Growing a Beanstalk (part 2)

This is the second excerpt of an interview conducted by Joanna Bloss of Shinebright Design about my marketing techniques. (Be sure to scroll down for Part 1.)

What's the best marketing decision you've made?

Overcoming my fear of all things computer and embracing the cyber future.

What's your biggest business challenge in the next 12 months?

Promoting two upcoming book releases (both by Barbour Publishing): Too Blessed to Be Stressed (August, 2011), and More Beauty, Less Beast (March, 2012).That means press releases, blog touring, book signings, media contacts, and a FaceBook Party on August 25 (a Kindle and a collection of my books will be among the prizes given away).

How do you stay motivated to grow your business?

I like to eat.

What's one more thing you wish you could do over again regarding marketing?

I wish that earlier in my career I had tune into pithy writing advice blogs like literary agent Rachelle Gardner's and had access to books like Grit for the Oyster: 250 Pearls of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers. I would have saved myself scads of capital, effort, and dead-end rabbit trails by learning from those who have been there, tried that.

Any other parting words of advice?

View rejection in your business (mine is writing) the same way jockeys see horse poo. An inevitable hazard of your trade. Just step over the piles, wipe the nasty off your boots, and move forward.  

Many thanks to Jo Bloss of Shinebright Design for reprint permission.