The Magic of Marketing

In the world of dreams, a writer often imagines that the bulk of the work is done when the first draft is complete. It’s a persistent illusion, but one which needs to be shattered.

Apart from the fact that, in practice, completing a first draft is only about 20% of the work in producing a fully publishable novel, even when the thing is published (traditionally or using self-publishing) the work of getting it into the hands of readers has scarcely begun. The terrible truth is that, if your goal as a writer is to take a concept from your imagination and have it appear as though teleported or telepathically transmitted into the minds of readers, then a considerable proportion of that transference occurs in the hard, physical world and involves the movement of the solid (or electronic) copies of books into the hands (or onto the screens) of readers.

If that world is alien to you, or you don’t feel competent in it, the thing to do is to get someone who can do it for you: a marketing person.