You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.
American Proverb

Steppin’ On

In keepin’ on with last week’s tip One Small Step, this week we’re moving on, perhaps, just a half-step.

In her monthly Muse Letter this December, Jill Badonsky, M.ED. offers a Creativity Manifesto for 2006 (which she suggest you “modify according to YOUR authentic nature”):

In the face of adversity, uncertainty and static in my soul’s receiver, I hereby pledge to remain ever mindful, ever grateful of the magical, infinite, loving reality I live in. This reality conspires tirelessly in my favor especially when I take tiny steps…ever so tiny, daily or even weekly down a path directed by my creative intuition.

I further recognize, that living within space and time, as a creation amongst creations, is the ultimate adventure, because I create my reality with the colors I choose from my palette of thoughts. Dreams come true when I am authentic and courageous, when I say “So what I’ll do it ANYWAY” to any obstacle rearing its silly head and so many things, so VERY MANY things remain forever possible. So there!

For some of you, the above may be a little too whimsical, or “out there”. Please take what you like and leave the rest (and, as Jill suggested, modify it for yourself in any way you like).

The reason I chose to include Badonsky’s “Manifesto” is that I find it incredibly helpful connecting how I approach my craft to how I approach self-promotion: with creativity, persistence, and gratitude.

Did you try that one small step last week- asking yourself:
What is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book?

If you did- bravo! Were you able to visualize one small thing? Were you able to write it down?
If you didn’t or you couldn’t, practice asking yourself that question ONCE a day (or more, if you’d like). You might be surprised at the answer/answers that begin to come simply by continuing to ask. That’s persistence. The same kind of persistence we continue to practice in our craft.

By continuing to ask the question daily what is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book you might find that your mind authentically becomes a creativity factory. Our mind likes to solve problems, find solutions. Robert Maurer, Ph.D. advocates dropping the same small question into our conscious thinking every day. Every time we do, our mind strives to come up with a solution.

It’s the same kind of creative thinking that goes into our work (well, at least it’s the same kind of thinking that goes into mine). I am constantly asking and re-asking myself the same question(s) over and over, like “what would this character do in these circumstances?” I continue to ask and re-ask that question until I come up with an answer I’m satisfied with. And then I keep working that question out within my writing.

When I apply the question-asking technique to self-promotion, I come up with all kinds of answers. Undoubtedly, some of my brainstorming is silly and way too out there- but I typically come up with one completely terrific idea, and then I brainstorm on that idea until I figure out exactly what I can do to bring it to fruition. Before I know it, I’ve come up with a fleshed out step for marketing my work.

And then gratitude sets in. I’m grateful for my creativity and my tenacity, not only for the joy I get from doing my work (and completing it), but my willingness to walk the walk to get it out there. As I’ve said before, I don’t write in a vacuum.

So keep dropping in that small question over the holidays: what is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book? You might get a fabulous gift by doing so: an answer.