​Chief, cook & bottle washer or, an army of one

Something none of us probably ever thought when we set finger to kepbaord to write our books… the Joy of self-publishing means the joy of self-promotion.
Like a lot of my life lately, if I’d thought about what it would mean to self-publish, I probably would have been too scared to start… but here we are.  As I’ve said in previous posts, I am an Executive Producer of television series’ (plural) and I worked hard to get here. But I was NEVER alone. One large part of my skill set is the ability to either remember how we got through the asteroid field last time, which was done because I had hired the skilled navigator(s), pilots and crew in the first place, in other words…
I know how to delegate.
 
But in this case, when I turn to direct my vast promotional empire, there’s just lil ‘ol me to answer my call… Okay, not so accurate, Mylove has been there every step of the way – but she’s got her own job to do and think about, so I try not to burden her. Still, I try to be self-managing – she’s the one with the steady job!
 
And now, I’m done digressing… We are in this world “armies of one’s.”  I needed a plan. So, I bit the bullet and hired my PR firm for an additional 20 bucks a week to help with my social media. That alone will be a huge relief!  They feed my the facebook page for this website (Zuzubean Press) which I then slingshot with my personal FB page and then point two twitter accounts at to chase tweeters to go check out my website.
 
A quick note about this technique… facebook is on to us. And they will “throttle” (such an ugly term) but it amounts to “limiting” the amount of people who will see the post which significantly lower than the people you expect to see this – NOTE: they don not tell you this happening, and they make no apology for it. Yes, the world will see lil Susie’s princess costume for Halloween (and trust me – I do care, it’s pink afterall!) BUT the news about my book (which is the center of the universe and WILL cure all of society’s ills if bought immediately by everyone,) gets sent to a mere shadow of my former “friends list,” where’s the justice in that?
 
Beware, I had no idea that this was happening!  For days!  All I knew, was that my usually effusive friends (and well, okay they were family) seemed to be suddenly so bored with my postings that they couldn’t be bothered to even “like” me.
 
Turns out it’s the sinister disease described above – confirmed by Kenya at Book Nymph – and we got to work on work around. Around. (sorry couldn’t resist) which amounts to this. I pay the one dollar (yes, one green blooded American dollarino) to reach 1000 people. I’ve authorized Kenya to do this (heck it’s only a dollar right?) on my behalf (comes when I hired her to work my facebook page) and so far she’s rockin’ it – so here my delegation thingy is working, just like my daddy said it would.
 
So with that taken care of, it only requires me to monitor what pops up on my Zuzubean Press Page (which duplicates on the facebook launch party page for double impact)   and then I post what she posts on my personal page. So far here’s the results.
In the days before BN (Book Nymph) I had two page likes.
In the two weeks since she’s taken over: 149 likes, 1094, reached, and 1964 post engagements, Not too shabby.
 
As for other aspects of my delegation, it’s also working. I have dear angel in each of the locations where I will be making appearances to help with brainstorming, logistics and (full disclosure) the couch I will sleep on when I travel to their hood. This is a modle straight from my years of producing television – a location manager. The person who knows the locale better than I (even armed with Google) could ever match. These appearances start next week – I’ve got 2 engagements, book signings/launch parties in each of 4 regions in California. These local angels are also accessing their social networks in their areas to maximize attendance at each event.
 
Get me being all PR speakie… but it does sound a little cold – cuz the overall point I’m trying to make here is that, we as authors are used to going at it alone just us and our own work, pouring our hearts onto the page. But then, it becomes a team sport, an editor, and proofreader (or in my case an army, both in house and remotely) goes to town. And this is where our work gets fulfilling right before it gets to fruition. Because remember why we started on this journey in the first place?  Way back when you said, “Okay, time to start.” You were starting a dialogue with a reader and that’s almost going to happen at this stage of our book’s life…
 
As soon as we can get that calendar to fill up in just the right combination to fulfil your marketing scheme.
 
As my sainted father would say, “The three arrows in a leader’s quiver are organize, supervise, and deputize.” (Okay, He never did much care for grammar), And here, in this self-publishing world of “An Army of one” we might only get three shots…