Selling Yourself Large

What surprised me more than any other thing at my first writer’s conference?

That’s an easy one.

The biggest surprise was that other writers, ones whom I’d never met, some quite successful and established authors, knew me.

How did they know me if they’d never met me? The same way you know Stephen King or John Grisham. You know of them because you know of the books they’ve written.

The difference being of course that Stephen King and John Grisham have written dozens of books and sold millions while I’ve written just one and sold maybe hundreds.

Still, somehow people know of me and my one little book. I swear it happened over and over again. Usually my name alone wasn’t enough. But when you put my name together with my book, Lost in the Ivy, there was almost always a glimmer of recognition. Before I said a word about my book, they’d say things like: “Isn’t that the Wrigley Field book?” “That’s the Cubs book, right?” or “I’ve heard of that. Didn’t it get reviewed in the Trib?”

That all goes to the power of marketing. I’ve spent a small fortune marketing my book. And the greatest amount of that money has been aimed at two markets: Chicagoans (Cubs fans, in particular) and mystery readers. Even if I hadn’t sold many books, had I at least bought some kind of name recognition?

Of course, I have no empirical data to prove that I spent wisely. But if Love is Murder, a mystery writer’s conference that takes place in Chicagoland, is any kind of litmus test, it would seem that the money didn’t go completely to waste.

And if nothing else, it’s pretty cool that respected, successful authors like David Ellis and Brian Pinkerton knew of me before they even met me.