Promoting books on Tumblr

KateH

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I'm not in a situation where I have to worry about this, but I've been wondering about it for some time.

Let's say you have a Tumblr, one that's not for professional or promotional purposes or anything. Just a place where you fangirl over stuff, and you have a fair amount of followers.
If you then published a book, would you mention in on your Tumblr?
A friend was wondering about this, and pointed out that it could get some interest in your book if any of your followers were interested, or if you had online friends who'd be potential buyers.
However, would it be considered unprofessional or a bad idea to have a personal/fandom Tumblr linked in some way to you as an author?
 

Polenth

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Tumblr is generally a more informal space. No one's going to think it's odd if you're squeeing over My Little Pony pictures, and also you have a horror book out.

The bad idea would be if you overwhelm your Tumblr with promotional posts (as it'll alienate your followers) or if your fan squee is a bit dubious (Harry Potter slash fiction might not be something you want to link to your picture book career). Simply being enthusiastic about fannish things isn't going to be an issue in itself.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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My tumblr account is linked to me as a writer. Mostly it's just me posting stuff I'm interested in, but if I have a short story published, I won't hesitate to post it there. And since it then posts to my FB and twitter accounts, I kill 3 birds with on post.
 

Samball49

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I would say yes. The most successful example of this is that of author John Green. Now I know that he is famous but people love him and so they would probably love his writing. Therefore is people like your posts they will probably like your writing.....It's worth a shot!
 

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Absolutely.

The thing is to primarily focus on interacting and real conversation everywhere but on your Website.

So YES, mention sales, and books etc.

Just don't PRIMARILY talk about your books/writing anywhere but on your own Website.
 

knporter

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I am an author/comic book writer and I have found that Tumblr has indeed brought a lot of attention to my page. I guess the golden rule is just do not over post. I know that personally when I see a lot of the same posts over and over it gets annoying. Other than that go for it.