Marketing and the Small Press Author by Rebecca Jaycox
On January 21, 2014, I signed with Rocking Horse Publishing, which is a small press based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Of course, I was thrilled! I had spent seven and a half years writing and rewriting The Other Inheritance . I had shopped it around for a year, receiving frustrating comments from agents like, “clearly you’re a good writer, but I’m just not in love with your book.” So once I got the email from RHP, I actually cried—on the subway, in public. I thought the hardest part was over. Boy, was I wrong. The hardest part comes when your book is actually out there, especially when you’re with a small press that just doesn’t have the funds to pay for publicity. And that’s not a problem that only indie authors have, that’s also a problem for first-time writers that sign with big publishing houses. The lion’s share of the marketing and publicity falls on your shoulders, and you’d better learn what to do and fast. Twitter and I became BFFs. I learned how to use Faceb...