I think I've talked about my To Do List before. I only make one up when I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to do and I've been at that point for a while now. I think I've also mentioned that I've been making a good-sized dent in the list, crossing items off at a good clip. Yesterday, however, I added a lot more than I managed to complete. :-( Most of it promo stuff for Eternal Nights.
Some authors are really good at promo, and since I was an advertising copy major in college, you'd think I would be too. I'm not. Give me a multi-million dollar budget and ask me to map out a traditional advertising campaign encompassing radio, television, newspapers and billboards and I could do an above average job. Give me the kind of budget I have to work with and I'm at a loss.
The options that don't take a lot of money, take time. That's the one thing I don't have. I'm so darn swamped right now that I don't know which way is up. I don't have hours to spend on promotion.
A very wise author on one of my loops said she's stopped driving herself crazy. She does what she can promotionally and just lets the rest take care of itself. I'm working on developing that attitude. It's healthy, and since I work full time and have two June deadlines, it's definitely something I need to adopt.
On the plus side of the ledger, I hired someone to design my EN bookmark and it turned out beautiful! When I think of the way I struggled with the graphics program for my first three books, I want to kick myself. I should have had someone who knew what they were doing, take this on immediately. Next week, I'll contact the printer (on my To Do List) and see about getting myself some bookmarks to take to the RT Convention in May.
