Self promotion

[Shiela Stewart]

Well, I;ve been an author now for nearly a year and I'm still strugging with promoting my work. And from what I hear, I'm not the only one.
What I have done so far though is this:

I've placed my book covers on Review and other publication websites.
I've joined half a billion groups.
I've had a book signing in my home town
I have my books in the Romantic Times Magazine
I've done chats and Blogs and interviews
I have a newsletter
I donate books to charity
Sent books to Iraq
Sent books and prizes to Romantic Times Conference and other awards benefits.

So, having done all that, what else is there I could be doing to promotoe myself and my books?

Fire away with the ideas please.

[Kakie]

Hi Marta, I like your idea about asking people to sign a guest book with email addresses. We will start doing that moving ahead. Thanks for the tip!

Warmest Regards,
Kakie Fitzsimmons
http://burburandfriendsblog.com

[Jeffrey J. Mariotte]

Promoting your work can feel like a process that never ends, and eventually you have to decide if you want to spend all your time (and money) on promotion or make more by writing new books. That said, it's important--if people don't know about your books they'll never be able to buy them, in which case you might as well not be writing them at all.

Here are some of the things I did for my recent novel Missing White Girl (published in mass market paperback by Penguin's Jove imprint).

The publisher: printed advance reading copies (I have no idea if they actually sent them out, though), and bought an ad in the biggest-circulation specialty magazine in the genre (horror/supernatural thriller). They also, of course, promoted it in their catalog, and all their sales reps went out with it to bookstores across the country. They gave away 50 free copies at a signing at Comic-Con International: San Diego (attendance about 105,000).

On my own, here's what I did: I created a media kit containing cover art, a press release, a synopsis, the first page (which was also the first chapter) of the book, a bio, a list of my other books, quotes and blurbs about my writing, a Q&A about the book, and descriptions of the major characters, and an appearance schedule. Much of this material was also used on the book's dedicated website, which you can see by clicking the link above. This kit went to all genre publications (horror, sf. mystery, and Western, because the book spills over into them all), regional publications in the border area the book is about (and where I live) and national publications that might have an interest. It also went to genre bookstores and big independent bookstores. I wrangled a free full-page ad in national publications associated with the genre. I bought a small ad in another national specialty publication (twice). I posted on every group/board I could find where it made sense to do so. I ran a contest on MySpace. I ran a review contest, trying to get people to post reviews in exchange for appearing as a character in an upcoming work. I submitted it for reviews myself to places my publisher hadn't. I submitted it for awards. I did signings in two states, and convention appearances in several at which I also signed and promoted it. I blog regularly, on my own personal blog, my MySpace blog, and Amazon Connect (less often there, though). I've donated copies to charity and as contest prizes. I did one of those paid press release things and sent out a release about it that way. I've done dozens of interviews for print and e-publications.

I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking of just now, because as I said, it's an ongoing process. This is my 35th novel (or thereabouts, I've sort of lost count) but it's the first in a loose trilogy of horror novels set in the U.S./Mexico border regions, so I really want it to sell in order to create an audience for the next two, River Runs Red (October) and Cold Black Hearts (2009). I haven't seen a royalty statement yet, so I don't know how many we've sold through all these efforts, but the first printing was in the 25-35,000 range.

[Jonathon Francis]

I must say you bring new meaning to the phrase "it's a race, not a marrathon". This holds true for upcoming authors, want to be authors, aspiring authors, and current authors. I am a short story romance writer. I just joined "the marrathon" and I am glad to be running along side of you.

I write as a hobby not for a living so there is no pressure to make this "a race". I am a market research analyst, so following the "bread crumbs" of what works and doesn't proceeds all ideas and plans.

My marketing plan: free romance short stories. Yes, FREE. In marketing if you people don't know you or your probuct, give it away first. Not the farm, but in small potent peices (short stories). How to do it without cost? Self Publishing & eBooks. Short stories as you know are fast and easy to write (typically less than 10,000 words). Short stories introduce your writing style, genre, characters and the most important part -- You.

One of the most potent platforms that I joined was Authors Den (www.authorsden.com) Dec. 31, 2007. I uploaded all of my short stories and at the end of January I had 2,970 unique readers that read my short stories. On your authors page you have a Stats counter that list all the stats for each book. This is critical because it lets me know "what people want to read". This took the guess work out of writing stories that nobody wants to really read. Plus all of my short stories, my bio, and book links are search engine optimized for free.

I have entered short story contest and have won three last month. Like you I have a LuLu page (free short story ebooks), A MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/romanticwordartist. A Ning site http://romanceshortstories.ning.com/. A now in a week I'll have my personal website uploaded (I am a website designer also - so no cost again) www.johnmfrancis.com - www.romanticwordartist.com, and www.romancewordartist.com.

