Writer.Editor.Storyteller.

My experiment in self-publishing continues! Last week I whipped up a press release and sent it to the newspaper where I began my career — giving them the first shot at the story. I love this paper, it epitomizes what’s great about local news organizations. They cover those tedious meetings where local government hash out the little details that really effect the lives of people.

I can’t say enough good things about this paper and all the ones like it across the country that cover all the little things that bigger news outlets pay no attention to. But like many other tiny, community newspapers The Citizen is not on the web. That means no links to the Fiona vs. the Foot Tickler’s Amazon page… so I wondered how it would actually effect sales.

Well, since the story came out on Thursday, I’ve sold as many books as I had in the 3 months prior (maybe even more). Now, that’s not saying much, but it’s something and it’s obviously a response to the story. I even got a DM today on Twitter from someone who had read the story and was excited to read the book.

But old-fashioned PR isn’t the only thing I’m up to. I also decided to start a Paper.li about self-publishing, to help  aggregate the wisdom of a number of DIYers in one place. Not totally sure how this is supposed to help me sell books, but we’ll see…

Now all I have to do is get my act together to get the print-on-demand version from CreateSpace ready for all those hungry readers.