My Author’s Marketing Journey

I’ve decided to start blogging about my marketing and promotion plan as an independent author in the hopes that other writers, debarking on the path to publishing a book, might benefit from my process, mistakes, and ideas.

First of all, a little about myself. I am a college English professor who has published books before. But until now, my books have been either academic scholarship or poetry with small presses. I just wrote and published my first novel, Ivory Tower. Because I wrote what I consider to be a commercial piece of fiction, I decided to start with getting an agent who could sell my book. After all, agents are mostly sales people who know the publishing world and connect authors with that world for a piece of the action. Why not get them working for me?

After searching for months for an agent, I decided to go with a hybrid publishing house, Atmosphere Press, run by a colleague of mine, Nick Courtright. I respected Nick as a poet, so I trust that he would give my novel a close read, and he did, which is why I agreed to go with Atmosphere and pay its reasonable fee for services. You can learn more about what they do here.

Although Atmosphere provides many great services, particularly at the editing, copy writing, and design stages, their promotion and marketing is limited, which means authors, like me, are pretty much on our own in hawking our wares.

Since I’m a researcher, the first thing I did was research self-publishing and marketing. There are a lot of great resources for self- and semi-self-publishing authors on the internet and in print, and I recommend starting with ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors, a nonprofit dedicated to helping us independent writers reach our goals. Another great resource for agents, publishers, and review outlets is Poets & Writers, a one-stop shop for writers at any stage. Nick turned me on to the latter, though I should have known better.

Anyway, through my research, I was able to formulate my own marketing plan that involves getting my book on Amazon and other web sellers (I had help with that from Atmosphere, another great service they provide), using social media, getting reviews, placing my book in bookstores and libraries.

Oh, and a major part of making your marketing plan is having a reasonable timeline. Word to the wise: you should start planning marketing at least 4 months your book before your book is going to be released. Not accepted for publication, released. I wish someone had told me that sooner. But don’t worry, there are plenty of success stories about authors who marketed their book even after it was published, like best-seller, Rachel Abbott.

The key to promoting and selling your book, it seems to me, is persistence. Once you have a plan, you have to follow through and stay up on it because it’s a long haul. That’s my biggest problem, I think, sustaining my efforts at a finished project while life goes on.

Today, for example, I spent about 4 hours working on promotion, including an hour-long conversation with author, Cheryl Pallant, in which I ask her to write a blurb/review and to which she gracious agreed. I also corresponded with Nick Courtright about some questions I had, and he informed me that pre-order is now available on Amazon, so I linked it to my website, as well as linked it to my Amazon author page. 

I also requested reviews today from writers, Rilla Askew and Jeff Martin, two local literati that I highly respect. I have to admit that I really don’t know many fiction writers that I can call on to write reviews, sad to say. I gotta work on that. I have been corresponding with Kyle T. Cowan on this book, so I might hit him up for a blurb. I lengthened my review list, by the way, and sent a copy off to City Books for their Tulsa edition. 

Up until now, over the past month or so, I have done other things for promotion:

  • Purchased and made an author website
  • Got Barry Friedman to agree to write a blurb
  • Submitted to Austin review magazine, Newfound, I’m not sure it will be a good fit, but the worst thing they can do is say “no,” right?
  • Wrote an advance info sheet (a marketing tool that publishers us to promo their books – google it)
  • Read and researched various aspects of self-publishing, including how to get your book in bookstores and libraries. 
  • Been scouring Poets & Writers for review venues

An Inspiration

As I was working on Ivory Tower, so many relevant stories were happening in the news that made writing my novel feel like writing non-fiction: the multiple rape cases at Baylor, the prostitution ring in the basketball program at Louisville, the protection of a prized athlete and alleged sexual predator at my own institution.

But none of these was more inspiring than the story, trial, and open letter in the case of Chanel Miller, the sexual assault victim of Brock Turner, an athlete at Stanford University. During the trial in which Turner was convicted, Miller read a shocking and heart-felt letter to the jury that expressed her moral outrage at the way Turner presented himself as the real victim and was coddled by the Judge and defense attorneys. Judge Aaron Perksy famously said that “[a] prison sentence would have a severe impact on him” and cut a potential 14-year sentence to 3 months. Miller’s letter eloquently explains the “severe impact” that Brock’s choices have had on her and will have on her for the rest of her life.

After almost four years of anonymity, Chanel has at last revealed her identity in a stunning new memoir titled Know My Name. Fashioned after the famous catch phrase of the main character in the hit TV drama, Breaking Bad, the title of Miller’s book evokes the power of addressing and facing the culture of rape in America, particularly at in athletic programs at American universities.

getting close

Proofs are proofread, edits are edited, layouts are laid out, and the cover is covered. It’s getting close to release time for my new novel, Ivory Tower, from Atmosphere Press. The culmination of 4 years of work, Ivory Tower, is finally coming to fruition.

If you are a fan, you may have followed the progress of the novel on Wattpad, the online community for writers and readers. You can see my profile and read an excerpt from Ivory Tower here. I appreciate those who have taken the time to follow along, and now it’s coming to life in the real world.

I’ll post links when I know the official release date. The next step is to hold a proof copy in my hand, and I’ll be sure to post a pic. Can’t wait to show the world this story that has meant so much to me for so long.

Ivory Tower, a novel

by Grant Matthew Jenkins

Ivory Tower is the new novel by Grant Matthew Jenkins in which intrepid film professor, Margolis Santos, rallies a ragtag band of women to take on a corrupt university football program that is paying sorority girls to sleep with start recruits.

A novel for the #MeToo era, Ivory Tower tackles the sexual assault scandals that have rocked big-time college football since Southern Methodist University received the dreaded ‘death-penalty’ in 1987 for violations of NCAA. Since then cases of sexual exploitation, assault, and corruption have plagued university athletics programs all over the country.

Read how Prof. Santos and her intrepid band of fed-up women take on billionaire boosters, a university president, and the culture of rape at Athens University in a desperate attempt to break up this illegal scheme to make football king again on campus.