Trying to Kick the Book Marketing Habit

My history with book marketing isn't all that long. I never even attempted to market my first three novels (luckily for me). And it wasn't until my second novella was published that I barely tried any marketing at all—maybe one ad and a book blogger review. With my seventh and eighth novellas, I felt like I actually had something worthwhile, so I booked a few promos and even sought out ARC readers. When nothing panned out, I stopped. Smart girl.

Then along came Running From Herself. I was so proud of it and so optimistic about its potential that I was determined to give it its best shot at success. I won't go into the whole list of methods I tried, but suffice it to say that I have a spreadsheet with all the promo sites I utilized. Plus, I did much more.

When I finally came to the realization that it was time to hang it up, I felt free; exhilarated. But I'm finding that old habits die hard. Yesterday, I almost booked another promo! I received one of those regular emails from Written Word Media, and I don't know why, but I began filling out the promotion form. This process always requires me to look up my book link and to find a short book description that I know I have...somewhere...so it involves a lot of new tab opening. Then I got to the payment page and was about to grab my credit card, when I stopped. "What are you doing?" I chided myself.

I clicked out of everything.

It's a mystery why we failed authors, despite all evidence to the contrary, continue to believe that if we do just one more thing, it's gonna work this time. Is it belief or is it delusion? Or maybe desperation? The thing is, I'm not feeling desperate. I think it's simply habit. For nineteen months, all I thought about was marketing—finding new sites to park my book, finding bloggers who'd agree to review it, getting a featured spot somewhere, buying a new promo, setting up an ad; it was something new every week. It was my new normal. So, now that I'm sitting at my computer, inert, I'm a bit lost.

If you've been reading my posts, you might be confused by the contradiction of my subscribing to StoryOrigin, when I said I was done. In my defense, I did that before I made my decision, and in fact, that experience helped cement things in my mind. From now on, if I do any tinkering, it'll be minor and free, such as updating my website or some other task that's meaningless. Maybe as part of my 12-step program, I should unsubscribe from all those book promotion sites, to keep temptation at bay.

I think that with time, it'll get easier. Maybe reciting the Serenity Prayer would help that along.