In terms of book promoting, this is a big DUH, but I thought I'd poll all of YOU for which two or three things you find most valuable in term so branding yourself, selling books, staying top of mind... being an author.
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| It can be overwhelming, eh? |
* Which ones are the biggest bang for the buck (or rather time—good benefit for the time required)?
* Which have you found to be a waste?
* Any that have big caveats? (good to do but be careful of...)
* Any huge rules for online interaction that you follow? (Any you break?)
And be sure to go visit some other A to Z bloggers!
9 comments:
Wow, comments for this post could go on a while, ha! Lots of stuff to consider here and I don't think I've thought a *lot* about what works best, but I'd have to include:
Newsletter (passive signups in the sidebar): send it out when releases occur and maybe with some other helpful bits in it...life/time management tips, recipes, favorite books (in your case, fave books similar to yours might be best).
Metadata: incredibly passive marketing and with the added bonus of setting it up and then leaving it for a long while
Waste: Facebook. At least, I think so! I'm too introverted to do well there.
Facebook isn't great for promoting books. They've made too many hoops you have to jump through just to have your message seen.
I still think blogging is important. And my rules are put others first and visit those who visit you.
That's the crazy thing about all this, it used to be FB, Twitter, and blogging. Now I'm told it's all a waste. Folks are tired of it and don't want to buy your book. But hell everyone should have a Newsletter. Sorry, it's all bananas! Next month, after we've all spent countless hours setting that up, they say, nope, doesn't count for a thing, no matter how many books you give away! I blog because I enjoy it, flash fiction is fun, and networking is too, but the rest - as far as I'm concerned a waste. But now it's in the contract, so you do what you have to do!
Good luck!
Wow! Who knows? is my answer to this. Because my first novel was traditionally published I thought my publisher would do a lot of the 'hard' work but that didn't seem to be the case. When I sell books (or my music come to that) it's usually after putting in a personal appearance like an author talk for example. FB - waste of time. Twitter - not so sure. Newsletter - still experimenting. But to blog and network must be top of the list.
Fran
@FranClarkAuthor
Writing Women’s Fiction
Wow! This is very helpful to a newbie. The form, the function - the fanfare - what works? Who knows.
I'm not an author but I can tell you that I've bought books from authors I'm friendly with on social media. It helps a lot if they follow me too.
If there were one magic online gig, I would be there. I like blogging more than FB.
I like all the comments here. Of course Alex thinks blogging is good because he's a master at it, a real natural, unlike moi-- but then you're very good too.
I'm relieved that FB is panned because I never got into it.
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