Editing or promoting

Rainy Day Romances

 Recently on the Amazon Forums, the question was asked-- what is most important-- editing or promoting? Actually I thought it's like so many such questions-- why does there have to be an either/or? Both are important. One comes first but without the other, who will see that perfect editing job?

One writer said their readers would do their promoting by word of mouth. Now that's a nifty idea but how often do we tell someone else about all the books we are reading? I've certainly read a few books based purely on word of mouth-- sometimes regretfully. Most of what I read I stumble across one way or another.

It's a given that if the books are not well edited, it won't matter how much you promote. Or... is it? The Fifty Shades of Grey books are not particularly well-edited or well-written and yet millions of copies have sold (I bought them to see what the heck the excitement was about), and a movie will be made from them. I can think of others like that. So, poorly edited but wisely promoted can sell if they have that certain something-- whatever that is.

I work hard on editing, making my stories tell the story I had in mind, but accept that they aren't necessarily going to appeal to all readers even in their genre. Writing and editing go hand in hand and you can't have one without the other.

come up with an idea

think where it's going

write 
stir imagination
write 
reconsider 

retrench

write 
use dreams
write

finish

give it a break

edit

edit again

wait at least a month

edit again

ready it

look at it one more time

Editing is a lot of work. I learned a lot about it from years in school as well as spending some serious money working with a professional consulting writer, whose credentials were the books she'd edited which had sold well.

Basically, editing is about grammar and learning how to make the words take the reader where the writer wants. Bad writing, not caught by good editing leaves for confused reading and betrays the story.

Promoting is harder for me and probably a lot of creative people. Some of my difficulty is that I don't quite fit the niches-- and never did. I literally don't know how to be sure my books will be seen by those most likely to enjoy them. How do you learn such? You keep trying and working at it.

There is some chance my titles will be found on a search engine which is why I have this blog in my name. To add to that possibility, I've added a new blog as a way to reach a few more of the search engine readers.

The new blog, Rainy Day Romances, will be just about the books with no how-to-do-it part, nothing about me beyond what the profile says. It will be a simple approach to what romances are about-- I hope with an easy way to find mine. It will be open to reviews of romances that others have read or written. Besides promoting my books, it'll be about the genre and why it has value.

As happens so often with promotional ideas-- I'm winging it. Will it work? who knows? I know a lot more about editing than I do promoting.

Image on top is part of one I purchased the rights to use. In one form or another, it'll be on the cover of the second in my Oregon historical romance series-- assuming I figure out this promoting business. I truly do feel there is no reason to bring out more books before I have a way to get them seen by those most apt to consider buying them. I have a feeling there is a way, and I will find it :).