Writing your book is the easy part; Editing your book takes time and patience; But marketing your book means putting yourself out there and not being bashful about your achievement. When you self-publish a book, one of the advantages, or disadvantages, is that you must do all your own marketing. The advantage is that you get to make your own choices in everything from the design of the cover to where you market the book. As you might be able to see in the photo accompanying this post, I recently spoke to a group of women in the Centerville, Ohio, Red Hat society about “The Bumpy Road to Assisted Living, a Daughter’s Memoir.”. Lynda, my life-long friend, sweetened the deal, as she put forth the invitation, came and got me and brought me home the next day, and hosted me at her house. Not only that, but she also assisted me in the presentation by reading 2 selections from the book in my place. This was my first book-reading-and-signing event. Even though I had practiced for days, I was nervous right up until the moment we stood up to take our places. Then the old Toastmasters spirit, for me, and the English teacher mode, for Lynda, kicked in, and away we went. Lynda read with the perfect inflection and cadence, and I felt my delivery was smooth and animated. I guess we did all right, because 10 copies of my book were sold that day. I wish I could sell 10 books every day, but I’m glad I didn’t put myself on a whirlwind book tour. I have 5 over the next month, and that’s enough for me. But if you need a speaker for your club or organization, I will speak to my agent, i.e. me, and we’ll see what we can do.