Local Celebrity

I had a good day, publicity wise yesterday. My press release for The Time Of My Life was featured in a very nice article in The Citizen, the local newspaper where I live in a great little town south of Atlanta. text messages came all day from neighbors who read about my book over their morning coffee or as they shuffled through the paper while they read the mail after work. I posted the link to my facebook page and heard from a friend I had not seen in seventeen years who could identtify with the theme of the book, from the parents of childhood friends and from  a friend in Nashville who shared the link with her FB friends. The book was also posted on the Fayette Woman website (a site and magazine about women and their accomplishments in Fayette County GA). It was exciting to see the book being publicized and to hear from people who saw the articles, but does it translate into book sales? Does an article in the paper encourage people to buy a book? I t does for me, but maybe I am not typical. I worry that I harp too much about the book to the people I know- that perhaps in fact the more I talk about it the less likely they are to buy the book. The thought that bothers me is this: If people I know don't rush to the bookstore, then why will people who don't know me? A self-published, self promoted book depends on word of mouth promotion. I think about Richard Paul Evans' success, which he tells about in The Christmas Box Miracle (a must read for authors by the way) and how he literally sold his way onto the bestseller list by people reading his book and telling someone else about it.  I believe in my book and the story it tells. I like my characters and I think readers will too--but how do I get the readers? People I know, listen please-- I need you!