Like a lot of people who have blogs, I’m a writer whose primary work is not on the blogsite.
I write fiction and nonfiction to upload to Kindle, and then struggle to bring these proverbial needles in a haystack to the attention of people who read books on screens.
When I tried to promote my first e-book, a novella titled Petra, I showed exactly how naïve a writer can be. The book itself had oodles of adult-level observations on the human condition, but when I tried to persuade others to read it I behaved like a teenager who was shocked at how many people were ignoring my genius. What an embarrassing thing to happen to a fifty-five year-old.
I wore a tee shirt with an image of the book cover on it. I tried to hand out business cards which barely anyone wanted. I mailed postcards. I left refrigerator magnets all over the Castro District in San Francisco.
Okay, a lot of those magnets might still be in people’s homes, holding newspaper clippings and important notices on refrigerator doors. However, if anyone who has used those magnets for the past few years is asked, that person probably can’t recall the title of the book or the author’s name without peeking.
I’ve advertised on various sites, with mixed results. Without going into specifics, let’s refer to pilot wisdom and say a good landing is any landing you can walk away from.
Now I’m hoping a presence on Goodreads can help me as much as it has helped some other writers.
If you have an account, please go to https://www.goodreads.com
Sign in, and enter Special Needs Helen Christie in the search space. When the book listing turns up on the screen, click my name under the title. That should take you to a complete list.
The list has two editions of essays about George Michael’s work, but the Third Edition is the one that’s currently available. All of the books are exclusively on Kindle.
Hint: Special Needs should have particular appeal to women who have dealt with hormone imbalances. It’s also a complete story dealing with different aspects of life and relationships, including relationships between LGBTQ parents and their children.
And Petra is pretty good, too. Here’s a photo of the tee shirt nobody noticed:
