as with everything in life, there is always a downside!
I'm not criticizing these services which can give a great boost to enlarge our circle of potential readers, in this obstacle course that is self-publishing, we have to go through it.
I just try to look at things with a rational eye to avoid wasting time and energy in steps that will lead to little results and will cause discouragement, sometimes even disgust with writing.

When we start promoting, we use our social networks as a basis for communication. We are already a little apprehensive about letting others discover a side of ourselves that they don't know, because next to the giants that dominate the book market, we feel tiny or illegitimate. So we try to talk about our creation in the best way possible and automatically we use terms related to reading, secretly praying that the algorithms will work in our favour... And then the fight begins!

First notifications, first solicitations... a host of comments and kind messages telling us that our posts are amazing come to boost our morale, which is slightly bruised by the little impact we have generated so far...
Then the exchanges begin... seemingly well-established accounts with an astronomical number of followers offer promotional services at a relatively affordable price. When we look at the age of these accounts and the engagement generated on each publication, our eyes start to shine like a child who discovers his presents under the Christmas tree...
We say to ourselves "after all it's not very expensive, it doesn't cost me anything to try...".
Indeed, it doesn't cost much and we always learn something in each of our actions... After a few messages and a Paypal payment, the deal is done.
We make sure to send our best visuals because as an involved author we want the best for our book. The promotion starts and there it is magic, the visibility explodes!
Comments, likes, DMs... the number of followers grows exponentially, the results exceed our expectations... The motivation to publish even more content and talk about our book is at its peak... Suddenly, the promotion period ends...
And then? In terms of engagement, it's a void!
Followers, it's a fact we have them but it seems that their engagement has suddenly disappeared as if by magic...

So what's the problem?
Like any author, I was no exception. Despite a communication plan that seemed solid, I let myself be drawn into the tortuous paths of these promotion services.
I want the best for my book, this work is a bit like my baby, so I don't hesitate to put in the effort to make it known.
However, when a process does not have the result I am thinking of, I like to go on an investigation to discover what is behind the scenes...
Instead of being discouraged, I want to understand in order to overcome the obstacle and transform it into knowledge.
I recently did the test on a very popular social network. A book promotion page reposted one of my publications without me asking for anything. Of course I had a spike in engagement on the post and 50 new follows miraculously appeared on my account... Then the owner of the account contacted me to try and sell me one of his "packages"... Followers and engagement guaranteed according to this person with the added bonus of an incredible growth in my book sales...
The strategy to lure me and try to sell me his service was very clever...

Except that... my instinct no longer resonated with these beautiful promises!
With time and experience, I have learned to look doubt straight in the eye when it crosses my path. What did I do?
I went back to my publication that this account "generously" shared on its feed without my asking and clicked on the likes it got... the names on that list seemed quite normal except that my intuition kept telling me to explore further. Without excessive suspicion and armed with patience, I went to visit all the profiles that liked and believe me the surprise was great! Out of about 2000 likes, a hundred profiles were real!
All the other "engaged" followers were either bots or fakes!
Of course, I compared with my own list of followers and all those who subscribed to my account were only fakes or bots! Illusory growth making me hope for the best for my book...

I decided to adjust my communication plan. I questioned myself on the motivations that pushed me to write A coffee with Archangels... My basic intention is to help others to overcome their wounds and live in harmony with themselves... My goal is not to sell dreams but to give concrete keys for people to live their spirituality and their daily life at best in a society where it is difficult to find one's place... All this made me realise that in spite of all the inner work I have done, I have given in to the call of the dream I was sold...
I'm leaving with a basic handicap given that my book is focused on self-help/spirituality, areas that divide popular opinion... And rightly so when you see the number of charlatans who dominate these professions or the number of ghostwriters who offer their services to write books on the subject... With such a lack of authenticity, I'm not surprised that we get bad press!

Yet authenticity is what motivated my approach, because I deeply love humans despite their bad sides. In my book, I reveal myself as I am in everyday life, I explain step by step how I lived the Archangels' light coaching because I applied to the letter the method I share and sell... Spirituality is not the only thing that defines me so for my communication plan I decided to stop bothering myself with marketing considerations that slow me down. I have made a huge selection of my followers and I no longer subscribe exclusively to accounts related to the world of books... I love cooking, animals, travel, urbex, handicrafts so I follow and comment on publications that are perhaps far from the universe I promote but I have the opportunity to meet incredible people who help me discover a thousand treasures...
After all, isn't that what we are looking for when we write, the human adventure and sharing?
I was so focused on selling books that I forgot this fundamental desire!

My accounts grow more slowly this way, but I am now sure that if someone subscribes to my pro profiles, it is because they are curious to discover my world, just as I enjoyed discovering theirs. I think above all about this wonderful adventure of being an author instead of putting the emphasis on performance!
If my book is going to sell and bring help, escape or some kind of resonance in my reader's heart, it will happen, so there's no need to put any extra pressure on my shoulders...

I'm not knocking promotional services because they are useful, but I think that to keep the pleasure of sharing and maintain the flame, the enthusiasm that pushed us to create, we should not hesitate to look for professionals with whom there is a constructive exchange and a real network of readers.
It may be a more expensive investment but it is comfortable in the long term.
Let's promote our contents but let's be wise and above all let's never lose our beautiful creative fibre!