Congratulations! You've written a book! 
Now you have to market it. What? You're not a marketer, you're a writer! Why waste your time marketing when you could be writing your next piece?
My mother had a saying for a time like this:

Marketing has become a lot more complicated since my mother first heard that little jingle. Nevertheless, it still comes down to the simple fact that if people don't know about your books, or your poetry, or your articles, they can't read them. And writing is meant to be read.

So during the month of September, I'm challenging you to develop your marketing skills. Every day there will be a new challenge for you to master. And every daily challenge will be something you can do, WITHOUT PAYING ANY MONEY, to make your book more visible to readers. Some will be easy, others more difficult; some quick, others more time-consuming; some you'll already have done, some will be things you've been meaning to 'get around to', and some will be new ideas for you. And we'll all be on this journey together, so if you get tired, or discouraged, we'll be there for you.

Who will benefit from taking this challenge? Well, common thinking is that you should start marketing your book at least a year before it's published, so this is not only for those who already have a published book (traditionally or self-published) but also for anyone who is about to publish. And although I say 'book', what you are really marketing is yourself as an author, so this challenge should also be useful to those who write blogs, short stories, poems or articles for magazines and anthologies.  

I'm designing this challenge to be accessible to those who are just beginning to market their work, and yet challenging enough to be useful to those who have been marketing their work for a while.

I want it to be interactive and communal. You don't have to, but you'll gain more if you participate in the comments after each day's challenge. Did you complete it? Where can we view it? Ask questions, answer other participants' questions, let me know how useful each challenge was for you, or suggest alternatives if one doesn't work for you.

I'm excited about this! I know we're going to learn a lot, and push ourselves to improve our marketing skills, and have fun doing it!
I hope you'll join me this September. Meanwhile, please help spread the word about this challenge.

Welcome to the Writing Process Blog Tour! My writer-friend Gerry Wilson invited me to participate. If you haven’t already, you should check out Gerry’s blog stop.

The topic for this blog tour is The Writing Process. The challenge is to answer three questions about my work:

What Am I Working On?

Several things at once, unfortunately. I say unfortunately, because I'm a linear person, I like to go all out on one project, finish it, then race on to the next. Life seldom works that way, however.

So currently I am in the final editing stage of a YA science fiction novel called The Malemese Diamond. I'm hoping it'll be up on Amazon by October 1st.

I'm also researching  my next historical fiction novel. It will take place in Italy in the 14th C, and my deadline to finish research and start writing is September. For the sake of brevity, the working title is simply Queen, and that's all I can tell you now, because telling the story before writing it is a sure way to make my muse dry up.

Why Do I Write What I Do?

That's a funny question for me to answer, because I write in many genres - historical fiction, science fiction, YA, memoir, short story, women's fiction. I read all those genres, too, and when a great tale comes to me, I write it in whatever genre is best suited to tell that story. In the past, I've written the same concept in two or even three genres before I found the right one for it. That's a bit time-consuming, to say the least, so I prefer to let the story gel awhile until I know what form will best tell it.

How Does My Writing Process Work?

I let an idea simmer while I do research. If it's historical fiction or science fiction, there's a lot of research. Even if it's straight fiction, and little research is needed, I find it's necessary to ponder the idea awhile before I start.

I do some plotting - get an idea of the beginning, the theme and rising action, some set-backs, and how it'll end. Usually I write the beginning and the ending before working on the body. But before I write a word, the main character, or narrator, has to speak to me. This conversational scene comes to me, with all the character's quirks and humour and fears in subtext, and when he or she has spoken, I'm ready to start writing. The rest flows outward, before and after that dialogue.  I need that direct contact that makes him/her real to me, to draw me into his/her story.

Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment.