WELL READ Magazine April 2024

“… authors have been pushing their work and themselves for as long as the written word has been around. There were probably a few disgruntled writers at the manna bar grousing about Moses’ outlandish gimmick with those stone tablets.”

Hello. I’m Not Selling Anything by Deborah-Zenha Adams

We’re all targets, aren’t we? Marketers of one sort or another are always trying to pry a few (or a lot) of pennies out of our hands in exchange for merchandise or information. People who study such things say that we each see about 10,000 ads every day on social media. How many more pop into our email boxes and our television screens? On our phones? In mailboxes? Billboards? It wears me out. How about you?

Years ago I ran into a woman who’d been a sales rep for one of my publishers. She wasn’t with that company any longer, she said. She gave her resignation the day they stopped selling books and started selling “units.” I admire her dedication to the literary arts, and I love her idealism. Books—indeed, literature in any form!—should be above the gutter of commercialism. If only writers could live on high mindedness and good wishes.

Marketing madness had already started when my first book was published in the dark ages of the 1990s.Authors in Hats was a thing. Oh, and there was that time the author told a room full of readers that they should buy her book because, she said, “It’s excellent.” Much was made of these blatant examples of self-promotion, and I recall muttered pleas for a return to decorum and modesty in the literary world. Now publishers require a marketing plan along with a cover letter and sample chapters. Having a platform and a billion followers is requisite. Connections, networks, and perhaps underground tunnels connecting the author to Oprah’s soundstage are necessary before contracts will be signed.

Listen, I’m not oblivious to the ways of the world. I understand that an author who rests in the shadows will be ignored. No one will buy a book they’ve never heard of, and people are far more likely to buy books by people they’ve met. I also know that authors have been pushing their work and themselves for as long as the written word has been around. There were probably a few disgruntled writers at the manna bar grousing about Moses’ outlandish gimmick with those stone tablets.

Is there a way to get the word out about our work without metaphorical megaphones? There must be, and I want to hear from you about this. Send me your ideas for promotion that don’t require authors to stand naked on rooftops while spouting cover blurbs. Tell me how you’ve subverted the expectations.

Over the past few years I’ve turned my own blog into a space for promoting other writers’ works. I post an occasional review, but mostly I use guest posts and author interviews from writers whose work I enjoy. My guidelines stress that there be NO gratuitous self-promotion in their responses; instead, I post book covers and summaries along with purchase links at the end of the post. This allows blog visitors to get the information they’re promised without having to slog through ads and blatant self promotion.

My website, like any writer’s, contains the requisite links for purchasing my books. There’s also a page with links to my published work that’s online. Again…I’m not oblivious. Feel free to ignore all of that. I don’t have a mission statement (it’s a blog, for goodness’ sake!), but here’s what it’s about:

I bring in professional writers and editors, and they offer great advice to writers, readers, and anyone interested in creative writing. It's all completely free. You are cordially invited to visit my blog. You’re under no obligation, and no salesman will call.

Deborah Zenha Adams is an award-winning author of novels, short fiction, CNF, and poetry. She served as executive editor of Oconee Spirit Press for ten years, and is currently a reader for Boomerlit.

She has been a guest speaker at numerous events, including Southern Festival of Books, Appalachian Studies Conference, Warioto Regional Library Board of Trustees Conference, Southeastern Booksellers Association, Georgia Library Association Convention, Emory University, East Tennessee State University Writers Program, and many others. She is a lifetime member of the Southern Literary Coalition.

Deborah-Zenha is available for interviews, speaking, and author events. Her signature workshops include Write Your Memoir (even if you aren’t a writer) and Write Your Yoga Memoir.