You
put your right foot in,
You
put your right foot out,
You
put your right foot in,
And
you shake it all about.
You
do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around.
That’s
what it’s all about!
Sounds
a little like book marketing, doesn’t it?
You
put yourself out there, tentatively at first, one foot in, one foot out in an
effort to keep yourself grounded and balanced. You join a few groups, you test
the waters, you float a few comments, and you find yourself among friends. You
step back and think, “That wasn’t so bad!” So you put your foot back in and
shake it around a little, update your profile, take out a Facebook ad, join a
few more groups and learn how to tweet, still with only one foot in--just in
case you find yourself in over your head.
Now
let’s try the left foot: You buy and read the self-help books for
self-published writers. You scan your groups and forums for thoughts and ideas on
how to market, how to build readership, how to network, how to find your niche.
Then you thrust your foot back into the circle and give it a good shake -- just
to see what happens. You make a few contacts, you retweet a few tweets, and you
find that you’re connecting with other writers and poets and aspiring artists
who are also furiously shaking their left foot while trying to learn to dance.
Right
arm, left arm, in and out, shake and spin. At some point, the whole body
becomes engaged, daring to jump into the circle to shake it all about in a wild
frenzy of exultation (or frustration, I guess, depending on how well you’ve learned
to perform). By the end of the dance, you should have it all together, each
appendage working independently and in concert with all of your other
appendages. Your website, blog, author pages, review pages, groups, connections,
networks, fan base, clubs, personal appearance schedule, readings, launches,
and every other conceivable body part of your marketing persona should be shuffling
along in a smooth and graceful dance of success, doing the Hokey Pokey on
auto-pilot while you get back to your real job: writing.
I’m
not sure which part is the hardest part for me: the Hokey or the Pokey. In any
case, that’s what it’s all about.
I think balance is the hardest thing sometimes. I also think that sometimes enough has to be enough. Steadily moving forward is the most important.
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