As you probably noticed I include my genre in everything "Romance". As was pointed out in other post here, the key to intenert ranking and search engine ranking is "Key Words". Become what you write ;-)

If you google "Romantic Short Stories" I am in the top 10 (number 7 to be exact!). The listing there is my "Ning site" http://romanceshortstories.ning.com/. This is as of this posting! If you google John Marion Francis I am number 2 and sublisted with my short story Pillow Talk! If you google Jonathon Francis I am in the top three listings! Four of my short stories come up with my name listed!

I am sure you know Amazon now has a Free "Amazon Shorts". These are 49 cent give away short stories http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=node%3D13993911&field-k.... Top authors post their "short stories" here. They also have a new website called Create Space http://www.createspace.com/Index.jsp. I have a CreateSpace site there as well.

The cost for all of this? ZERO, NADDA, ZIP! What do I get from it, my name out there.

SUMMARY
So what does all this means? In less than two months of stepping out onto the stage of "I want to be an Author", I have managed to put myself out front with pack, top ranking on Google and I have daily unique readers. Now stage two: get picked up by a publisher. I am not calling them, I am waiting for them to call me.

Hope this helps! ~Jonathon~

[Shelagh Watkins]

Hi Jonathon,

Looks like you were timed out as you typed at the end of your post. It happens on this forum! I set up the Published Authors Forum so that members here could chat about serious topics and have fun at the same time. Why not join us? You would be very welcome!

http://publishedauthors.forumotion.com

~Shelagh

[Jonathon Francis]

Hey Shelagh,

I have book marked the Forum. Looks great and a great place to chat and netowork. You'll see me posting there today!

Thanks again for the invite!

~Jonathon~

[H. Court Young]

I have success speaking in front of groups interested in the subject of my book. I am also starting a local discussion group at one of the local independent bookstores. People love to talk to authors.

Just a couple of ideas. Much success to you.

Sincerely
H. Court Young
Geologist, author & publisher
Promoting awareness through the written word
http://www.hcourtyoung.com

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[Chelle Cordero]

My novel, Bartlett's Rule is due out later this month; it will be available on my publisher's bookstore site (Vanilla Heart Publishing) as well as some other online sites - it will also find its way into some bookstores throughout the country. VHP is a small and relatively new traditional-type publisher but they do spend time helping to promote their author's works and getting them placed in both online and walk-in stores. VHP also provides promotional and marketing help. Of course, it behooves every author, to work on their own self-promotion as well.

My first "published" novel, Courage of the Heart, was produced by print-on-demand publisher Xlibris.com BEFORE they began to advertise themselves as fully self-publishing. At the time of my book's acceptance (yes they did state they accept/reject after reading), because I didn't pay for services, there was no marketing beyond making the book available on their website www2.xlibris.com/courageoftheheart I didn't do too well on sales.

So I have learned that self-promotion is vital, even with a publisher that does marketing. Yes, my publisher may make money off of my sales, but that book is MY name and MY creation, I have the biggest stake in it and therefore I have the biggest reason to push for its success.

I am very interested in these posts and reading about the different ideas. There will definitely be some that I incorporate.

...and like so many other authors, I have been inundated with requests for free-books! I have to learn to stay firm on that matter.

[Malcolm R. Campbell]

There's so much information in this thread, it's hard to add anything fresh, new and wonderful. Some authors get spread so thin, that they end up not keeping up with each of the parts. I've probably gotten more exposure on MySpace than most other places, but it takes time. I think it's better not to set up a profile if one can't go there at least once a week. I see author's pages there where they haven't logged in for weeks, maybe months and where they seldom post anything or respond to friend requests. This kind of looks bad.

Same thing happens with Amazon profiles. I often wonder what's going on when an author hasn't written a new post on his/her blog for months. Are they still publishing?

I got so tied up finishing a novel, that I was ignoring Published Authors. I know now that that was WRONG. I missed out on a lot and folks might have thought I didn't care. My advice: join lots of forums and social networking groups from LinkedIn to MySpace, but once you do, don't be a stranger.

Malcolm

[Shelagh Watkins]

Excellent advice Malcolm!

[Malcolm R. Campbell]

Thanks, Shelagh. Btw, I mentioned Published Authors in today's Writer's Notebook post: http://jockstewart.typepad.com/writers_notebook/2008/04/networking-...

Maybe it will help find a few more folks who need the advice and fellowship of the group.

Malcolm

[Peter N. Jones]

As for the Amazon Connect blogs, I don't update mine very often because I use them to give further information about my books. I have one for each book and keep it fairly static - giving the Table of Contents and some other further information not available on the regular Amazon listing. I think it might be different if you are a fiction or nonfiction writer, as it would make more sense to use it as a "blog" for a fiction writer.

______________________________________
Director: Bauu Institute and Press
Publisher: Great New Books Reviewed
Editor: Indigenous Peoples Blog
Editor: Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources

[Chelle Cordero]

You are absolutely right about joining the different networking sites and forums, Malcolm.

I started a group on one of the networking sites "">

Join the Writing is a NEED at Ziggs

and I asked how many sites does everyone belong to. I've read numerous articles about how using these sites is one of the greatest and cost-effective ways to self-promote your talents.