Feature as published on the Writer’s Digest website on June 13, 2016.
In the December 2014 issue of Total Funds for Writers, C. Hope Clark offers some great advice for authors who want to increase their odds of selling their books: “Don’t be invisible or you wrote the book for nothing.”
As a debut author whose hard 2016 goal is to promote my memoir Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces, this spoke to the heart. I interviewed C. Hope Clark on “The Courage to Promote Your Book” for my weekly podcast, “Giving Voice to Your Courage.”
We started talking about the fear of rejection and how this gets in the way of authors.
Here’s what Hope had to say:
“It’s even scarier to be rejected as the author. We’re worried that when we put ourselves there, someone’s going to email us or even say something to us in person that makes us look less than stellar. This day in time, anonymity on the Internet breeds ridicule. There’s not one week when I don’t get one of these emails myself, but it’s the nature of the Internet. You have to armor yourself — you are working for the better good. You cannot please everyone. It’s like letting thousands of people know who you are and that’s a little spooky.”
Dorit Sasson is the author of the memoir Accidental Soldier, writes for a wide range of print and online publications, including The Huffington Post and The Writer, and speaks at conferences, libraries, and community centers. She is also the author of the featured chapter in Pebbles in the Pond: Transforming the World One Person at a Time, the latest installment of that best-selling series. She is the host of the global radio show “Giving Voice to Your Courageous Story.” She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and two children.
The Haunted Pen 