A light bulb has gone off in my head. Arts and crafts shows! Or similar.

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I'm thinking hard, because I've made so much progress in the last few weeks that I actually think I will be ready to publish in the coming year. I've said it, repeatedly, but I've never truly believed it. Suddenly, I do. Why can't I set up at an arts and craft show, sell my paper dolls and paper toys really cheap, ninety-nine cents, say, and display my book? Why can't I set up on a fine day in a crowded supermarket parking lot? I'll have to check that out. Will they let me? Any way to drive traffic to my website, and to BC, Amazon, etc.

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I believe I've solved problem number one of the three major problems I have with my proposed novella. The research I do for my second road block may take care of the third as well. They are more or less related. I need to delve into the Elizabethan underworld and Walsingham's spy network. I have a lot of reading to do, but I am really elated.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/2/2013, 7:07 PM--

Thanks, Aira.

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Also: Etsy ... Ebay. Anybody got any other ideas?

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All I hope for at art shows is to pay for the cost of the booth. Well, maybe help pay for the printing of the paper doll as well. On good stock, full color, or stapled in a paper doll book. Now I've got to start researching printing costs.

Arts and crafts shows can be good. I know of a guy in a town down the road that sells his books at the Saturday morning farmer's market.

Do you have locally owned arts and crafts shops in your area? How about leaving a few books on consignment? No risk for the shop owner, and you can give her a few dollars for each copy sold. I heard of another guy who sold a lot of books when he put up a display box in the waiting area of a car repair shop. People bought the book when they came in for an oil change.Local shop owners are your friends.

I have a fairly focused audience for my short stories, and when the second collection come out this month I'll have a regular ad in a club newsletter with a circulation of several hundred. I also write creative nonfiction for two local outlets for free, just for the exposure.

Marketing is my least favorite part of this whole business. Self published writers are really out there on their own. I've learned that even if you're working with a traditional publisher, most of the marketing/selling is on the author.

Promotion? You folks ain't heard nothing yet.

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My cat is a (humorous, adorable) rock-solid atheist. It's not the core of the story, it's a paragraph or two now and again of amusing fluff. A major row erupts when King Rupert, fearing for his little friend's immortal soul, wants to get him baptized. Cover your ass, that's the king's thinking. The king's not playing with a full deck, I've made that clear from the start. That's the section I'm working on now, and it's priceless.

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After I'm published, I will contact Atheists of America to see if they would be interested in recommending it to their membership. That should get me some press, if nothing else.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/5/2013, 6:22 PM--