How to Succeed...

...without really trying is no longer an option. And to be truthful, success has a direct correlation with  achievable ambition. Deadlines met, articles written, books sold: all equate to success though they may not equate to fame. To succeed as a writer, have  the confidence to first of all write, and then to sell.

And there's the rub. The marketing and selling take time, often too much time out of the writing day. Very few writers have the luxury of treating their work as a full-time job. To add marketing into the tricky mix of life commitments can be one job too many.


Some writers are much better at marketing than others. For that reason banding and bonding in writers' groups makes total sense when it comes to spreading the word.

But choose carefully.


The Advantage of Writers' Groups

•  Meet like-minded authors with the same goals and aspirations
•  Ask for and receive advice and support about  writing and marketing
•  Access to all the knowledge and accumulated resources of the group as a whole
•  Support when it comes to promoting your materials. 

The Disadvantage of Writers' Groups

•  Too many emails, promoting work you  know nothing about.
•  Conflicting advice when it comes to problem solving. 
•  Too much time spent reading and learning from others and too little doing any work of your own. 
•   Too broad spectrum of interest.

January Marketing Ideas

The best promotion can often be invisible. Create a following for yourself by following others. Promoting to writers ia always good because all writers read, right? But not all readers write.

The January blog comment challenge at Mother Reader has already opened my eyes to new possibilities for writing, reading and promotion. Aimed mainly at children's and YA writers, it invites you to sign up and comment on five of the participating blogs per day. Not as arduous a task as it sounds. Comment on 100 blogs during 21 days. It has already started but you can easily catch up if you want to. I've been going for two days now and thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks Mary Jo for recommending this one.

Think about it. Your name linked to your website is heading every comment and you're hitting 100 new sites.

From participating, I found The European Reading Challenge  which again I shall most certainly take on. There are both European and American sections. (Apologies to my Australian friends. You'll have to check out the site for yourselves. LOL) For this we must read five books and review them before January 31 2013, each from a different European country and written by different European authors.

Several other challenges appear on the site and again it  seems to me a way of inculcating best practice  when it comes to enhancing

• your writing speed
• your literary knowlege
• interest in your own genre and books.

Anybody interested in joining me? Or do you have other challenges and award promotion possibilities lined up for this month?