I have to confess that I have not been marketing as I had planned. I have gotten off track and am already not meeting the objectives that I set for myself at the beginning of the month.

My main marketing objectives that I have actually focused on this week have had to do more with introducing my latest book Sailing under the Black Flag to those people who already enjoy The Locket Saga series. In addition, I have been using my marketing time toward finding gainful employment—which I am calling my means of positive cash flow. My goal is to get a first shift job (or second with the weekends off will work as well) so that I can spend my weekends and some week nights attending events.

Discover Where the Train Jumped the Track

So, it isn’t that I have not been doing anything in marketing. It is just that I have not been following the plan that I set out to do in the first place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I have failed either. It simply means that I need to re-evaluate.  Therefore, I have to reassess my plan and decide to do something a little differently. The main problem for me in the system that I was trying to do was that I had too many little projects that were too much alike that also didn’t seem to bring any results. Therefore, I need to adjust my plans so that I not only am not getting bored with what I am doing, but also so that I can actually get better results with those activities.

Adjusting Tactics

So rather than doing one activity all afternoon long, I have chosen instead to focus on that one activity for just 25 minutes of nonstop focus. I will use what is known as the Pomodoro technique. I will divide my marketing time into 30 minute segments using 25 minutes for actually working on the project with 5 minutes between each session. Each session will focus on a single activity whether it’s sending emails, phoning, commenting on posts, reading, or creating interviews.

At the beginning of each session I will set my timer for 25 minutes and begin that activity and do that activity for the entire 25 minutes. Then at the end of the session during the last 5 minutes, I will note exactly what I did, how far I got, and how much time I invested into that aspect of marketing. The current areas of marketing that I am working on are contacting booksellers, finding reviewers, getting my books in libraries, touching base with authors (particularly other Indie authors) in the historical (particularly American) fiction so that I can interview them (as well as review their books) for my blog, as well as contacting and getting appointments to participate on podcasts and radio. I will still use the templates that I made earlier this month, but rather than spending all day doing a single activity that leaves me bored to tears, I will do just 25 minutes of that activity and then go onto the next area of marketing.

For more about the Pomodoro technique and discover how you can utilize this technique, check out their website at http://pomodorotechnique.com/

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .