My friend Colin Wilcox recently published his first novel, Sing for Me. He spent years and many drafts writing this book—fierce and fearless revising to get the characters and their story just right.

Now he has a book to share with the world.

After the Facebook posts and page creation and a launch party, Colin’s trying new ways to find his readers.

He’s been posting fliers on the kitchen bulletin boards at work. That’s a great place, because people stand around in the kitchen waiting for coffee, and anything to read is more likely to be read. That’s six kitchens in our building alone—but we have a lot of buildings, and Colin’s been coming in on weekends to post his fliers, to get the word out.

He said, “If you’ve done it and you believe in it, you should speak up.” Even though that can be scary. Colin points out that speaking up despite your fears can be exhilarating, so let people know.

He’s right. And because it’s easier to speak up about someone else’s success, I’ll tell you to read Sing for Me. You can find it for all the e-readers, and in paperback, at www.colinwilcox.com.

That feels much better to me than telling you (over and over again) to buy my book. But I should speak up, too—so here goes. I’ve sent another check of author proceeds to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. When you buy a copy of Into the Rumored Spring, you get poems and SCCA gets some cash. I believe in that.

What other ways do you get the word out? How do you encourage yourself to speak up?