Newton Running Shoes and Indie Book Marketing

This is my thirty-third year of running.  Three years ago, getting ready for a run, I knew what Joe Namath must have felt like getting ready for a football game; two knee braces, a band around my right arch, and custom orthotics.  In spite of all the equipment, the pain came through, my pace slowed, and it became increasingly easier to find excuses not to run at all.

Then, the gods of running led me to the Newton Running Shoe web site.  The Boulder, Colorado company was definitely god sent – tonight almost three years, and I don’t know how many pairs of Newton’s later, I just finished a set (for me a set is three days running followed by a day off).  I didn’t have to come home and take off all the gear, while swallowing a handful of aspirin.  In fact, I’m running better, easier, and stronger than I have in years.

Newton’s are the secret.   No other running shoe is made like they are made.  Running in Newton’s is like running barefoot, or to be more exact, running like a barefoot four-year-old.

I’ve told a lot of my friends about them, and as far as I know, none of them have tried Newton’s.  So, what’s the problem?  Well, one friend, probably speaking for most of them, summed it up this way – “They cost three times more than whatever I can find on sale at Foot Locker.”

Actually, it’s worse than my friend imagines.  The MV2 which Christina, Adrienne, and I run in costs $125.00 and has a life of 220 miles – after that it has absorbed all the punishment it can take.  That means, my shoes cost fifty-six point eight cents per mile – I just ran 8 miles, which means I spent $ 4.54 on shoes tonight – of course I spent nothing on knee braces, orthotics, elastic bands, or aspirin.

What’s that got to do with indie book marketing?  Everything!  Contrary to popular opinion, you can’t publish for free and you sure can’t sell your self-published book for free.  If you think a good idea and a word processor is all you need, maybe it’s time to think again.

Assuming you can write, and are, or have, written a good book, you have to spend money before that glorious moment when you hit “save and publish,” on Amazon. 

If you’re smart, you’ll spend at least $250 - $500 dollars for a good edit, $150 - $250 for formatting, and $250 - $550 for a sharp cover.  Now you’re ready to upload and hit save and publish but that’s just the beginning.

You have to market your work of art – plan on spending countless hours finding and cultivating your audience.  Some of the tools you’ll discover you have to invest in are: Auto tweeters, email handlers, remote servers, workshops and seminars, faster computers, additional software – you can probably get by with an additional $700 - $1,200 investment – or a total of $2,000.00 for your indie publishing and marketing endeavor. 

That makes $.56 cents per mile much more reasonable. 

Let’s face it, indie writing and marketing isn’t for the faint-hearted or for cheap-skates.     

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