So as I sit here, a safe seven months from my release date, I'm watching various friends and acquaintances as they madly dance through the steps required to promote and advertise a new book. It's important, especially for newer authors, to do something beyond just saying 'I have written a book and my mommy says it's awesome' when they have something hitting the shelves. (Although 'I have written a book and Seanan's mommy says it's awesome' seems to carry a surprising amount of weight for everyone but me. Does anybody else out there have a tattooed, foul-mouthed mother who'd be willing to fill that particular role for me?)
So the question becomes, what works? Book giveaways are obviously good things, but also somewhat self-limiting, as I sort of want people to buy things. (Oddly enough, I don't feel like earning back my advance all by myself.) Competitions are also good, providing the prizes are interesting -- and heck, prizes are just lovely things to offer. So what do you think would be a good idea? What kinds of promotion would you like to see? We have seven months to put even the strangest of plans into motion, so sing out!
Talk with your editor, get four "teaser" scenes that can each be fit into roughly a 4" by 5" space, and have them put on a .pdf. If printed double-sided, one side would have the four scenes, and the other side would have
Rosemary and Rue
Coming September 2009
From DAW Books
printed four times. (I think that's your publisher. Edit as necessary to get right what I get wrong, in any case.) Throw in a few appropriate URLs to fill out the space.
Make the .pdf freely available. People who want to be crazy about this can print it out on light cardstock, cut it apart, and leave book scenes lying about like religious tracts. Try to convince people to restrain the crazy.
thoughtful
From the Department of Stupid Ideas:
February 10 2009, 19:24:34 UTC 8 years ago
Talk with your editor, get four "teaser" scenes that can each be fit into roughly a 4" by 5" space, and have them put on a .pdf. If printed double-sided, one side would have the four scenes, and the other side would have
Coming September 2009
From DAW Books
printed four times. (I think that's your publisher. Edit as necessary to get right what I get wrong, in any case.) Throw in a few appropriate URLs to fill out the space.
Make the .pdf freely available. People who want to be crazy about this can print it out on light cardstock, cut it apart, and leave book scenes lying about like religious tracts. Try to convince people to restrain the crazy.
Re: From the Department of Stupid Ideas:
February 11 2009, 02:45:39 UTC 8 years ago
Also, suggested URLs are this journal, your publisher, and the location of the .pdf.