Search
× Search

Using Tech for Book Marketing

Kate Gingold from Sprocket WebsitesKate has been building websites with her husband Don since 1996 for all sorts of clients, including authors.

Kate regularly writes about online marketing for Sprocket Websites and provides tips and techniques for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Since being an author today is not really different from being an entrepreneur with a small business, most of those tips are just as useful to authors.

Kate is an author herself. She writes books on local history, including the award-winning "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of the true story of Great Lake pioneering to the shores of Chicago and beyond to found Naperville, Illinois. 

Learn More about
Ruth By Lake and Prairie

Author Tips and Tales

Considering Career vs. Vocation
Kate Gingold Host
/ Categories: Author Tips

Considering Career vs. Vocation

This weekend saw us traveling to both Knox College and North Park University, so I’ve been contemplating what I had planned to do with my life versus what I wound up doing. I’m sure you’ve had similar thoughts. 

My husband’s college reunion was postponed last fall because of COVID. Even though not many people pre-registered, we decided to drive down anyway to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, to see a few friends from our college days. 

When Don was accepted to Knox, his intent was to take advantage of their 3-2 program and be pre-med. What he actually wound up doing was becoming one of the first graduates with a computer science degree that was cobbled together before they had formally created a program. Since the 1990s, Don’s career has been building websites. 

I also attended Knox, graduating with a double major in creative writing/poetry and fine arts/painting. My intent was to write and illustrate children’s books. What I actually wound up doing was newspaper reporting, raising a family, and assisting with our website business. I didn’t publish my first book until 2006! 

While that first book was for children and I did illustrate it a bit, it wasn’t at all what I imagined I’d do, back in the day. Ruth by Lake and Prairie is a “chapter book,” a narrative non-fiction recount of the founding of Naperville, Illinois, as told through the eyes of Joseph Naper’s niece, Ruth. 

My next couple of books were also about history and so is the one I’m working on now. I’ve always had an interest in history but never thought I would go this far. Now that I think about it, however, I probably should have suspected as much. 

Before I graduated from Knox College, I attended North Park College in Chicago for a couple of years. They didn’t offer a creative writing program at the time, which was why I transferred, but I did take some classes. In fact, I had a bit of a scholarship and won a creative writing award for my poetry. You’ll never guess what the winning poem was about:  The Civil War! Because I had also taken a history class. 

North Park College is now North Park University and they offer a lot more options, including a master’s degree in collaborative piano. How do I know that? Because also on this past weekend, our daughter received the first degree in that program – with distinction! She changed course a bit since her undergraduate degree as well. Technically, she majored in English literature, although she just missed double-majoring in music. 

Our son is also rethinking his vocation. In high school, he wanted to be Indiana Jones and studied archeology. Then he realized he'd rather make "Indiana Jones." He got a film degree and worked in Hollywood for more than a decade. Now, he's back at school, too. Many of us, no doubt, feel called to the arts, but set that vocation aside because we’re afraid it’s frivolous and will be unable to financially support us. Maybe that is true, but maybe we just don’t know how to make our art work for us. 

Our daughter has career plans that should provide reasonable subsistence as well as personal satisfaction. We’re immensely proud of not only her accomplishment, but of the fact that she is pursuing what she loves. And we’re re-examining our own vocation-versus-career decisions. Who knows for how much longer we can push our productive selves, so the time is now!

I suspect the time has always been “now,” but we weren’t wise enough to recognize it. If you’ve been wondering whether to pursue your own passion, consider this your wake-up call and the permission to go for it! 

Previous Article Thinking about Refugees and, of course, Agatha Christie
Next Article London 100 Years Ago Was Different. People Are the Same.
Print
469 Rate this article:
3.0
Please login or register to post comments.

Search in the Blogs

Archive

Authors Need Websites!

Do you need to get a domain name for your book or name?

Want a website to promote your books?

Get started now without blowing the budget at the SprocketStore.

Full disclosure:  Writing for Sprocket Websites is my day job, so if you have questions about digital marketing, I'm happy to help!

 

Marketing Author Interview

Following a presentation for In Print Professional Writers Group, Kate's husband (and publisher!) Don was interviewed by author Louise Brass for WBOM Radio. During the conversation, Don shared many of the marketing tips from his presentation. You can listen to it online here.

The Sprocket Report

The Sprocket Report is published every other week with Internet marketing tips, tools and techniques. The archive features articles from 2011 up to the present. You are welcome to read how business owners are using technology to market themselves and apply those tips to your author business.


 

 

Get a Book Siging Checklist and our Sprocket Report

Kate will be happy to send you her brief Book Signing Checklist. Treat your book promotion like a business - because it is!

AND, since much of your efforts will be online, she'll also enroll you in her Sprocket Report, an email newsletter sent every other Tuesday, that includes 2 Internet Marketing tips and a post from a guest blogger on related business.

No worries! She won't use your email address for anything else, and you can unsubscribe from the newsletter anytime, but the checklist is yours to keep.

Any questions of Kate? Leave them in the message field and she'll get back to you ASAP.

Your Contact Information

Your Feedback

Terms Of UsePrivacy StatementCopyright 2024 by Gnu Ventures Company
Back To Top