How do you do this? Should you do this?

Everything I’ve read, and every author I’ve spoken to says: “Yes.”

When I pressed the submit button to the Publisher for my novelette LAST WINTER RED, I mulled for a little while about how important Marketing was to them.

Now, don’t let that surprise you. All publishers are interested in authors who are marketable or able to market themselves.

As I’ve said before, my Facebook page stinks. (From my perspective) My website/blog, however, I spend a lot of time on, and I am very proud of it.

I hoped they would see the value of that. But then, as I thought it over, I took it a step further.

I decided to post my LAST WINTER RED query on my website. I gave it its own tab. But that was boring, and I don’t do boring. I need to spruce it up a bit.

As most of you have noticed, I have an arsenal of artwork, and I am more than capable of manipulating graphics and text to bend to my will. (All of this artwork is copyrighted and paid for, by the way. Don’t copy it—that’s stealing)

A short while of scanning brought me to a model that looked just like my MC Emily. Throw an ashen Victorian dress on her and plop her into the snow in the middle of the woods. Perfect. Now, add the red cloak, laying on the snow. Pout, Emily, you’re sad and confused. Walla! Instant marketing piece.

If you look long enough, and if you are willing to pay for it (it’s not too costly) you can almost always find exactly what you need.

Now, I plopped this “advertisement” up really quickly, and spent more work on the art than the text since I used the actual query that I submitted to the publisher. I’m not crazy about the tone of the query for the advertising purposes, but I wanted to get it up quickly, in case the publisher stopped by.

In the next few days, I tightened the query to be a little more readable, and make it look better visually in conjunction with the picture.

A little extra effort shows that not only am I marketable, but I will also be willing to, and have already, marketed my novel.

Please take a look and let me know what you think!

Is this a great idea? An awful idea? Whattya think?

Click the LAST WINTER RED tab in my title bar or click HERE to take a peek.