Heather Stewart Poetry

So the hustle of selling my book begins. Don’t get me wrong, I did some things before the release, mostly social media, but this is a different era I was not prepared for. Having physical copies available of my book means trying to get on shelves, which means emailing and visiting book stores and other places that may sell a few books.

Fortunately, my area has a thriving entrepreneurial spirit wth lots of locally owned business and lots of those supporting local artisans. It’s fairly amazing when I look out at the scope of possibilities. So much is out there.

And yet

I find myself wondering if that’s not a little more daunting. I have so many places to go to talk to people, to make progress, and it’s SO MANY PLACES. I’m trying to schedule them out so it’s neither overwhelming to try to fit the time and so that I don’t drain my social battery too quickly.

A part of the question is what to even say to people? It’s one thing to be proud of my intellectual property and story ideas. But this is poetry and memoir. Take a chance on making people cry every three poems about my life?

That makes it sound like my life has been horrible, which it hasn’t been, but most of my feedback has been emotional so far. That’s been true since I was a teenager writing. Why do I seem to always make people cry? Then again, none of them seem to not like that about it.

In the meantime, I’ve also opened a TikTok Shop since that has become another way to connect with readers. I’m looking at selling on Instagram in the future too, but I have more to figure out.

Oh, the hustle.

Do any other writers out there have some advice?