Another great podcast from Simon over at Rocking Self Publishing.  This time it’s an interview with Kevin Leigh, indie author of Gollup the Woods, Twin Power, a book for young adults based on stories his father used to tell the family about Ireland. In his real life Kevin handles digital marketing for a chain of auto dealerships, and he’s leveraged some serious marketing know-how into his promotional work for his book. The whole episode is filled with great advice.

A couple of key points for me from this one:

Point Number One: Don’t Panic

As is often the case, as I was listening I began to get a little overwhelmed by the number of different things you can do to promote a book (and the thought of how much time and effort it would take to get each of them up and running). I think the best approach is probably to absorb it all, then set out to try at least one or two that seem like they make the most sense for you.

In my case, I was not so thrilled about sending an email to my Outlook contacts via Mailchimp. However, I did like the idea of using Google’s shortlinks to help me track the traffic to my blog, so I’m trying that.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of using a digital text reader to help with the editing, so maybe I’ll try that as well.

Onward and upward!

Point Number Two: About Simon

Simon is not an author but an audiobook reader! His podcast comes from an interest in self-publishing and a desire to put his recording equipment to good use. What a great idea – people who listen to the podcast will surely get a great sense of how their book will sound with him as the narrator.

But Simon, why not put some information about this on your about page? Your modesty in this area seems at odds with all the good marketing advice you and your guests have been providing!