Market Self-Published books

Hello, my name is Julie A. Hartley, and I am fundraising to get my books recognized and marketed. Writing has always been a passion of mine, but it was not until the beginning of the pandemic that I allowed myself to write full-time(quitting my job as a Barber to protect my high risk kids), buying a computer for myself, and brainstorming all over my room to get started.

Amazingly, words flooded the pages, and before long, I had a story with a plot, characters, and cool bad guys, all brought to life by me. I was astonished with myself, and also impressed. I had created this vibrant world within our own where the gods of legend still exist and live to fight. And, they are fighting for the planet, and the bad guys want to erase humans by the millions, babies and all.

I chose to self-publish without really knowing what that meant, however, I couldn't change that now because traditional publishing houses may not be a fan of some of the explicit sexual content that I included throughout the book(s). In order to please the Gods of all the world's mythologies, I had to include some serious sexual content, Blood Sacrifice (just kidding but it wouldn't hurt), and also, tree-hugging, Climate-Change Reversing concepts too.

Immediately, I ran into a problem, because out of almost a thousand friends on FB, maybe two of them enjoy reading. Crazy. In today's world, scrolling is the new reading, and attention spans are lower than usual. I would love to introduce my books to the world, and at least get one or two (thousand*hopeful*)people reading again. I want to inspire people to use their noodles, and more than a puny ten percent.

I have put in a ton of research (for the books, and for the world), and I would like to use the profits of my brainchild to buy land with trees, plant even more trees, then make sure they are never, ever cut down. I would always like to create a litter pickup force for coastal cities, to mount operations before it rains, reducing the litter that goes in rivers, lakes, and oceans with the rainfall.

I have big dreams for my books (the Rockwell Chronicles), but need funds in a bad way, in order to make some things happen:

-maintain my author website and bank accounts (about $60/mo),

-GoodReads Giveaway package ($119 or $599 premium)

-apply for a business account with a shipping company(UPS/$10/mo),

-buy more ISBN's for different formats of both books, ($300)

-purchase an editorial book review for both books ( $395)

-author discovery article and profile ($360 + $285)

-book giveaway on BookTrib ($260)

-dedicated eblast to 15,000 readers ($1230)

-print author copies to sign and sell at live events ($200+/event)

-to enter writing contests on various websites (which range from $65 to over $185 each, which they have every month and quarter),

-market advertisements on iheartradio ($500-$2000/wk),

-get an illustrator to make my character profiles and possibly a new cover($250-$2500)

-social media adverts that will reach more than my friends ($145),

-pay for a professional photographer to take my author picture ($100),

-hire a literary agent(undecided),

-read my own books aloud on my own podcast(I am thinking maybe people will listen instead of read), but that takes a mic ($40+) and headphones ($35+) at least.

Obviously, I won't be able to do all of these things, but I need to do some of them in order to gain momentum.

So far, I have made all the covers for my books, which is apparently not a good move, according to analysts, but I have always had a wisp of creative flair, so I figured, why not, but I feel that it is only temporary.

Right now I am giving out free ebooks like candy, in hopes of word-of-mouth advertising through grapevines, but my reach is weak at this point.

I need help to pursuit my passions, please. Thank you for your time.