quixotic1. There is no "one size fits all" solution; there is no magic bullet. What works for me will not necessarily work for you. What works for you will not necessarily work for Jim. You need to really look at both the logistics and the potential impact of any promotion efforts before you commit to them, because you only get so many shots. Which leads us to...
2. You only get so many shots. You have how many opportunities to make a first impression? Right. One. Assume that the average reader who is interested in your genre and could possibly be convinced to give you a second glance is willing to give you as many as four opportunities to be impressive. This is a very, very generous estimate; most readers will give you one shot, maybe two, because there is a lot of stuff out there to read. So if you run three unsolicited BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK Twitter campaigns, you only have one more chance to reach that reader. That unimpressed reader.
3. Most people don't like junk mail. Don't be junk mail. I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've received something in the mail that I didn't ask for, looked at it, and gone "oooo, yes, I want this thing." Well, if you send me a bulk email without my having asked for it, you're in that mailbox. Does it work sometimes? Yeah. Send 1,000 emails, sell three books. But you've potentially just associated yourself, however wrongly, with the word "spammer" in 997 readers' heads.
4. Be appropriate to the venue. Let's say Olga wrote a book. And let's say she's been thinking a lot about promotion. She sees this article. She sees people talking about promotion, and books, and hey, that Seanan girl's a writer, right? All her commenters must be readers! So Olga goes around and replies to every single comment with "let me tell you about my book." Olga has now been inappropriate to the venue, and odds are she's gathered very few sales.
5. Building a brand is more vital than flogging a single book. I love the cover to Discount Armageddon, almost as much as I love the book itself. It's exactly what I wanted. Some others were not so impressed, since it was the first portrayal of a sexualized character on one of my books (and so PINK!). Many of them bought the book anyway. Why? Because I have built my brand, and they knew they could trust me. Sometimes the sales of book one will not rock your world. But they'll increase awareness for book two, and that can be vital.
6. Do not put yourself in a box. There are a thousand ways to promote yourself without resorting to junk mail and thread-jacking. Buy ad space on popular web comics. Do guest blogs. Send review copies to book bloggers you trust. Sign up for things like Scalzi's Big Idea. Don't just go "oh, I found the one way, I'm good." That way lies madness.
7. You will never have all the readers. It is not possible, barring your becoming the next Stephen King or Stephanie Meyer, for you to have name-recognition with all the readers, much less be read by all the readers. Even King and Meyer don't have all the readers. Maybe people don't read them. It's just that many more people do. Don't freak out about the ones who won't read you, they were never going to read you anyway.
8. It does not end. Yesterday, I emailed a reviewer that I know isn't on any of my lists and asked if she wanted a copy of Ashes of Honor. Today, I will give away two ARCs. Tomorrow, I will go to a convention. Promo never ends, and if you think it does, you're going to be very sad.
9. Choose sincerity. You can't just do things with the photo op in mind; you have to do them because you want to, because they're the right thing, because they're fun or awesome or somehow make you happy. That's promo, too. The ripple effect works.
10. Once someone says stop, you need to stop. The number of times I've seen an author permanently alienate a reader or group of readers by continuing a) to barrage them with promo, and b) explain their brilliant idea is...bad. It's definitely not good. Now, I am not saying "do not blog about your book." Your blog is YOUR SPACE, and anyone who's going to get pissed at you for talking about something that is a huge chunk of your life in YOUR SPACE is a jerk and you don't need them. But if you follow me around Facebook trying to explain your genius, we're not going to be besties.
There. Those are my helpful hints. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spelunking in a whale carcass.
August 8 2012, 18:39:00 UTC 4 years ago
The first is "I wrote a book -wheeeeeee peoples come buy my book!"
Because getting that initial readership afloat is the hardest thing, and I have no Idea how that happens for different people
But I'm pretty clear that it mostly doesn't follow from spamming the world.
And then there is the "I'm an author and I must have an innerwebs presence because of reasons."
And this is also hard.
It means your blog is both your personal blog, and also business.
And that you have to blog to begin with.
My sister is a romance writer (won a Rita! because she totally rocks), and she has an online presence.
Her agent told her she had to.
She has an extreme reluctance to have that blog include any information about, say, her daughter.
So when you look at it - I think there is like five or six years of it now - you will not find the names of any family members, or much detail about where she in fact lives.
But she will discuss the dog and cat, and that big storm blowing over a tree.
Otherwise her blog is tutorials on writing or historical information on her period, which is all fascinating and creates a sense of community for her readers.
And, yes, she will show the cover of the Italian translation.
And updates on the progress of the new one.
Which is fundamentally promotional in intent, of course.
But those are all sitting on her blog, quietly awaiting her readers, rather than stalking the innerwebs attacking strangers.
The initial problem for the new writer remains the same: how do they get traffic onto their tasteful blog in the first place.
Leafletting the internet isn't the answer, but it isn't clear what is.
Once you have a readership, then you can employ social networks to connect with them, but that first step is difficult.
Sort of like making bear stew: first you take your bear....
August 9 2012, 09:37:13 UTC 4 years ago
A good resource I lean on and send to my small business owning friends is from SEOmoz.org, they have a primer to it.
Your sister is doing the blog right, it's not a personal blog, but a professional one (I write those too) for a person rather than a company.