Brendan & Lori O'Gara

We have been told that we have to treat this book publishing gig as one would any other business. We hesitated, because for us it is not a business, it is a way of life.

In any case, we decided to take a look at what a writing business would look like for us. My husband and I have the long standing agreement when it comes to our work as authors. We both write the words and create the stories. He is the research department. He has worked his way up to director from his previous position as my research assistant. When we need facts he is the one who finds them and fleshes them out. If I can’t remember how to spell a word, he is my thesaurus. I am the marketing department and business manager. I create all the branding and marketing items. I manage the social media accounts and he assists with the distribution. We both have 100 % stake in the virtual company and as such have equal shares. Neither one of us has controlling interest. We confer and agree on all the details of a story, the process and the results. By virtue of our easy relationship we agree on most things.

I tell you all that to tell you this….so, marketing, that’s me. I have been struggling with new and creative book marketing ideas. We want our books, stories and characters to speak for themselves. We want our work to stand out and be unique in the sea of authors. The problem is we don’t want to only do the traditional advertising as everyone else in the world of books is doing. That sort of marketing is focused on attempting to catch a sale statistic. It is all about numbers and dollars. It is dominated by social media, email marketing and ads on Amazon. We do social marketing and we keep stats, but we don’t want to ONLY do that sort of thing. We want our stories to connect with readers and we want to make life long connections with people. We like people. People make for the best stories. We are in the business of sharing stories.

We want real life experiences with real people. How cool would it be to meet in person and have readers yell at me for killing the cowboy? I want to hear what you think about the direction our work is headed. It is starting to morph into a creature of momentous proportion. I am bursting to tell you, but I can’t spoil it. I can hear River Song saying, “Careful spoilers!”

To make these types of connections with readers, I am thinking about book readings in coffee houses, signings in unusual places and conversations about books we love sitting on the white sands of Perdido Key. We want to hear and share stories. We want to share amazing food and wine with vibrant people. We want our book business to be our life and share that life with readers and dreamers.

To start this new edventure, we have planned the book launch for The Travelers’ Song at a lively venue. It is called Level Up Gaming. You might be wondering why launch a novel at a game store? Simple, the book is a high fantasy novel based on characters that we and our friends played in an old school D&D game back in the day. Think Lord of the Rings meets The Princess Bride…sort of. The best part about launching a book at Level Up, some of the most fascinating people on this planet will be there.

The point of this new marketing plan is to make real connections, meet people where they are, have real conversations about things that they want to talk about, and live an authentic life away from screens. Doesn’t that sound fun to you?

If you want to meet us, have any ideas of places we can go to meet people or other suggestions, drop us a note via the “Contact” tab above. We look forward to meeting you.

Lori O’Gara

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com