Any writer who has been published (traditional or indie), soon learns that having a book out there in the big wide world is only half the battle. You sit back and wait for the sales to come rolling in, and at first, they do. Of course, that’s just all your friends and family buying up your novel. Once they all have a copy, suddenly, it stops.
There are thousands and thousands of novels out there, and every day there are more. How is your story going to find it’s place amongst them? How are you going to let people know that your book even exists?
There are lots of articles out there that say that Twitter is the answer. Or Facebook. Or having a blog. Or doing guest posts, or interviews, or giveaways, or blog tours. There are so many different ways of promoting your book, that sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, and you just plain don’t know where to start.
I’m fast coming to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter. No, not that promotion doesn’t matter, that it doesn’t matter WHERE or WHAT you do. So long as you do it. Get out there on Twitter and make friends. Follow pages you like on Facebook, and comment. Follow blogs you enjoy, and get involved in the discussion. Join groups on GoodReads, and participate.
Do you have to do the hard sell?
Do you have to write promotional posts about your book all the time? I don’t think so. At least, I don’t do it. I might post now and again, usually about the first two chapters of my novel being available for free, or if I have a free promotion running. But mostly, I just chat to people. I don’t know about you, but as I get to know a writer, I tend to get curious about their books. Eventually, I have to check them out. If I like what I see, I will often read all of their books.
I don’t have huge sales yet. I only have one book, and from what I hear, the more books, the more sales you get. So I’m starting slow.
How do you know if it’s making any difference?
It’s always hard to tell. But I’ve noticed lately, as I’ve been so busy with the A to Z challenge, that I let my promotion efforts slip. I worked hard on my blog, and my A to Z comments, but I’d been neglecting the other avenues, especially GoodReads (which I think has more potential than authors realise). And my books sales definitely shown a decline.
Is this directly relational? I’ll never know. But I dived back into my social media efforts, and had a new sale almost immediately. So I think I’ll keep it up for now!
How about you? Authors, what do you feel has been your best promotional tool? And Readers, what influences you to buy a book? Where do you find out about new and interesting books?
All this month I’m participating in the A-Z blogging challenge, writing a blog post for each letter of the alphabet, on every day of the month except Sundays. Check back regularly to see what else I have in store for you.
As a reader, l find it off putting to constantly read promotion posts on Twitter. I’d much rather talk to someone and then yes, when we’re virtual friends, I’m much more likely to buy your book just like your real life friends 🙂 What would influence me to buy a book? Usually when I’m browsing on my e-reader, its latest releases, or genre and its the synopsis that convinces me or not to go with it. Price is important only above £5, then its more likely to be a novelist I’ve read before.
As a writer, I’ve found its the people who I’ve interacted with on forums who have expressed interest in my upcoming book. Apart from family and friends, of course!
Thanks for commenting Pat. I agree, endless promotion posts are very off putting. I tend to unfollow if that’s all someone does. I’ll give them a chance if their other posts are interesting though!
Great advice as always, thanks Rinelle. I think Goodreads is an interesting one: I’m only just getting to grips with it but I like the visibility (and the fact you’re not limited to 140 characters!). I agree, endless promotion on Twitter gets tedious unless there is other content too. I like the analogy of Twitter as a cocktail party where you can talk about work a bit, but mostly you have to be engaging and entertaining and actually interact with people. I went on Twitter for promotion and found I mostly use it now for connection with other mothers and for keeping up to date with stuff in publishing or writing tips etc. I do promote occasionally but it always makes me feel uncomfortable.
Yes, GoodReads is SO wverwhelming at first, with all the groups. I’ve been on there for a couple of months now, and am only just starting to find my feet.
I agree with you about twitter. I don’t promote much, but I do love following other writers and seeing what interesting links they’re posting.
I think promotion is the toughest part of this job. I’m trying to do more on Goodreads. I wish there was a magic perfect answer.
Oh yeah, I’d love to find a perfect answer. Trouble is, if someone found one, everyone would want to know it, and it probably wouldn’t be perfect anymore!
How-to posts by people who haven’t succeeded are dizzying and too common. I can scarcely find the will to wade through them anymore, and mostly wonder why they’re written. Is it wishful thinking? Or partaking in a comforting dogma?
Hmm, no idea. Perhaps wishful thinking, or perhaps just thinking it’s a popular topic that will draw people to their blogs?
I’m new to all of this and find the promotion aspect to be totally overwhelming. It doesn’t come naturally at all and I find it so hard to talk about myself! But obviously it is a very necessary thing and I’m trying hard to learn as I go along. Great choice for P.
It is overwhelming. So many choices. That’s why I like to just do little bits here and there. If you’re not careful, it can take up so much time you never get to write anymore!
While I think that marketing is important, especially the basic stuff like having a good cover, a good book description, a mailing list for new releases, and being present and approachable on social media, I’m not convinced that promotion is as important as most new writers make it out to be.
I’ve also been self-published for two years, with fourteen ebooks, 3 POD, and a few semi-pro magazine sales and small awards. The only active promotion I’ve done for any of my books has been making a few titles perma-free, and listing one of them on a few freebie sites. I have no idea how readers find my books, but they do, enough for me to commission original paintings for cover art and still come out with a profit.
