Before I took the self publishing route I did the query thing, sending query letters to agent after literary agent and once in a while hitting up those few publishers who didn’t require agent submissions.

Like so many writers all I really did was collect a big pile of rejections. And I was puzzled by some of the rejections. It was clear that more than a few agents didn’t seem to really read what I sent them.

That’s when I emailed a professional romance writer, a writer who had posted an article about writing query letters. I told her that it seemed as if the agents only skimmed over my query letters for just a few seconds. She said that was accurate. This is how she put it: Every literary agent of note has a huge stack of queries, and they whip through them the way you channel surf. When you channel surf, you just keep hitting the channel button, skipping from channel to channel until you see something interesting and then you stop. She told me to think of it that way.

Personally I can envision it. On social media I promote my books, but I also scan through what other authors are offering up, in part because I want to see what they are doing, what kind of material they are pushing, and how they present themselves. But I’m also on the lookout for books that I like, and every now and then while going through post after tweet after comment, I stop and check something out because it looks neat, or interesting, or just fun.

I can’t check out every book I pass over. That Sci Fi novel with an okay title and a kind-of-neat cover might actually be a really good and captivating book, but I can’t stop and look at all of them. Which is the other point about marketing and trying to get noticed: There are simply so many writers out there working and promoting and producing books. So many books! Which is one of the reasons it’s so difficult to promote oneself. It’s crowded!

Which can be really deflating. Marketing is, by far, the toughest part of writing. Writing the book and stories is the easy part. Trying to get noticed is tough. But another marketer offered words of hope which we can all latch onto. When an agent is looking through a stack of queries, they are not looking for a reason to toss aside a query, not watching out for that flag that will give them permission to reject it. They are looking at queries because they want to find that gem, that hook, that book that they can get into and publish and promote. They are looking with hope, not disdain and dismissal.

But then there’s the social media forest. Authors on social media are really supportive of each other, especially on Twitter. We do a lot of cross promoting and interacting, asking each other questions and seeking out advice. But trying to attract buyers is another story. I’ve sold a few books to other authors, and I’ve bought a few as well. But the readers are the ones we want to reach, and that is definitely a challenge.

I talked to a charity promoter and she told me that you have to think quick to grab peoples attention, that you basically have literally only seconds to pique their interest as they scroll through their social media feeds. This is where you have to think like a used car sales person, and I don’t have the confidence in myself that I can do that just yet, at least not like a real marketer. Sure, I’ve tried out a clickbait-ish title now and then for some of my posts, and have led off with some openers that I hoped would grab peoples attention, but it’s still a struggle to go fishing for people who will read your blogs, check out your excerpts, and toss your book a look.

I have tried paid ads, but they have not been any more effective than just rousting about social media. I’ve been tempted to try a promotional service, but I am wary of doing so. I get suspicious that I will be tossing what little promotional funds I have at something which won’t get me any real results. I assume I feel that way because my paid advertisements didn’t work. That and I’m wary of scam artists. How warranted that fear is I cannot say.

In any case, I soldier on, waiting for one of my works or my blog to go viral. Who knows, maybe I’ll get into the news for a good or embarrassing or ridiculous reason, and then my works will take off!