New Genre. Now I'm writing Mysteries! Marketing blues.

This marker in Key West marks the beginning of U.S. 1 at the most southern point of our country. Kind of reminds me of the beginning of launching a totally new genre for me -- mystery.

You'd think getting your books written, with covers and published you'd be home free. Nope. Every time you look at the book you find another error! But, the good thing about Create Space and Kindle Direct Publishing is that you can correct those errors.

The next step is the Marketing. I am lucky. I have a dear friend who is a Publicist and if I need her help, I know I can call upon her. She really puts you to work, however, arranging for festivals, book fairs and book signings. While I do enjoy those, they are exhausting. But necessary, I suppose.

I have found that whether you are with a big publishing house or self-publishing, the responsibility for marketing is primarily on the author's shoulders. So, today, I have worked on the Author pages of my website (http://www.sharmanbursonramsey.com), once again edited the newsletter/flyer I created for the Mint Julep series, and combed through my Contact list and divided it into groups. I chose a few of those groups to send the flyer to. Found an error in Wakefield and corrected it which required uploading a new copy. And now I am working on the blog.

I wonder who reads this and what they think when they do.

And I called my cousin, Clair, who let me read some of my book to her. She laughed at all the right parts and then went to Kindle and downloaded Book 1, Creme de Cassis and Murder. She always has been one of my favorite cousins. Those with whom we grow up are so much a part of us that when we write, they must always become a part of the fictional world we create. I wonder if she will see a bit of herself in my books. She invited me to call her back and read to her some more. Is it any wonder I love her?

I have encouraged everyone I have contacted to pass the newsletter/flyer on and to write a review. Those truly matter. I will find out if there remains a bias if one publishes through Createspace. It's a new world out there on the literary playing field. I think of Stephanie McAffee's success with her Diary of a Mad Fat Girl. 122,000 copies sold the first year. No agent would take her before she self-published the book. Afterward they were knocking at her door. I'm sure there are lots of books out there that remained in drawers because they crossed an agents desk on a bad day or on a day she/he had already read their quota and didn't like the title so they filed it in the round file.

At least I pulled my books out of the file. I'll give it my best shot. I encourage those of you who read this to do the same thing! Nothing ventured nothing gained, you know.