I like to think of the modern book market as a giant stormy ocean. When you self-publish, your book is like a message in a bottle. If your storytelling is good and the book is written well enough to be appealing, it will float on its own without any help. If, on the other hand, it’s boring, unremarkable, and full of grammar/spelling mistakes, it’s probably going to sink to the bottom of the ocean with all the rest of the drivel.
The key thing to point out here is that if your book is floating, it doesn’t matter what’s below it. All those thousands of crap ebooks aren’t keeping readers from finding your book, because to readers, those books are invisible. In the same way, all the millions of crap blogs that SEO companies commission in order to boost the rankings of their clients are also invisible, because almost no one ever wanders over to that corner of the internet.
Thousands of new blogs are published every day, but that doesn’t keep you from finding the ones you enjoy. In the same way, the flood of crap ebooks is not the threat to visibility that so many writers make it out to be. The paradigm has shifted, but even most self-pubbers are still stuck in the traditional world.
Going back to the ocean analogy, promoting your book may give it a temporary kick, but if the book is sinking all that’s going to do is push it up to the surface for a few brief moments. It’s not the silver bullet that’s going to save you. If your book does sink (and I think all of us career self-pubbers have books that sink–I certainly do), the best thing you can do is get busy and write another one. Maybe someone looking for buried treasure will eventually find and popularize yours, but that’s not something you can control.
Which isn’t to say that a book that only sells five or six copies each month is a dud. It just hasn’t found its audience yet. Just like your sales rank graph in Author Central is full of spikes and troughs, so the surface of that ebook ocean is full of tumultuous waves. Until your book finds its audience, it’s going to be tossed around a bit, perhaps even sink for a little while until it comes floating back up to the top.
Eventually, though, your book will wash up on a shore somewhere–in other words, find a community where people will love and share it. There are a lot of islands on this ocean, and many of them are so small that the massive ocean liners of traditional publishing have completely overlooked them. A lot of readers hop from island to island, and if they like your book enough, they’ll take it with them to share elsewhere.
If you’re a member of one of those communities, maybe you’ll be able to drop your bottle a little closer to home, but you still have no idea where it will end up eventually. The important thing is to have faith and to keep tossing bottles out there.
That’s the way I like to think about it, at least. Most of my ebooks are still floating on that ocean, though I think a couple of my perma-free books have washed up somewhere (not quite sure where that is yet though). And with the way things are going, I’m pretty confident that in just a year or two, my dream of being a full-time writer will be realized.
Wow, thanks for such a well thought out comment Joe. It’s great to know that books can make it without oodles of promotion. I love the ocean analogy, and hope my little novel finds it’s island soon! Of course, I think I may have to send a few more books out after it first. (And personally, I can’t help nudging them this direction and that.
Good luck with your dream of being a full time writer! How exciting. I would so love to be able to do that one day!
Great advice!
For me, blogging has seemed to work best and making connections through other bloggers. Some Twitter works. Some Facebook. As you said, it is just about doing something. And I need to do more with Goodreads. I’ve joined a few groups, but I just haven’t done as much there as I think I could (beyond writing reviews/adding books/etc.).
A to Z Participant
Cherie Reich – Author and Surrounded by Books Reviews
Yes, I think there is a lot of potential on goodreads. Joining and being active in groups seems to be important, and I’m sure the listopia lists could be good too.
I haven’t found my grove with my blog being particularly useful yet, but I enjoy it, so I’m going to keep going. Trouble is, I think in order to get views on my blog, I need to promote IT, and that’s just yet another thing to promote!
When I first saw the title I thought, I would love a job promotion without excess responsibilities. Book promotion is a great topic and your advice is great. As long as you are doing something, that’s all that matters.
Hmm. A job promotion would be good too! Although I don’t think I need more responsibilities. Thanks for commenting.
I like your approach to promotion–build the relationships and the rest will follow. Like you, I unfollow tweeters who are relentless with the sales pitch, but also like you, I allow a fair bit of latitude there if they’re tweeting linky goodness or connecting in other ways. It’s a fine balance, and it’s so easy for writers to tip too far to either side.
I haven’t published yet, traditionally or non-traditionally, but the promotion piece is something I’m starting to think more about. If Joe (above) is right–and how lovely if he is!–maybe I should just focus on the writing and try not to worry too much about that aspect of things, at least for now.
Oh, and I just bought your book. It’s going to be a while before I read it because the virtual pile is about to topple over it’s so high, but I’m looking forward to it. 🙂
I think writing is definitely the most important, both before and after you publish, but very much so before. I have seen some people say that you have to build buzz before your book is out, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. Much better for people who are excited about your book to be able to go and buy it straight away, before they forget!
Thanks for buying my book. Hope you enjoy it. I get it about the slush pile. So many books, so little time!
Social media seems like a great way for creatives to promote their work. I agree with you, though, I think most people are turned off by the hard sell. If you are constantly promoting your own work through social media it sometimes backfires and may not work. It makes sense to encourage, support and help promote others because often they will reciprocate. That sometimes will lead to new contacts and exciting opportunities. Good Luck!
Yep, I agree. Encouraging and supporting others is much better than constanly selling, and it’s a lot more fun too!