Guest Post: Why I Chose to Self-Publish, Jonathan Poku

I’ve always believed that I shouldn’t expect others to invest in me if I am not willing to invest in myself and that it would be great to own my own business. This is why self-publishing is so appealing to me. As an independent writer life is never dull because I need to be a jack of all trades. Unlike my signed counterparts all of my energy cannot be focused on just writing because I have to do all the jobs a publisher usually gets a team to handle i.e. commissioning art work, editing, signing off artwork and marketing.

As an independent author I am extremely grateful for the rise of the e-Book and companies like Amazon and smashwords because they have made publishing and distribution easier.  However, I am still aware that although it is easier to publish and distribute my books online marketing and promotion is still the backbone to the success of any product and marketing and promotion takes a lot of time and effort.

As a writer it is important for me to hone my craft through practice and observation. However it is also important for me to master social media and marketing because my success as a writer is intertwined with my ability to find my target audience, communicate the existence of my books to them and to engage with them.

Marketing  an e-Book can consist of blogging, leasing with bloggers, organising reviews and giveaways, partaking in kindle select, engaging with potential audiences on different social networks like Goodreads, Facebook, authors Den; creating trailers and art work, analysing the success of your marketing endeavours and learning from them.

Every day I try to allocate time to writing and marketing because I believe that if you take one step towards your dreams everyday sooner or later you will reach your destination.

I have recently published my debut fictional book called Borlosanti and I am offering all of the readers of this blog a free copy of my book for a limited period of time only. If you would like a free copy please email me at jonathanpoku@yahoo.co.uk with the subject free giveaway. Please remember to inform me what format you would like the e-book in.
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Thanks Jonathan for stopping by! Make sure to get your free copy of Borsolaniti!