Authors: How do you promote yourself and market your book?
Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 by admin
On the internet, do you engage your readers on a number of subjects while promoting and marketing yourself from time to time, or do you do “drive by” spamming?
How effective has your campaign been to you? Have you been able to build up a ‘net presence?
I’ve seen you speak out against the idea that authors need to be traditionally published in order to gain respect and recognition. Why would you take this position if you don’t know of a proven alternative? Just wondering. This is the question of yours that I am referring to:
Back to your question, though, how many well written books have you discovered through online campaigns? Let me rephrase that. How many books, at all, have you found through online campaigns? I have never learned about, let alone purchased, any books that were advertised online.
I don’t know for sure but I bet that the spam emails (for books), aside from being ignored, don’t even make it past the spam blockers. I’ve never received one. I have a feeling that retail stores, **** sites and mortgage lenders have software that helps them bypass the spam blockers – at least to a certain degree.
The whole point of advertising is to reach people that wouldn’t normally purchase your product had you not made it known to them. There is, of course, the people that would want the product despite advertising, but you want to remind them to make their purchases more frequently. This you already know. The point I’m making is that people like you and I love reading as opposed to just liking /some/ books. We go to sites and forums that are geared specifically toward the topics of reading and writing (like Y!A), more so than the “average” person, and I have yet to find, let alone like, a book that I learned about online.
Have you ever read about how two of the most successful authors became famous? I’m talking about Christopher Paolini and James Redfield. They promoted their books in person in many different states. Redfield gave away thousands of dollars worth of books just to give word-of-mouth a chance. You can read a little about Paolini’s rise to success at Wikipedia.org and you can read about Redfield at his homepage.
I think the answer to your question lies within your own experiences of online advertising. Do you read /and/ purchase things from spam emails? How many books on your bookshelf are from self-published, self-promoted authors? If somebody recommends a book on a forum do go out and purchase it? For me the answer is no and I can speak with certainty that the same goes for most other people. If the people that are “involved” with reading and writing don’t notice these obscure authors then how are the non or light readers ever going to notice them. If /your/ goal as a writer is to reach /somebody/ and not necessarily /everybody/ then your time and effort is better spent physically promoting your book at bookstores and libraries and the like. I’ve seen some used bookstores carry self-published books, but the author usually takes a hit on the price just so that they can get their name out there.
If there are people that have made a name for themselves in the reading/writing world through online means then shouldn’t it be relatively easy to find articles or stories about these people? I believe that the few people that have made small gains haven’t “made it” enough for there to be any buzz about it. In my opinion the internet is a great money making tool for all kinds of businesses. There is a teenage girl that literally became a millionaire by making backgrounds for people’s MySpace pages. Obviously the internet can work to your advantage in many ways, but the writing/publishing world has yet to see quite that level of success. If I’m wrong why is it so hard to prove it?
I just want to add that I am aware that some big league authors started of with self-publishing, but there are two major factors to consider. One, we probably wouldn’t even know about them unless they eventually went the traditional publishing route; and two, the world moves a lot faster these days. The amount of aspiring writers 50+ years ago was far less than the number today. I don’t think that we can compare the business side of the writing business of the days of old to today.
EDIT: I have a sincere question for you: have you ever tried to hire a professional independent editor to edit your book and help you write excellent query letters and synopsis? I ask because if the answer is no then how can you be sure that your time and money isn’t better spent on an editor instead of advertising? You might have a great book, but if you send a poorly written query you’re just shooting yourself in the foot. Have you gone this route already and decided it wasn’t working out for you? A professional editor can do wonders for most writers. It’s an investment that that has a good chance at paying dividends.