Promotion Fear – I Can’t Toot My Own Horn

A lot of writers have a hard time tooting their own horn.  I will be honest and say I fall into this category.  I can promote other people’s book with no problem.  I love raving about other books, I’ve been doing it for years.

You would think when it came to my own book, I wouldn’t have a problem. 

I can only speak for myself, but it feels like bragging when I rave about my own book.  That little monster name fear, pops in and whispers in my ear.  Who are you to be talking about your book?  I don’t know why I listen but I do and instead of shouting to the world about my book, I keep quiet.

This happened to me when I published my book.  I had this huge promotion plan and I was ready to work it and the fear knocked on my door and I let him in.  He said, you don’t have to say anything, everybody you know will buy your book.

I found out the hard way, that’s not how it works.  Most times you friends and family members aren’t your audience so they aren’t going to buy your book.  My book was for writers and business owners so I had to get out there and find my audience.

Instead of letting fear win, I sat down and had a virtual tea session with myself.  If I wanted to sell books and meet readers, I had to work my plan.  It was not going to work for myself and the readers would not come just because I wrote a book.

I looked over my plan and picked out the things that were comfortable and then I picked one or two things that scared me to death and did those first.  Each month I was promoting and each month it was getting a little easier to toot my own horn.

If one of your fears is tooting your own horn, here are few suggestions.

Remember reader can’t buy your book if they don’t know it exists.

You are your best book seller. You know what your book is about and what makes it great.

Create a team. Sometimes help will bring you out your comfort zone. 

Word out mouth still works. You tell someone and they tell someone and they tell someone.  It starts with YOU.

Always have a plan for your promotion. Then you know what to toot.

Now you don’t have to ROCK this fear anymore.  You have these tips to help start tooting your own horn.  Go out there and TOOT.

You are also welcome to join the See Ya On The Promotion Training Group, where we teach you how to be a social butterfly.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SYOTNWorkshop/