Self promotion

Last year, when I first started marketing myself and getting my name out there, I bought a box of business cards. Nothing terribly fancy. The original cover of Mirror Image displayed on the left with my name and social media information on the right. I would leave these cards pretty much every where I went. On the car door windows during wrestling shows, at stores and shopping malls. I placed them in the apartment finder magazines and those free newspapers at grocery stores. My husband would get on my case about it, but I would shake my head. "You never know who might find it and be interested or pass it on to someone else," I would say.

Often I would find the cards on the ground later, but that's okay. I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea, even if it is in the form of a card on your window.

But one day I got an email from my website. Someone wrote to me, asking if I thought this was appropriate ways of marketing myself. She said she found the card on the sink in a Ross Dress for Less clothing store. The email was meant to ridicule, but I still had to smile. Because the person had to go to the website on the card and fill out the form to contact me. In a way, the card did its job. I have no way of knowing if she stuck around my website and became interested enough to buy one of my books, but at least she saw it and for a little while, knew there was an author by the name of KG Stutts out in the world. And that was enough for me.

We all look for ways to market ourselves and our books beyond blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Some spend a great deal of money on giveaways in hopes of attracting readers. Some will buy swag to giveaway at launch parties and mailing lists. I spent $10 on those box of cards. That was the first thing I spent money on promotional wise. I still have one of the original cards on my desk.

Mirror Image celebrated its first anniversary on April 25th. It's still hard to believe I've been at this for a year now. And on May 22nd, the second book in the Amethyst Chronicles, a spinoff of the Mirror series, will launch. Croceus Poison will be the launching pad for the rest of the series. We may even see a few old, familiar faces in the third book.The next year will see a lot from these characters.

It started with a pack of cards. Now I have posters, magnets, pens and more in the works for swag and giveaways. Two of my books are even in paperback. Tonight I'll record the first full episode in the Distinguished Press podcast. Mind boggling.

But right now, I'll just work on getting Croceus Poison ready for launch and I'm already working on Amethyst Chronicles: Past Reflections, the third installment in the series.