How to make a book on caregiving different?
by Linda S. Thompson
(Gilbert, Arizona, USA)
A Caregiver's Journey
After self-publishing my first non-fiction book, I set a goal to publish five books in five years. A lofty goal, yes, but one that I've found remarkably easy to achieve - I'm now at #4!
The idea for the second book came to me as a result of my being a caregiver for my Mother, who at that time was sharing my home with me. While there were many books available about how to care for someone else, how to do everything from helping someone in and out of bed to nutritional advice, there was nothing that I could find, at that time, about the importance of caring for oneself.
Because I have a strong dislike for the "you should," "you need to," types of books, I write with the attitude of, "this just might help you if you'd give it a try," attitude. I also believe that none of us are getting better eyesight and that anything in 10pt, single spaced is not worth the bother. And, last but not least, less is more, partiicularly when it comes to self-help books.
The result of all this was A Caregiver's Journey, You Are Not Alone, a book about the importance of caring for yourself if you are in the role of family caregiver to a loved one. In my marketing materials, I make a point of saying if you only have a few minutes before you fall asleep at night, you will get something out of my book in just one paragraph. And as someone who had "been there, done that," I was truly speaking from experience of stress-related, lack of sleep.
Marketing this book was fairly easy because I had self-published one book and had learned from the school of hard knocks on the what to do and what not to do, in capital letters. The numbers of family caregivers are increasing on an almost dialy basis, and it was just a matter of reaching the right market. I began contributing articles on the subject to various ezines, always with a link back to my website and mention of my book. That raised public awareness and while the book has been on the market for over two years, I still get calls to speak on the subject and am always pleasantly surprised when an order for Caregiver's Journey comes through my website.
As a self-published author, you will have to work twice as hard to market your books. It won't be easy and it doesn't come without a price. Yes, you will have to pay for a lot of marketing tools that, in the long run, will be priceless investments. But it will be well-worth the investment. You absolutely cannot write a book, put it on your website, and expect to be on the NY Times Bestseller List in a month. Trust me, it won't happen. You have to practice shameless self-promotion in whatever genre you choose.
Visit Life Path Solutions, Linda's internet site.
