Over the past 22 years since I left school, I have had several business interests, some good, some bad and some, just different. However, along the way I have had the time of my life and enjoyed the journey so far. Life has a tendency to work in funny ways, as I found out this last few weeks with the final drive to launch my wife’s new book. She has taken almost three years to complete her first novel “Remember to love me” which is part of The Legacy Trilogy.
The funny thing is, no matter what business I have been involved in, I have always been in charge of the marketing. Therefore, when Becky said, I am going to launch a book, I thought, no problem, I can market anything, and how hard can it be!
Let me tell you, over the past few months I have pulled my hair out with this one. The problem is that I don’t just want to launch this, this is my wife, and she had given up three years of her life to write this book. This needs to be better than just a good launch, this needs to be, the all singing all dancing razzmatazz of a launch.
Well time has ticked on, the launch is now in six weeks, and then the book will be launched to all to read. Undoubtedly, some will like it, some will hate it and above all some will love it so much that they will refer it to friends. I guess they are who we are really after. The question is how we can get that level of support for an unpublished author.
Let me tell you. A year ago, my daughter said to me, Dad you are missing out on a huge market place on these things called, social media sites, I said “what sites?” Twelve months later, I have studied hard on this one, and I think I have finally found a way to market Becky as a new author, and the launch of the book. Face book, Myspace and Hi5 to name but a few, along with added exposure on the abclocal website and search engines. I’ve found out how to improve search engine ranking and how to submit news articles to hundreds of news sites in one go.
The thing that surprises me is, how Becky wanted to sell this book but not be in the lime light, the problem is these days the two are so close they may as well be one. My oldest daughter Mitzi-Eloise has been busy putting her designer flair to the Champaign reception, which we have booked for friends, family and the press. She designed the most amazing invites and sealed them with red ribbon and a wax initialled seal of the letter B.
Things are sure hotting up, though Becky has already had a surreal week, with photo shoots, marketing and design teams falling at her feet and the new website poised to hit the internet in the coming days. That just leaves two things for me to do, one I know I can do with absolutely no problem, get the book printed. The other is to contact Richard and Judy on their big read, to see if they will look at an up and coming world class best seller.
The time line to launching this has been like a military operation with definitely no room for mistakes, remember this is my wife. Keep an eye out for Becky Byford on the book shelves and online because she will be there, I promise you.
Speak to you all soon
Mark
P.S I almost forgot her new site will be at
http://www.beckybyford.com/ where you will be able to buy “Remember to love me” and if you like it, tell a friend.
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