They lied!

I have to what?

When I started writing, I had illusions of my stories being so captivating the agents and publishing houses would line up to sign me. I'd shoot straight to the top of the New York Time's Best Seller list, and Hollywood would come calling to produce films of all my books--just how the TV shows and movies presented writers.

Weeelllll, that's not exactly how things happened... not even close. I did get my very first effort at writing published as well as almost every book I've written since, but I learned, very quickly, I was expected to put a great deal of effort in advertising and marketing my own books.

What? I'm an artist. I write the books. Why do I need to market the books?

TV and Hollywood lied to us, ladies and gentlemen. With as many choices as readers have in this day and age, a writer must become their own advertiser and marketing wizard. Our Rogue Phoenix Publishing house has a pair of bulldog owners who work harder than anyone I know to advertise and get the name of the authors and their books on as many websites, Facebook pages, sale outlets and reader sites as they can. But they are only able to do so much.

Even the major publishing houses will ask their new authors, "What is your platform?" For those not in the know, they are asking how you, the writer of the book, plan to get your name in front of as many set of eyes as possible. No free rides anymore.

So there you have it. Plan your advertising attacks with a goal in mind... sell as many books as you can. Be confident. If you can write a book of [insert outrageous figure here] words, you can suck up your fears and do some blogging, guest hosting, Good Reads-ing, whatever it takes-ing to make your name a household word. The writing gods will smile on you.

Sable Angel