Where is my team?

I get a little frustrate when it comes to promoting my book. All lot of it is hit and miss. It has been a learning experience for future books. It is just me; I don't have a publicist or an agent to help me out, that's what happens when you are little fish in a big pond. I have to depend on me alone while I try to swim with the big fishes and not get eaten up.
In my attempt to get known I have invested some money in author website promotions and can tell you what I have learned from this past year. It all boils down to double checking and making sure the people you have paid money to do the job they said they would do, do it.
Take Today for instance, I thought I had two guest blogs set up, guess again. One says she never received the information for the blog, that could be very well true, things happen and emails end up in the dark void of the universe, but the other one has not answered my multiply emails about the event so I am thinking someone is asleep at the switch.
It is human factor, we are not machines, we all make mistakes and let things fall through the cracks. But when it is common place to receive excuses, look elsewhere.
Case in point: this weekend we had a huge turnout for the promo at Bitten By Books. There is a reason they are rated so highly; they have their act together.
Pay attention to the signal they are sending you when you are checking things out. If you get red flags like unanswered emails, excuses of why this or that was missed maybe you should think twice about plopping your money down.
I have learned a lot this past year and I am not going to waste those lessons by repeating the same mistakes. I will make sure my information is received, I will pay attention when emails go answered, and ultimately I will take responsibility for my own promotions. After all you can not count on anyone but yourself.