Yesterday, and How to Promote Your Books (I'm Lookin' for Ideas)
moar funny pictures
Yesterday we had a dance at school and I ended up dancing with almost all my ex students. The funny - EVERY one of my ex-students who bought popcorn, came by to offer me some! SO cute.
Last night we went to a one-act play written by one of the SARAs. It was SO good but SO sad! I cried halfway home, just thinking about it. It was performed by the advanced teen acting class and they did a fantastic job.
I'm trying to buy the PS I LOVE YOU soundtrack from iTunes, but it wants me to sign in and I have no idea what the sign in info is, and it won't let me create a new account. I waited till payday and now I have to wait some more. I hate waiting.
Okay, I've sent back the last of the galleys to Smoke. I know Hot Shot will be released on April Fool's Day. Now I need to start promoting.
I know Romancing the Blog has ads along the side of the page that they sell for $30. I've heard banners and stuff like that do well. I see a lot of writers promote on the Wild Rose Press loop and the Samhain loop, but I frankly delete those (200 email a day from both loops - heavens!) I know I need a website and I'll start looking into that next week. But what have you found to be the most effective, promotion-wise?
Off to work, hope we get out so I can get to the 2:10 show of PS I LOVE YOU!!!
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- MJFredrick
- I'm a mom, a wife, a teacher and a writer. I have five cats and a dog to keep me company. I love bookstores and libraries and Netflix - movies are my greatest weakness.
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6 comments:
well, i am all caught up with your blog, miz mary!
i hope you get to go home early and are home before i get home this afternoon.
xoxoxxo to your men & you.
Did you tell the series board you'd sold two books? Congratulations, again, because I think I only knew about the one!
I'm a promo slacker. Although I did join NovelTalk as part of the Intrigue Authors collective, and I think you get a lot of bang for your buck there, because we share the costs. They do chats, newsletters, run your blog, publicize your contests, and then there's the website, too. It might be expensive as a single author, but maybe you and some of the other Wild Rose authors could get together?
I've taken part in group ads in RT. I'm not sure those have done a lot for me. Based on my own short attention span, I think you need at least a third-page color ad to be noticed, and the group ads have been b/w and five books to a page.
I teach online classes and give workshops--that's been another promo thing. (Although I think people often take the classes and don't care about reading your books!)
And I give out bookmarks. They have the "top ten" from my home page on them, and people have told me they buy my books because they think the bookmarks are funny.
I think the best things for me have been group promotion things, because I could ride the coattails of authors who've been around longer and have better name recognition. : D
Wow, this is long. Sorry, Mary!
I have no idea what works well. I did postcards for TRR and sent them to everyone I know and that created some sales from people who'd never bought a romance or read one before.
But I don't think I've done very well tapping the existing market, so I'm interested in what you find out.
Mary, I've done pretty close there is to everything you can do, and I haven't found anything in particular to be very effective when your books aren't automatically on the shelf.
However, you can't not do anything, or nothing will sell. So.
I love The Romance Studio. You can join for $2.50 a month, which allows you to have a feature at least once (time it to your release). You can do as many Book-a-Day Giveaways as they can fit/as you want, which is a good way to build your mailing list. (A mailing list is a must!) And you can post announcements whenever you want. And they have special events several times a year. And they have prizes (I won a free year's membership) and free ads each year. Definitely the most eyeballs for the lowest fee.
People seem to be doing well with an active presence on MySpace, Facebook, and Shelfari. I also have a listing in the Romance Wiki.
For books that can be ordered by booksellers, Romance Sells isn't a bad idea, though you're getting into some bucks there.
Sub your book as soon as you have an ARC to as many review sites as you can (that your publisher isn't already subbing to).
Subscribe to AskAnAuthorAll, where Theresa of Blue Moon Communications just did a week-long workshop on promotion. She's got EXCELLENT things to say!
Thanks, Dawn! You too!
Tracy, I am not sure if I told the series group about both books. One's to WRP and the other's to Samhain.
I think your top ten on your bookmarks is a good idea, and memorable.
Never mind long - thanks for the suggestions!
Gina, I guess you'll have to see what works when your book has been out longer? Though you've been in the top ten all month, right?
Thanks, Natalie! I'll look into that Romance Studio.
I am so tickled that Raven is still in the top 10. Thanks for noticing. :)
BTW--you are the one who mentioned the mint kisses right? I bought a bag and they are going fasssst. Yum.
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