It’s time for the next book on my reading list, and I am really not doing well at reading stuff I already have. Why did I tell myself I would do that if I was going to keep reading so many new books? In my defense, this one appeared at just the right time, and I had to read it right away.
The book in question is How to Market a Book: Overperform in a Crowded Market by Reedsy co-founder Ricardo Fayet. The Reedsy website has been absolutely invaluable to me during the pandemic. I’ve been participating in their weekly writing prompts contests in order to get myself back into writing on a more regular basis, and in order to challenge myself. I’ve also been taking many of their free courses to improve my writing skills. So, when I got one of their newsletter emails about Ricardo Fayet’s new book, I had to get it. This was a no-brainer for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’m taking the steps to get into the world of self-publishing and figured that I book like this would be a useful tool for me to have. Second, since I subscribed to the Reedsy newsletters, I received a discount code to get it FOR FREE. Yes, free. I can’t say no to that. And since this free copy came as an e-book, this crossed off one of the items off of the Indigo reading list: A book in another format (eBook / audiobook). I have a feeling that I’ll end up reading a few other eBooks this year, but this one didn’t really fit into any other categories on the list, so this became my official eBook pick for 2021.
As I mentioned, I’m trying to self-publish my work, so I didn’t just read this book for fun. I read it to learn. And boy did I learn.
I’m someone who can get overwhelmed easily (both my husband and my mother would tell you that that’s an understatement), so I did find this to be a somewhat overwhelming read. Around the time I started reading this book, I was only just starting to learn about the world of self-publishing. Really, the only thing that I knew was that I would have to be able to write. And that’s the easy part. Learning about the world of book marketing was a little stressful, especially when I got to the chapters that talked about math or the dreaded Amazon algorithm. And there’s more than just chapters about Amazon. There are chapters on how to succeed with all of the big eBook retailers out there. And there are chapters on how to set up your author website, your mailing list, your everything! There were things I had never even considered before, and things I had never heard of. This book was thorough and covered a lot of ground.
And yet, it wasn’t a dry read. For something this educational and informative, reading it could have easily been a mind-numbing experience. But it wasn’t. Fayet wrote this book in such a way that it is easy to understand and quick to read through, while providing in-depth analyses about the world of eBooks and self-publishing. And despite the fact that I found some chapters overwhelming, I found this book to be incredibly useful. Not only do I have a better idea of what I’m doing now when it comes to self-publishing, but I had a “eureka” moment while reading. Based on some of the suggestions for publishing series, I figured out a way to turn what I thought was a stand-alone story into a series of books! And so far, I am in love with what I’ve been writing for those.
On a more personal level, Fayet’s book helped me to better understand my husband’s job. Mark is a web developer for the marketing team of his company, so some of the things I came across in Fayet’s book reminded me about things Mark had mentioned about the nature of his work. And then I realized how incredibly lucky I am to have him for a husband. I’m going to need things like a mailing list and a website, and I’m married to someone who knows how to make those! And I know I’m biased, but he is really good at his job. Looks like I’ll have to cook a lot of fancy dinners to pay for his professional services.
So, yes, reading this book stressed me out a few times, but I am so glad that I read it. And if I hadn’t gotten it for free, this still would have been worth paying for. I’m just so grateful that Reedsy not only offered this book for free, but also offers free courses. I sure do love free stuff. Especially when education is involved.
