Words on a Page

When Missing Words  was published, I thought I could sit back and let the marketing folks do their business, watching the reviews roll in and the sales figures mount. I quickly learned, however, that's no longer the way things work in the publishing world. If you've been taken on by an independent publisher with a small marketing team and an even smaller budget, you'll already know how difficult it is to get your books noticed.  Within a short time of publication, I'd spent my advance - and more - on Facebook ads and ads in print magazines, doing book giveaways, and speaking to librarians and booksellers on two continents. But it's never been clear to me whether that effort and expense resulted in actual sales.  The situation is even more precarious for authors who've gone down hybrid or self-publishing routes because even more of the burden of promotion falls on their shoulders. Yes, there are indeed self-published authors who have had very impressive sales - b