There
are three ten-year-old boys on my son’s baseball team that are so afraid of
getting hit by a pitch thrown from another kid that they back out of the
batter’s box as the ball comes to the plate. They fail to move the bat off
their shoulders. They have nothing to do
with their own fate. By luck, they may
get to first base on a walk, purely due to the pitcher lacking the ability to
throw the ball over the plate. Perhaps
the pitcher doesn’t realize the batter is a statue, with no intention of
letting the bat hit the ball, as if two polar-opposite magnets were near each
other, repelling one another. As the
team’s manager, I find it frustrating to watch and discouraging to experience. I so badly want to help them, but it’s a
psychological barrier that they must cross.
I can encourage them and support them and give them all kinds of reasons
to swing, but in the end, it’s up to them to realize that being scared serves no
purpose, that they deprive themselves of potential rewards, that they dictate
their destiny.
The same
can be said with authors and book promoters.
Plenty of authors fear media attention or even the effort and process to
contact the media to seek out exposure that will sell books, establish their
brand and spread the word about their words.
This is to every writer out there: get in the batter’s box and
swing. The worst you could do is miss,
but at least you try. And the more you
try, the more likely you’ll get a few hits, and start scoring.
However,
I realize I can’t just give you a pep talk and go rah rah rah and all of a
sudden see you on the Today Show. I know it doesn’t work that way, just as
talking to eager boys about overcoming their fears won't immediately produce a
bat-wielding masher.
Maybe it
takes failure to build up to a level of frustration, shame, and desperation, that the ballplayers decide the rejection and lost opportunities hurt more than
the fear. Then, out of exhaustion and
exasperation, they start hacking away.
Before you know it, the ball meets the bat. Is this what will be needed for authors? Will they have to publish several books that
bomb due to a lack of PR before they muster the courage, resources, and right
frame of mind to approach the media and start chatting their books up?
I can
tell you that fear is worse than the things you fear, and that once you try for
the thing you want it will move closer to you.
I can say that you’ll feel a great satisfaction once you start to get
media attention for your book. I can
also say that once you get going, you may find you like it and are very good at
it. Life’s too short to box yourself in
and limit your growth potential.
No one’s
a loser for losing or failing. They are
losers for not trying, for giving up before they ever got going. It’s not too late. Take a step in the direction you want to end
up in, but if you don’t step anywhere, you get nowhere.
Please Read These Posts
Book promoters can still learn
from Donald Trump
Is it that time for your book
marketing makeover?
Book Shepherd Reveals How You Can
Get Published Successfully
When Is Book Publishing’s
Fight of the Century?
How will book marketers turn a
yes into something more?
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and
ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You
can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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