Why I Decided to Hire a PR Company as an Indie Author

By Colleen Oakes

Last night, at approximately 11pm, I decided that I would make some promo images for my upcoming novel, Queen of Hearts. I’m up late frequently these days, which is not very conducive for sleeping or for having a newborn. I’m up late doing weird things like promo images, because in this new, strange world of indie publishing, social media and promotion is key.

The fact that I’m staying up so late at night doing promotion was one of the reasons I decided, as an indie author, to hire a PR company.

A bit of history: I had an agent. My agent disappeared (literally!) and I was left behind in a huge publishing house. What I hated about having an agent (yes, I said it) was the long wait. I waited for a year while they messed around with Elly in Bloom and then at the end, nothing came of it. That was infuriating, and I swore then that my timetable would never again be based on anyone else’s whims. After all, that’s one of the great beauties of indie-publishing, and patience is not one of my virtues. As a control freak, I like and need this.

About six months ago, I was getting ready to launch Queen of Hearts. It has taken me two years to write this book, and that includes a huge chunk of time taken out to launch Elly in Bloom, the first book of my chick lit series. The book, FINALLY, was ready. It felt incredible to be done, to write “The End”. I am so ready for people to read it, to love it, to hate it. I know now that it will be a bit divisive and I can’t wait to see those arguments play out. I was overjoyed to be finished with this beautiful monster. But the idea of launching another book on my own was daunting because I am already sick of it…

Self-Promotion.

Let’s be honest: it’s exhausting! I worry about it constantly. Am I putting out too much? Too little? I don’t have a Tumblr – should I? I only have 250 Twitter followers. I should have more. Do I need two author FB pages, one for the Elly in Bloom series and one for Queen of Hearts? I only have twenty five Instagram followers – that’s pathetic! Do I blog enough? Do I need ANOTHER blog? Do I have enough reviews? How is my Amazon Author Central? My Goodreads author page? My Smashwords page? My LibraryThing page? All of these things have to be kept hip, relevant and recent. It’s overwhelming and intimidating and I worry that it’s annoying to those that know me.

It’s a constant stream, and at times I felt like I was drowning in my own words.

I explain it non-writer friends like this: Imagine that every single day, wherever you work, you had to petition to save your job. You had to remind your bosses of how great you are, every single day. You had to enlist co-workers to publicly state that you deserve your job. You have to email and tweet and stay totally relevant minute to minute, lest your company fires you, because you face that every afternoon. That’s what it’s like to be an indie-author right now. We are all fighting for the same spot, and social media is the key. You want to sell books so that you can write books. To sell books, you have to get readers to find your books. To unleash your creativity, you have to become a marketing expert.

The fact of the matter is that the indie pub revolution is here. It’s happening right now, and the market is flooded with indie-authors. You have to work three times as hard to get noticed, just to rise above the fray. Writing a good book is the first and most important step, but after that it’s all elbow grease and networking. Then, once you’ve risen above the fray, gotten the reviews, you have to maintain that. Blog. Tweet. Post. Facebook. Grow your followers. Make fans. Make friends. Sign books. Do blog tours. It’s a lot.

Please don’t misunderstand me – I am blessed to be able to do what I love to do every single day. My dream of becoming an author has come true and it’s everything I thought it would be.

But. But. I did not anticipate the level of PR and self-promotion that I would have to undertake, just to stay relevant and selling books. It has cut dramatically into my writing time, which is something that the writer cannot abide. I find myself often making choices like “PR today or writing?” Do I focus on what I’m writing NOW or do I spend the time promoting what I’ve already written? It’s always one baby that is left in the ocean, and that baby cannot be your writing.

And that’s why I have signed with a very cool PR company, Booksparks. They have taken the load off my chest, and put their resources on what’s most important, which was something I worried about. What promotions were worth it? Which ones were not? One of many obstacles facing indie authors is discoverability and getting your name out there. If you don’t have a huge publishing house churning out your name to potential readers, what do you do? How do you find people? How do people hear about your book? I’m hoping that the PR company is the answer, and that they will not only take the burden of PR off my back, but also because I want to see what my books can do with a little (big) push behind them. It was the perfect time to hire a PR company, because I will be launching THREE books this year. I’ll need help with that.

Hiring a PR company was like an intervention of sorts. A writing intervention.

Now I can get back to business, my business, the business of being creative.

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Colleen Oakes is the author of the best-selling novel Elly in Bloom, which debuted in September 2012. A die-hard Colorado native who really enjoys living in other places, she attended Concordia College in Bronxville, NY where she received her BA in Creative Writing. When not writing, Colleen enjoys swimming, traveling, and immersing herself in nerdy pop culture. She now lives with her husband and son in Denver. Colleen captures her thoughts about life (the good, bad, and awkward) pretty frequently over at her blog, The Ranunculus Adventures. Her first foray into epic fantasy, the first book of the much anticipated Queen of Hearts series, arrives this holiday season, with the sequel to Elly in Bloom not far behind. She is signed with Sparkpress Publishing.

For more information about Colleen and her books, visit her website and blog. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.