So, what's this blog for anyway? I'm planning to dedicate this blog to my writing efforts. I've had a lot of people ask what it's like to write a book and get it out to market and so forth. (I can comfortably say that the easiest part is writing. Getting it published - and noticed - is much more taxing and difficult.)

I've got several writing projects. Most of them were just for fun, but several were instructional (such as a Norwegian grammar quick reference book I put together years ago). Up until recently, I had one novel in print (The Title of Liberty, which is a novelization of the Captain Moroni and Stripling Warriors saga). That book has been available in many bookstores, including Deseret Book, Seagull Books, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, etc.

Last year, I met the Hill Brothers who were selling a timeline of the Book of Mormon in the University Mall, in Orem, Utah. It was one of those temporary stores that is rented just for the Christmas season. They agreed to sell "Title" there as well. They also agreed to let me do some book signings. This was a major step for me because Deseret and Seagull - although they were selling my book - would not let me do booksignings in their stores. It seemed to me that ultimately the reason was because I was not published by their publishing companies.

When everything was said and done, the Hill Brothers found that their sales doubled or tripled when I (or others) were there doing signings. It increased traffic for them, which increased sales. This year, they gave me a call and asked if I wanted to sell "Title" with them again. They also asked if I "had anything else" that I could sell there.

It turns out that I had a Christmas novel that I've been working on called, "The Shopping Cart Man". I hadn't planned on doing anything with it until next year, though, because I knew I'd missed all of the publishers' deadlines for this year. I wasn't even trying to meet their deadlines. I was just writing it and enjoying that. I figured I'd simply hold off on getting it "published" until next year.

Well, with the opportunity to have it sold in a store in the mall, that is in a prime location (across from Deseret Book), and have salespeople willing to push it, I figured "Why not?" I decided to do a small run of the book and see how sales went. I could still approach publishers with it next year. With any luck, word of mouth would spread about the book and maybe it would get noticed.

So, although I had vowed I wouldn't self-publish, I went ahead and did so anyway. Now, I'm in the throes of self-promoting the work. THAT'S the part that's a killer.

In case there are any other writers out there bold enough to try the same route, I'll share some of my experiences so you can get ideas of what to try and what to avoid. One thing I've learned is that there aren't many strangers out there rooting for you to succeed - friends and relatives will give much-needed encouragement - but those who don't know you will seldom see a need to open doors for you. There's an awful lot of self-promotion and persistence that need to take place. It's not an activity for the shy or timid...

Read the original "Lines of our Times" post here.