What's Holding You Back?

Sears Tower

Hello everyone! I've taken a long break of about 10 days not because trying to find help with marketing is very very VERY exhausting. In fact, it's so exhausting that I had to plan a mini getaway to Chicago with my best friend to clear my mind. Now with a clear mind I feel like I know what it is that I have to do in order to see an increase in sales and a growth in audience. Stick to my original marketing plan. The only reason I haven't gone through with my original marketing plan was due to the lack of money - you know that little green piece of paper that happens to control the world we live in? Yeah, of course you do. Sigh. Being a college student is hard as it is, but throw in a rental car that I'd been renting since the beginning of May and the result is all of my paychecks being cut in half. Double sigh. However, recently I purchased a 2015 Scion so my hopes now are to have my bank account level out so I can start pouring money into marketing. It may take about a month or so but that's where keeping my head held high and having faith in the success of my book comes in - I have to know that nothing is going to happen overnight. Whatever it is that's holding you back from getting your book out there the way it should be, create a plan to overcome it! After all, life is all about getting through the adversities - what would life be without them?

Gaining Momentum....

Everyone should always always ALWAYS prepare and brace themselves when it comes to marketing their books. If you don't have a team (as you would if you traditionally publish) to do it for you, then you'd better know that there are hours upon hours of staring at a computer screen and copying and pasting the same message - that all can add up to extreme exhaustion. When I first started a few days ago, I simply looked up sites that promoted books; that search wore me out the first day. It was very boring and I just felt like no one was going to reply (side note: you're going to send out A LOT of emails with no reply). So a few days later, I chose to try a different tactic, due to not wanting to jinx it I'm not going to speak on it too much (yes, I'm childish for that I know lol). However, this new tactic seems to work better than my first one. So anyways, the point of this post: gaining momentum. In relevance to authors, this means building your audience so you can have people talking about it. Let's be honest, once you put your book out there for the world to take hold of, it's NOT going to just 'catch on' and continue to spread like wildfire (if it does then you're literally just so lucky!). Each day I learn that what I put into it is what I'm going to get out of it, though that's something you're taught all the time you never really get it until it applies to your own life. When you wrote the book, you had a plan for it; so just like when you wrote the book, create a plan for it to gain momentum. Do free promotions, discount it, do whatever it takes to get your book out there! Unless you're James Patterson or E.L James, don't worry about sales in the beginning.

The Online Marketing Beast is Born.....

Photo Credit to Stacy Rodriguez

And so, after working what seems like nonstop for the past week since my book has been released online at Amazon.com, I have two days off. Of course my first thought was to take the day (Sunday) to go to church with my best friend, grab some Indian food (my fave), spend some time at the mall, and then head home to chill on the couch and watch all of my favorite movies that are being played. I'm talking, the best movie day you could think of - Lord of the Rings, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (one of the all time faves), and Think Like a Man! HOWEVER, I had to remind myself that I'm an author now...I always have to be working. Meaning I always have to be getting my book out there in some way shape or form. So it is time for me to consult the notes I made in my phone long ago to start my online marketing venture. Initially I was a marketing major at the University of the Virgin Islands....maybe I should've kept it that way. LOL, just kidding I'm still keeping my fingers crossed about getting off the waiting list at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City!

Happy Loving Day!!

In the event of LOVING DAY(the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning laws that banned interracial marriages) and its relation to my book which tells the story of Eva and David (an interracial couple), I had to post this (from newstome.blog.ajc.com)! If you're reading 'The Improbable', how far along are you? What are your thoughts? Comment to discuss, I love to hear from you! FYI, this book isn't just an interracial kind of book (meaning you don't have to be a black female who likes white males or a white female that likes black men) it's literally for any and everyone who falls in love with their story. This is a book for everyone so leave your worries at the door and start reading and falling in love!

F R E E !

(Teen Books Free Logo)

Who doesn't love free? No one. That's why I decided I'd make my book available for free and the results exceeded my expectations. The order numbers jumped from 7 to 145 books in one day! Haha, I don't care about the money just yet I really just want people to enjoy the story I'm putting out there! I'm actually very glad I decided to take this independent, online publishing route. I created my own cover with no one nagging me about what's going to 'sell to the market', I didn't have to wait MONTHS OR YEARS for an agent (even though I sent out plenty of queries and was rejected by quite a few, still waiting to hear from some more), and I got to get it out there super quick so there was no 'we'll release this in 2050 when the market is ready' -_- The only downside I would say to publishing so quickly is not having it properly edited for grammar. I hate when I'm rereading and STILL find errors, like I can't believe with the number of times I've gone over it there's still things I missed! Oh well, in due time all the necessary changes will be made (grammatical). ANY WHO, so I made my book free; initially the free dates were from June 9-June 13, but I decided that was too long, so I wanted to change it to June 9-June 11th. I messed something up so it won't be free on the 10th (SORRY) but will remain free on the dates from the 11th to the 12th (YAY). Back to the point - making it free and available to anyone opened a lot of doors, teenbooksfree.com even posted my book on there website which I believe is where a lot of the traffic came from! It makes me so happy to go to sleep knowing there are around 160 people around the world reading a story that I created. I will NEVER get over this feeling!

PUBLISHED!!!

SOOOOO, I hit 'Publish' on Amazon on June 6th and didn't bother checking anything since. Today after I came home from an 8-hr long orientation for my second job, I decided to share the link on my Facebook and Instagram. I then proceeded to check my sales on Amazon just for the heck of it, kind of laughing to myself knowing I hadn't sold anything because I hadn't done any marketing. To my absolute surprise, I HAD SOLD 7 BOOKS WITH ONE OF THEM BEING IN FRANCE!!!!! The first thing I did was smile and post about it on Facebook, and then I called my mom. After talking to my mom, I cried with tears of pure joy. The feeling of people being in the possession of my hard work is something that I can't even explain! I'm so excited to see where this goes. Yes, the numbers aren't that impressive but with time they will be and I'll be grateful whether it's 10 books or 10,000 books sold. So I guess you could say today was a VERY GOOD DAY! And called for one (or two) well-deserved glasses of wine. :) Sorry if the quality of this picture is so S-wordy (lol), I broke my iphone 5C and had to way down-grade to a 4....not even a 4S...a 4. Let that sink in.

Bienvenue Everyone!

Okay so this is my first blog post...
First and foremost, I want this to be a community for people that are just as excited about this book as I am! When I say that I mean the kind of people who would enjoy dressing up like it's 1950 everyday, partying carefree, and driving around in a vintage drop-top convertible on the way to get ice cream. Words can't express how ecstatic I am to share this story with the world, I've never been so excited about a project of mine - mainly because this is the first project I've gone all the way through with. I put a lot of thought and hard work into this novel, I became obsessed with David and Eva's love story and I hope you do as well. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments!

- Tiara James, 2015

The view from my dorm room in St. Thomas, USVI; A picture I took the day I finished writing The Improbable