It is a funny thing how I can spend a lot of time writing stories that I feel have merit, be proud of them, feel strongly enough about their value that I could submit them to publishers, but feel completely uncomfortable about self-promoting that I now have two publishing contracts. I even feel awkward talking with good friends about it, it feels like bragging.

Self-promotion is a slow and painful road for me. My author FB page was the first place that I “actively” started trying to pull readers/supporters in to see what I was doing. At first, I made a quick mention in a post about the first publishing contract on my personal page, with a link to the author’s page. Then, I invited five really close friends and family, who already knew about the contract, to like the page. Then, a week later, I invited about ten more, sticking to women only. It wasn’t until a male friend, who had picked up on the author’s page from my very first post about it, posted on the author’s page that I realized that maybe some male friends might be interested in reading it too. Today, with a pit in my stomach, I invited almost everyone on my FB friend list. I had an overwhelming urge to send an apology note with the invitation, apologizing for bothering them, but I sent the invites with the hope that no one would be offended somehow.

Then, the most amazing thing happened! After I sent the invitations, and then madly looked on FB to see if there was a way to pull them back, a friend of Sam’s liked the page. A 24-25 year old guy liked the page!  There is no way he will ever know how much that “like” meant to me, but I went from having a stomachache to grinning from ear to ear.