Marketing Books & Gardening

Hi People. I'm writing here about two things I sometimes do that I find quite difficult, for a variety of different reasons. The book marketing reasons mostly relate to me being a disorganised person who is unsure of the best way to go about 'selling myself' well enough. I fear irritating others, yeah - as if that's the worst thing in this troubled world ... I am somewhat known, in some books and writing related circles, so I'm not completely hopeless at this though, so I won't lose hope in the chance of getting better at this 'Book Marketing' thing. So this one is a Mental thing.

The Gardening thing, that's related physical reasons. I'll never be as strong or physically able as someone would need to be to keep all of our place tidy and under control. I can do little things, sometimes, but none of the big things. Some things I can't do, others I don't do. I've never started a mower in my life, for instance, and can see no reason why I should start doing it now. I can't cut down big branches, or heft heavy things. My husband is able to do these things, and I support him in this by keeping out of his way.

Both of these things have benefits of course. If I can find a book reader who would like to buy one of my books, I'm more than happy in signing a copy for them and selling them a copy! If someone wanted me to talk to a group of people who may be interested in my books, I am always happy to talk about the stuff I've written, whatever it is. Speaking in public is scary to many people and used to be scary to me too, but fortunately I'm over that now. (So if you need someone to talk, give me a call!)

The benefits of gardening are quite different. A garden gives beautiful things to look at, sniff, and eat. A garden brings birds and other creatures along, and I love watching the birds that visit our garden! I love the strawberries we have growing at the moment, I loved the capsicums we had until hubby pulled up the spent plants, I love the herbs that go into meals or cups of herbal tea. We have lots of garlic growing at the moment, and I love that we're going to keep up with our 'garlic' needs for a good few months (I hope). I love the fact that very soon, our tomato plants will have little cherry tomatoes that are red not green, as they ripen, yum!

The garden is blooming, but most of that is thanks to my husband's work, not mine. He is my carer as well as my husband, and he's doing a superb job of caring for me! He doesn't help with the book marketing side of my life though. He recognises that I'm the one who knows more about that stuff, even if I don't do lots and lots of it. I do have lots of books in my car, ready to sell to others, at any time though ... It would be lovely if it were as simple as just driving somewhere and opening the back of my car to sell books to hordes of desperate book buyers waiting for me ...

Buster the Dog, who is always with me, even if I don't acknowledge his presence at every moment of my life, he would do these things differently, I suspect. Buster is more of an excitable type, more Me, Me, Me! than I am. I'm quieter, more subdued. Of course I'm real and Buster is a figment of my imagination, so life is easy for him ...

So that's it for now, if you'd like to know more about me and my writing, get in touch! Woof!

A Friend Read my Book and Laughed and Laughed!

If my book was a sad tale and I wanted to evoke sympathy for my struggling hero, that 'Laughed and Laughed' response would have worried me. But "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" is a humorous tale about Buddhism from a naughty, slightly snarky hound named Buster the Dog, and I'm thrilled with the response - Laughter is the best medicine for this author's self-esteem!

So the reader of my book loved it and found it hilarious, that is certainly a good first step! This book isn't 'out there' yet, but it is due to be launched on July 29, at the P/A Hotel in Gawler, during the Adelaide  Plains Festival of Words. This Festival is an important part of my writing life, and an important part of the writing group I'm President of, Adelaide Plains Poets Chapter and Verse.

And this funny book is "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" which I now know as the third book in the Buster the Dog series. When I wrote the book that I now call the first in the Buster the Dog series, the book that this whole blog is named after, "Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs", when I wrote that book, I had no idea of it going as far as it has, I just wanted to have a little bookish fun with my artistic friend, Ally Hean.

The first book has sold well enough that I keep on needing to order some more copies of it, and the second book, "Doggone It! Mindfulness from a Dog's Point of View", has been selling copies every now and then too. I've been happy about the books selling, of course, but I have a funny feeling this third book will out sell the first two, and who knows, may actually make money into four figures, rather than just three figures ... Books are strange things, readers of books can be strange too, and you never know what people might want to read ...

Anyway, I have this set of three books, I'm getting ready to launch that third book, in a fortnight, and it's all fun and games. I just have to get the final editing of the book done, and corrections sent off to the printer, and all will be good. I imagine before next weekend, my car/office will be loaded up with the copies of "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" and my nerves will have begun upsetting my tummy! Nah, I'm not nervous, I've done this heaps of times, what could go wrong?

Hmm, I could get the books and my car could catch fire, I could crash into a bank and my car could be take by the police, I could suffer from amnesia and forget who I am, someone could say all of these Buster the Dog books are totally stupid and I should be ashamed of myself for selling them, cats could finally take over the world and ban books that are nasty to cats. Or cat owners all over the world could lobby and do the same thing on behalf of all cats. Or I could suffer from an acute case of low self-esteem and crawl into a small hole and refuse to come out again ...

I am a writer. I have sold my books. Some people have enjoyed my books. Some people have even found my books inspiring and have been helped by them (not any of the Buster the Books). I am aware of my ability to make others feel better about life, and smile. I am a writer, I will launch this new book and people will smile. Life continues to be good ...