Carmen DeSousa

Thankfully, when I decided to start my career as a full-time author, I had a few things working for me. First, I'd spent years in sales and marketing, so I knew the importance of building a brand. Eighteen months before I published my first book, I'd already started all my social pages, connected with many like-minded authors, and of course, met other avid-readers who shared my love of reading.  Second, through my ventures, I also met a publisher, which certainly made it easy for me, since I had someone who knew all the ropes when it came to publishing. But, I still needed sales, and let's face it ... even though I met a lot of great people, that would only take my career so far. I needed to meet the masses.  So, I set out with a plan to meet the avid-reading community. That's not as easy as it sounds. Honestly, as I look back, I can tell you the number one way I met readers was through Amazon's Kindle Select program. By offering my firs...

 Don’t look at the rocks below, keep your eye on the wave, and ride it all the way to shore. Does that translate? I think so. I don’t think you have to be a surfer to get that analogy, and you certainly don’t have to be able to surf well—I can attest to that. Thank goodness for web-surfing, because I never was good at it, even though I grew up in Cocoa Beach, home of Ron Jon’s Surf Shop if you didn’t know. Anyway, how does this relate to writing? It doesn’t. It relates to selling. Here’s what I learned in the last couple of years: · Writing is easy; writing well is fractionally harder · Writing a query letter and synopsis is harder than writing a novel · Querying an agent or publisher is agony, way harder than writing a novel ·  But the hardest part of writing a novel, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is selling your novel. It’s a nightmare! Especially when you realize that although most authors are a little wacky and flamboya...