Reblogged from Judy Penz Sheluk :

When I started writing my first novel, I never gave a moment’s thought to promotion. I was naive enough to believe that after I got a publishing contract, the publisher would do all sorts of promotion, while I’d visit bookstores and go to events they’d set up. Sure, I’d need a website, and probably a Facebook page, but I wouldn’t have to be the one “selling” my book. “They” would do that.

Contract signed, and The Hanged Man’s Noose out, reality came crashing in pretty quickly. These days, authors are expected to do the bulk of their own advertising and promotion—and set up their own events and bookstore visits. I expect there are exceptions if you’re Gillian Flynn or Stephen King, but for those of us not breathing rarified air, it’s in the trenches we go.

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