We had a lush time Dolphin watching, kayaking and just chilling out.
Most of my actions for the past two weeks have been related to the completion of my crowdfund.
After a last minute push I reached my target.
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| 3 days left at this point |
This is my first action. Pictures of me looking pathetic seemed to work!
My only action while I was in Portugal was to write the Solomon's Secrets hashtag on the wall of a pub!
Action 3:
Another action was to contact all of the fabulous people who supported my crowdfund and update them.
In the end, having taken off the pledges for the event that didn't go ahead, I had much less than the £1000 I asked for. But it does mean I have some options. I'll publish with Amazon, as before, but look at other ways to get some copies print on demand and I can pay for a professional copy edit.
Action 4:
My next action is to put a call out:
Can anyone recommend a good copy editor, preferably in Bristol, UK?
Action 5:
I met with Olly at Fundsurfer to talk about the end of my campaign and what comes next. They are going to keep the publicity going, their first author to successfully complete a fund is a great good news story for them. But I have work to do too...
Action 6:
I drew up a spreadsheet of publications where Fundsurfer could send a press release to and sent that across. Fingers crossed something will be published in one of the literary, writers and / or business publications that we're targeting.
It's great to have professionals draw up the piece and to be working in partnership with them by supplying information.
For me, one of the biggest things that is making a difference to this 365 project is reaching out to others and boosting my platform by spring boarding off others.
My advice to any writers out there looking to grow their audience - get help.
You can only do so much on your own - but whatever you do, don't be tempted to delegate all of the marketing to someone else. Think of it as a partnership and by working with others you can promote them too. Always give back.
I've been busily promoting what Fundsurfer do to anyone interested in crowdfunding because it's been such a positive experience for me, even though I didn't raise enough money to publish with Silverwood books, which is a shame. Maybe the next book!
Action 7:
With that in mind, I gave a talk at North Bristol Writers group about crowdfunding. They are planning to crowdfund the publication of their short story anthology.
Action 8:
I also gave a talk at a women's networking event in Bristol, The Queens Power Lunch. I met some great people and ate some fantastic Caribbean food.
I went partly to talk about my work with Outset, supporting local businesses, but to my delight, they were more interested in my books. I talked about both The Bronze Box and Solomon's Secrets. I also talked about my experience of crowdfunding.
Action 9:
At the lunch I also caught up with the fabulous Rachael Gelndinning of Bristol Prospectus and she has invited me to contribute. I'd love to contribute to this site, I need to get writing.
Action 10:
I've been playing with video and audio recently and have some partial projects on the go, including some sort of book trailer.
Here's something I recoded previously, where I talk about the books, that I may or may not use in the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ui7N8C19_k
Action 11:
I sent a news piece to Linda Parkinson-Hardman for her Women on the Edge of Reality blog about my crowdfund. She has featured me previously on a Thursday Throng Interview and has supported my crowdfund too. She's an awesome lady!
Action 12:
I asked an upholsterers in Bristol if they had any leather offcuts and they sold me a lovely piece of leather that I've been using for mark 2 of my mini manuscripts. I enjoyed the experiment last time and got a tweet from someone but this time I wanted to make them look more like real old manuscripts instead
Action 13:
I went out and about in Bristol and left these in various places. Look out for them around Easton and Stokes Croft in particular. I've already had a tweet from one lovely person - Thank you Alice Matthews - I get so excited when people get in touch, it makes it all seem worthwhile!
Action 14:
I'm going to get some flyers professionally printed and went into Sebright. I hope to be able to pick them up next week and start distributing them.
Thanks to everyone who's helped me get this far.
What marketing actions have worked for you recently?
That's a lot of action Amy - but well done on completing them all too. And thanks for the mention, it's muchly appreciated :-)
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