Posts
At least not the traditional tried and true.
1.) GENERIC SHOUTING
Been to Twitter lately?
Don't you get tired of folks tweeting generic shout-outs for their books as if they were promoting the hottest movie everyone wanted to see?
Impersonal messages do NOT touch us nor prompt us to investigate further.
We have to get personal with our messages. PERSONALIZE each of our messages
wherever we send them. It takes more time, but pays more dividends.
Emailing for help in promoting your book?
Talk about a post the person did that touched you or how a comment from them on your post touched you, or a FB post from them that made you smile.
2.) BLOG TOUR KISS OF DEATH
You have to personalize your blog tours.
Make them fun and specific to the subject on which you write or on the subject of the blogs you visit.
3.) ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA
How many Avon saleswomen do you invite over for a chat? Yeah, not any.
Social Media is for companionship not arm-twisting salesmanship.
You do not have to sell EVERYWHERE just everywhere that matters.
Make friends wherever you go. Remember birthdays, lost relatives, ill health, and funny jokes to share.
Then, you will have built up a balance of good feelings upon which you can draw when you need an assist from a friend.
4.) COTTON CANDY BLOGS
There are a lot of pretty blogs out there that like cotton candy
are mostly fluff with little helpful content for visitors.
They are easy to write ... and easy to write off by visitors.
People want a blog that says something of substance or uplifting reflections or just a good belly laugh.
You write a cotton candy blog at your own peril, losing repeat visitors and customers for your books.
5.) PROMOTE THEIR BOOK NOT YOURS!
Only your mother cares that you wrote a book ... and sometimes not even her!
Write in your blog what your book can do for YOUR VISITOR ...
How it will make her feel, how entertained it will make her, how many laughs she will garner from each chapter.
Another slant to that is to actually promote books of friends in unique, fun ways ...
Just wait until my post for the 3rd. Just you wait!
Until then ...
C. Lee McKenzie has a great new book coming
Hi Roland - 'boring' and 'repetitive' are the things I dread seeing around the blogosphere - unique is where I want to go.
ReplyDeleteI definitely imagine Lee's Green Dragon is full of horrors, goodies, gunge, fire and sparky thoughts that will entice the youngsters to read - and I'm sure could give us some great ideas too ...
Cheers and good luck to you both with your marketing ideas - see you on the 3rd - Hilary
I think Lee's book will be a lot like STAND BY ME mixed with STRANGER THINGS not bad at all, right?
DeleteOnly your mother cares - so true! Good points, Roland. I prefer to promote others than myself.
ReplyDeleteWell, Midnight, my cat cares -- but only because he wants the movie rights sold so he can grow accustomed to the fine lifestyle it will buy him! :-)
DeleteThese are very good points you make, Roland. I don't have a book to promote (yet!) but I'll try to remember these tips if and when the time comes. In the meantime, I'll try to make my blog posts entertaining. :)
ReplyDeleteSusan at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
You always do -- and let me know when your book is coming out so that I can promote it. :-)
DeleteOh, the fluffy blog. Sometimes I fear mine is slipping into Candyland. I don't self-promote much on my blog, except for a bit this month and again in Oct. Mostly I try to help out other authors or meander on a beach somewhere musing...
ReplyDeleteWe all like occasional cotton candy, just not a steady diet of it!
DeleteThere once was a blogger who never posted unless that blogger had sold a story or novel or had one to buy. It got tedious after awhile. :-(
You had my attention all the way to the end! And then there was that little surprise waiting for me. Here's your virtual hug for the great and wise tips and the surprise, too.
ReplyDeleteFriends like to surprise friends. :-) Thanks for the virtual hug, too. Only the highest of sales!
DeleteHi Roland!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I've accepted that FB and Twitter are full of promoted books but now I'm sorry to say writers are starting to take over Instagram. Sorry, I go to Instagram to post/enjoy photographs, so i ignore promos even from my blogger friends. Enough! Keep it to blogs and FB and Twitter i say, but who's going to listen? Some of us are hopeless at self promotion, so we'll never be best-selling authors no matter how good our book is. :-)
Our only hope is that we are discovered in the mainstream internet, say by the blog of Neil Gaiman. Yeah, we are going to be unknown a loooong time. :-)
DeleteI hate those auto-tweets to advertise books. They show up over and over and . . . you get the idea. I understand the concept of a blog tour, but I don't know if it works very well. To me it seems as if the author and friends are preaching to the choir, or to each other. How does one reach beyond one's immediate circle?
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
That is my question as well. Auto-tweets are the worst. Ugh!
DeleteA blog tour is singing to the choir, yes?
We have to find a way to reach beyond the ghetto of author blogs if our books are to reach any kind of high sales that persist over the months.
Maybe if I dated Taylor Swift. No, she would only write a nasty song about me! :-)
I was nodding like crazy as I read this post. What you said about Twitter is why I use lists and never look at my newsfeed--it's become a long, run-on book ad.
ReplyDeleteGreat points, and I'm really looking forward to reading Lee's book. It sounds awesome!
Keep an eye peeled for a new follower: the ghost of Mark Twain.
DeleteAnd I am looking forward to Lee's new book, too!! :-)