Authors and Marketing... do or die (or?)

I have to be honest, I haven't had the time to make any sort of marketing during this... ok since a few months.
The problem starts with a vicious circle, follow me:

Question: what is a writer?
A writer is a person who can bring to life stories that are only in her mind. The creative power is his/her best ally, and sometimes he/she is blessed with an overflow of ideas that need to be bled literally on the paper (or on the screen, if you prefer).

Therefore the writer writes, and if he/she wants to survive, she also needs to produce something new with a certain frequency (I can't do more than three novels a year).

Now the problem I find myself stuck in is the time factor. In my everyday life my day starts at six am with a merciless alarm clock, within 30 minutes (on summer when I use my bicycle), or 50 minutes (on winter when I walk) I am at work in my office.

My day has not a steady routine, and things can go from the normal 7,5 hours a day to the part take-the-first-plane-and-reach-the-working-site. In that case, it means that all hell broke loose and I will have to stay away from home between one day or a week.

Let's say that my day is blessed and I get out at 15:00, maximum 16:00 I am home.
Take care of the evil bunny and the regular chores, write some more of the next novel and research for it, and we are at 18:30 when together with my husband I enjoy my dinner and evening until 21:00.

At that point, I write some more, plan the next cover and blurb, check what's going on on the social, prepare some new banner ideas posts for the following day, and it is already 22:30... time to go to sleep, if I want to wake up the morning after and be effective at work.

The only time I have to learn something about marketing is during the weekends when also my brain needs some recharging, and I am, threrefore, less effective.

My question is that you don’t learn to be a marketer in a couple of days or neither in a couple of years unless you are going to learn it full time. Full time is a luxury I don’t have, and if I have to start really to learn marketing, using the few minutes a day, it will take me other 20 years.

Do I have 20 years in my life to dedicate and learn marketing? Yes.
Is it worth it? Probably not because marketing is something that evolves with the time.

20 years of learning the basics and I will find myself with outdated knowledge I have no use for.
Moreover, I would like to sell something before 20 years.

So should find a marketer who has experience with new authors who are starting their journey, so they do not have an established readership. I need someone to take me from where I am to a steady and constant organic sale.

I believe that few of us, indie authors, are able to manage to learn marketing strategies and succeed to gain readers and sell a discreet amount of books. We are not all the same, and particularly I am the worst marketer in this world. It is just not my cup of tea, I can write, and that’s what I do, but at a certain point, I would also love to reach a wider audience.

The dilemma of an indie writer goes on….

Three years of blogging. Past, Present and Future.

Image by Kevin King(Chandana Perera) from Pixabay

Far from being a lesson in grammar, this post is going to be a sort of going through the history of the blog "Paper Pen and Inkwell."
The first thing that comes to my mind is why did I start blogging?
Well, at that time I was just starting my brand new career in being a published author, and I was just going through all the possibilities I had to be noticed by the big crowd of authors, and content online.
At the question what next? in the marketing process, the possibilities of blogging were indeed something highly recommended, so I decided to give it a try, the problem then was the name of the blog, which would have become my brand.
The name Paper Pen and Inkwell came from a very old way of saying at school when you were prompted to write something. "Prepare paper pen and inkwell" so to be ready to write.
I consider myself a very nostalgic person, and although I like the advantage of technology, I also look back at those times where we needed to do everything on our own without any automation.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Then came out what to write, I didn't have many writing experiences to write, and definitely, I could not give advice to anyone since I was the one in dire need of them.
One thing, though I had done extensively in my life, and that was traveling, and considering that my travels have been quite extreme, I decided to share them with the rest of the world.
That's how also the "Wandering Writer" was born.
That's how I depict myself, this is not only because of the travels I am doing around the world but also because of the extensive travels I go with my imagination when I am writing my stories. Those can be invented places or really existing ones.
Now after having described all the experiences, I have acquired during my travels I had to change a bit the topics unless I wanted to blog only the months when I am traveling or when I have a new novel coming out.
This doesn’t mean that the Wandering Writer is no more here but she is traveling differently exploring new topics, and that is also a sort of journey.
I also started to share my passion for photography, which has been a never-ending journey in learning new techniques, practicing combinations, acquiring new objectives for the cameras, and dreaming on those subject that is for the moment not at my reach (but they will be one day).
Now after three years of blogging, I think I have learned that you do not need necessarily to stick on one single topic in your blog. Whatever is in your heart, every story that needs to be told is worth the time of a blog. The experiences shared might help someone else too.
Paper Pen and Inkwell is a name that can include everything that is written, and I am glad to have chosen such a versatile name. I have to admit that initially, I was wondering whether this was the right one or should I have used as a more specific name either connected to traveling or to writing, but then, thinking twice, this was just perfect and describes the Wandering Writer in its essence.
What about the future then? Well, the future holds at least I hope, more travels, more novels more pictures taken, more experiences. As once I said we are planning our escape from the rat race, and at the moment we are at the count -4.45 years (LOL).
Indeed, the future holds a lot of uncertainties too, and I cannot really tell for sure what will actually happen. One thing I want to let you know is that whatever it will be, I will write it here on my blog.
I wish you all a great Weekend!!