Self Promotion: The Most Difficult Part

On April 22nd, I will be engaging with my publishers to discuss the design phase of the book. I am excited for this meeting as it will surely allow the gravity of this great opportunity to sink in. However, the publishing company I am working with is an entrepreneurial publishing company, which is great because you are able to keep all rights to your book and still have the resources (though them) available to you in order to distribute it nationwide. They aid in the promotion of your book as it is in their best interest, but you are still responsible for the bulk of the marketing. This terrifies me!

Once the design phase is complete, I will need to start doing this and I am very intimidated by the process. I will need to start trying to book speaking engagements, radio/TV interviews, magazine interviews, book signings, marketing events, etc. As I have expressed here (and my other blogs) in previous posts, I have a great deal of social anxiety and I can be completely honest in telling you that the thought of doing a speaking engagement or TV interview gives me an upset stomach.

I know I need to find a way to move past this and I am currently in the process of trying to overcome my fear of rejection so that I can start promoting myself and the book. I truly believe in this book and my hope is that it will empower others, so I know I need to put my all in to empowering myself. I am just not sure where to begin. I have started building a presence on Twitter and Linkedin and I already have a personal presence on Facebook. However, I need to start a fan page and that is way out of my comfort zone. Not setting it up, that I have. It’s the self-promotion aspect of it. I grew up never wanting to draw attention to myself and now I need to do just that…

It was also suggested that I have a presence on You Tube and as an author, I am not sure what exactly I should build a presence doing? Any ideas?

Seeing as many of you have followed my story and are familiar with the premise of the book, I am reaching out to you for advice. The publishers will be taking care of most of the promoting in relation to the large book stores, but any suggestions you can offer in regards to pounding the pavement on my end would be more than appreciated. I am so thankful to you all for your support and I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

I will get started on the Facebook fan page and let everyone know when it is complete. This may take a while, but I would like to have it completed by the end of the month. I have a feeling I will battle with myself on what to include, but I know there is a certain point in life when you must be willing to take a risk and step away from comfortably. I continue to struggle with my fear of success, but with the support of all my readers I know I can overcome!

Thank you all for reading!