Copyblogger - the free marketing and content site I'd forgotten about

I am a self-published author, and this last year I have been trying to get my head round the whole business of marketing and promoting. I have a novel I am getting ready for publication, and I really want to do more than just create a ripple that fades in a day or two, so I've been trying to do the groundwork and build some kind of foundation to launch it from. But for an author with zero budget (and I mean zero) and no 'back catalogue' of books, short of a couple of collections and stories in anthologies, it's an extremely difficult journey.

It's time consuming too. I have had to devote a lot of time to reading on these topics. It has led me to many valuable resources. I have bought books by David Gaughran, Libby Hawker and Tammi Labreque. All of them focus on different aspects. But some of the books use such specific jargon it’s been a struggle. I’ve gone to the trouble of learning some of it, but I've let other stuff go right over my head. A terminology legend would have been helpful in a couple of them.

Overall, it's been a large learning curve and a journey in itself, and all those listed above have provided a great deal that I still refer to and use. It has also helped me gain clarity on the things I do want to do as a self-published author and the things I don't. But a couple of weeks ago I came to a halt. I still didn't feel I had the tools I was looking for, yet I couldn't be sure exactly what information I was seeking, and I didn't want to waste more time or money on books that might not provide it. (There are others I have read that I haven't listed here.)

Then I received one of the regular weekly emails from a site I subscribed to many years ago, called Copyblogger.  I'd been directed there by a fellow writer friend who was much further ahead of me in the self-publishing game, and although I saw the value in what they had to offer, I hadn't, at that stage, had a need for it. I opened up their site and reviewed all the PDF books they had on offer for free and realised it was what I had been looking for. It was the next stage of the tools I wanted to develop. It would help me learn how to create catchy content to draw people to my websites and my books, as well as how to market myself and trial what is effective and what isn't. Right there at my fingertips was the information I had been seeking without realising it - for free.

I am both grateful to Copyblogger for existing and to my friend all those years ago sending me there. I feel I want to pay that forward. So if you might be looking for more information to help hone your writing skills and develop your marketing tools, take a look. And most importantly for those of us unable to pay to get established, it's free.