What's the big secret?

[Rosalyn_Kae]

I don't know if this question has been asked before and if it has, please direct me to the link. What I want to know is what's the big secret behind a effective promotional plan? What did all the debut (now bestselling) authors do to get people to buy and read their work? What did Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins do to up their sales? I'm curious to know, because I don't remember Twilight ever having an
official book trailer. So what'd she do? I wish she'd share some of those tricks with the rest of us. :Shrug:

[JulieB]

All those people you mention are commercially published. They had bookstore distribution. The publishers sent out review copies.

Sometimes luck plays into it.

It also helps to have professionals designing the cover art. I'm not a fan of the Twilight books, but I love the covers. I think the covers did as much as anything else to draw in readers.

[johnnysannie]

To mount an effective promotional plan that will boost sales of your book, you're going to have to work very hard at it and devote a lot of time. Guest blogs, guest appearances, any local media that you can get to cover your book, Twitter, Facebook, reviews, and more. Get your name, your brand (and if you don't know what that is yet you need to learn quick), and your title or titles out everywhere you can.

[Cyia]

All those people you mention are commercially published. They had bookstore distribution. The publishers sent out review copies.

Sometimes luck plays into it.

It also helps to have professionals designing the cover art. I'm not a fan of the Twilight books, but I love the covers. I think the covers did as much as anything else to draw in readers.

^^^

This.

The authors you mention either wrote a query and snagged an agent for their first book (Meyer) and the agent then sold it to a publisher who had a financial stake in making sure it got the best exposure possible. Or already had an agent (Collins) who sold it to a publisher who had a financial stake in making sure it got the best exposure possible.

In Suzanne Collins' case, it helped that Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer were so enamored of the story they talked it up, too.

You can't compare commercial publishing to self-publishing in this regard. They aren't on even ground.

[JSSchley]

And actually, I'd have to go back and find this reference, but supposedly Twilight actually didn't do that well out of the gate. It certainly did what most of us would consider great, but it wasn't what L,B had in mind. The marketers pumped it like crazy through the blogosphere and got the YA world talking about it.

Which is what happens when a book series has been given a huge advance and the publisher has to make sure they make that money back. They throw the backbone into doing what they can to make that happen. See Cyia, above, re: commercial vs. self-pub.

[BigBooksNY]

Ditto!


All those people you mention are commercially published. They had bookstore distribution. The publishers sent out review copies.

Sometimes luck plays into it.

It also helps to have professionals designing the cover art. I'm not a fan of the Twilight books, but I love the covers. I think the covers did as much as anything else to draw in readers.