The Fight For Recognition

There is a famous and very old saying, that Rome wasn't built in a day. That is so true!

My first e-book, a biography on the early part of the boxing career of Muhammad Ali called "The Cassius Clay Story," was published on June 1. There has been a whole crazy-quilt of activity surrounding the project since my last update in mid-July. There were no other sales in July, but four copies of the book have sold, so far, in August, which is very encouraging. The marketing of "The Cassius Clay Story" is still just in its infancy. Barely anyone knows who I am or about the existence of my book.

A big step in the right direction was the publishing of the Clay Story on Smashwords.com. In order to do this, I had to re-format my manuscript, add hyperlinks, and perform a complete proofreading of the original copy. This took some time, but it was a labor of love. It took about three weeks to finish all of the changes I had to make, but the good news is that the revised version was accepted into the Premium Catalog at Smashwords, making it easier for the millions of people in the world with smart phones and tablet and palm computers to find and access the book.

My Twitter account had five followers on my previous blog update. I am now up to 13 followers, which makes it easier for me to spread the word. Anyone who follows me, I follow them right back! My most recent tweet, earlier today, announced that I am translating my book into Spanish. This is important for increasing the number of potential buyers. While the many Latino/Hispanic peoples around the world have certainly heard of Muhammad Ali, I doubt that a book of this type is available in Spanish. I am hoping to fill a niche.

Sportside Books has its own Facebook Page (http://on.fb.me/nKZ0B0). Facebook is an amazing creation. In addition to helping me to promote my book, it has enabled me to re-connect with old friends and even with family members I haven't spoken to for a while. It is a powerful way to spread news and information. And, practically every day, someone sends me a new friend message, or I hear from a new person I've sent a friend message to. My friend base at Facebook will continue to grow. The sky is really the limit on it. That's also good for my book.

I recently got the book listed on a Web site called Kindle Mojo. This was a victory, in that it was the first time "The Cassius Clay Story" was promoted in the lead position on such a site. Kindle Mojo has more than 7,000 Twitter followers, so that's gained me some visibility. I also joined a couple of author services called Goodreads and Wattpad. On these Web sites, independent authors go to have their books listed, and avid readers frequent these sites to find new, independent material to read. This is a good matchup of needs. While I'm busy converting the manuscript into Spanish, I am also formulating a plan to maximize my marketing clout using sites such as these.

My hope is that by the time it's been out for a year, thousands of people will have heard of "The Cassius Clay Story," whether in its English or Spanish incarnation. This will not be easy. It will be a long, hard fight to be recognized as a good author and to have my book recognized as a superior product. However, I stand behind my work and I am more than willing to push, for as long as it takes, to get that work into the spotlight. Rome, after all, wasn't built in a day.

It would be nice to make some money with this endeavor. For right now, I would settle for the satisfaction of knowing that someone took a gamble, dropped ten bucks to buy the book, read it, liked it, and thought it was good enough to post a positive review. How good would that feel?