How to promote your book like an intelligent human being and not an SEO Dweeb

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I can see where it might be helpful for authors who write in the same genre. It might get a bit sticky and lead to hurt feelings if your pal, Jennie Writer, wants to exchange promos, but you're not inclined to do so for whatever reason. I'm not sure I want to open that can of worms.

Exactly.

For scholarly works, it's much easier. It's a smaller pool, for one thing, and reputation is just as important, but there are more external checks-and-balances.

I'd be uncomfortable with anything that meant going through the author, but since I was including an annotated biography, it didn't seem like much of a stretch to link to the sites of scholars who had published their books via a private co-op or self-published them.
 

JeremiahGrogKanus

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I can see where it might be helpful for authors who write in the same genre. It might get a bit sticky and lead to hurt feelings if your pal, Jennie Writer, wants to exchange promos, but you're not inclined to do so for whatever reason. I'm not sure I want to open that can of worms.

Yeah, I can see that. I've been studying the tactics of successful small presses that publish fiction of at least novella length. They develop alliances with other small presses -- mutual promotion agreements, shared webpages (in addition to their own), collaboratively funded weekend conventions or meet-n-greets, etc. I can't help but wonder if/how such tactics could work in the world of indie publishing. From what I can tell, the primary concerns are different audiences and lack of professionalism among participants, which also would be true for small publishers. In other words, the risks are navigable.

Meanwhile, collaborative approaches distribute and thereby diminish financial risks (let's say, for a website or paid advertisement). They lower individual costs but raise individual visibility.

I'm interested in starting a writers' collective for authors of a similar audience. Collaborative marketing can elevate the profile of indie authorship.
 

JacquelineSweet

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Your advice is incredibly helpful. Thank you--sincerely--for sharing it. I've been trying to tick off these boxes and I'm surprised at how much I've forgotten to do.

Evil suggestion: With some padding and flashy layout you could easily sell this advice as an ebook.
 

Deleted member 42

Your advice is incredibly helpful. Thank you--sincerely--for sharing it. I've been trying to tick off these boxes and I'm surprised at how much I've forgotten to do.

Thanks!

Evil suggestion: With some padding and flashy layout you could easily sell this advice as an ebook.

I'm contractually obligated to offer it to my current publishers first, but a book would save me a lot of repetition ;)
 
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Clifforis

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Thank you Medievalist,
Some eye-opening advise here, glad to hear that the self-loathing inducing technique of constant social media bombardment doesn't actually work.
Saves me from transforming into a turdcorn in front of all my friends and family.
 

CH1

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Fantastic information, thank you for sharing.
 

Eva Lefoy

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I've seen a lot of discussion lately on authors getting off of FB and sick of Twitter. Any thoughts on those?

I also hear rumblings that blogs and blog tours do not sell books.

As far as the advice of going to other people's blogs, reading them, and commenting, to that I say, there's not enough time in a day for that. It would be interesting at times, I'm sure, though I have my doubts it would be interesting most of the time to do so, but who has time to read ten blogs a day? Or even five?

Not me.

Yikes. I guess I'll have to grab people off the street and steal their credit cards!

Oh.. and I forgot. Triberr? Does it seem to work or no?
 
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nkkingston

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I block triberr on twitter (and bookbuzzr) because the sam was driving me up the wall. I'd be highly surprised if I was the only one. All of that autoretweet stuff is deeply annoying.

The thing with blog tours etc is the market is flooded. You're mostly promoting at other writers who have only followed the blog in order to promote their own stuff. Only a handful of blogs seem to actually get readers following them. It's the same with your own blog - you need to write something readers are interested in following. You need a hook that's not your book.

When it comes to reading blogs, I'd say I read 5 to 10 posts a day through my rss feed easily. If the blogs you follow are interesting, then it's easy. Of course, only a couple would really qualify as author blogs, and none are promo blogs - WTF? Evolution, Least Helpful and Project:Rooftop (to pick three at random) aren't in the slightest bit relevant to what I write and whether I comment or reblog has no impact on my sales whatsoever. However, I'm definitely interested in buying their merch, so it's working for them! A hook that's not your book, like I said.
 

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I've seen a lot of discussion lately on authors getting off of FB and sick of Twitter. Any thoughts on those?

I prefer Twitter because it's easier to filter content than on Facebook, but social networks are what you make of them. I use lists to pare my Twitter done to show only tweets by people I'm interested in, and I use the 'mute' function of various 3rd party apps if someone's getting on my nerves with a hashtag or promo spree.

I regularly unfollow or even block people who get caught up in self-promo spirals, and I never auto-follow when someone follows me. Without that in my feed it's fairly interesting stuff.

I also hear rumblings that blogs and blog tours do not sell books.

Nah. I don't recommend blogging unless you enjoy blogging. I wouldn't say book blog tours are entirely ineffective but it's definitely a situation where you have to weigh up the time spent on guest posts vs the gain.

As far as the advice of going to other people's blogs, reading them, and commenting, to that I say, there's not enough time in a day for that. It would be interesting at times, I'm sure, though I have my doubts it would be interesting most of the time to do so, but who has time to read ten blogs a day? Or even five?

Not me.

Sorry to be blunt, but if you don't have the time to read and comment on blogs then blogging isn't for you. Blogging itself is time consuming, and becoming friends with other bloggers, reading and commenting on their blogs regularly, is the only reliable way I've found to build a following.

Writing good, shareable blog posts can also work but I've seen a lot of good posts flounder because the blogger didn't have a network in place to signal boost.
 

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Great thread. I'm still reading all the way through and learning a lot. I was going to start a thread on a similar topic and found this one so I will ask here although it is not about promotion.

How important is an internet presence (all you have listed) in signing an agent and/or publisher?

I just sent a full to Jenks agency upon request and they also asked for links as well. Although I am published I don't have anything but a personal (mostly unused) FB page and author bio on Amazon. Is this request usual?

I am going to immediately set up an author FB page for my previous published work just to get started.
 

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It really depends on the publisher, as many AW threads have already discussed. Some publishers seem reluctant to sign anyone without a reasonable social media presence, while others don't mind at all. A good book trumps everything else. Some authors simply cannot be in the public eye, for any number of reasons.

A social media presence can help or hinder an author when they're hunting around for agents and publishers. Imagine having an easily-traced flamewar relevant to your writing and genre laid right at your doorstep. Or a blog filled with chronic typos, mistaken word choices, and generally bad or boring content.

Neither of those would automatically turn off outside interest. But they might make a curious agent or editor wonder if you're too hotheaded for public appearances (or whether your controversies can be mined for $$$). Clumsy writing on a blog (or AW posts) probably won't influence consideration of a well-honed mms, but it might make someone wonder how much editorial guidance and revision you're going to need later.

OTOH, if you're already blogging, tweeting, etc, it can be a great way to keep in contact with writers and readerships.

If I got an offer today from a publisher insisting on my social media presence, I'd nail down how much marketing and promotion they want me to do, and how much they'll do. If the burden falls on me, I wouldn't be interested in that publisher. Not unless they give me startlingly high percentages of the royalties.
 

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It really depends on the publisher, as many AW threads have already discussed. Some publishers seem reluctant to sign anyone without a reasonable social media presence, while others don't mind at all. A good book trumps everything else. Some authors simply cannot be in the public eye, for any number of reasons.

A social media presence can help or hinder an author when they're hunting around for agents and publishers. Imagine having an easily-traced flamewar relevant to your writing and genre laid right at your doorstep. Or a blog filled with chronic typos, mistaken word choices, and generally bad or boring content.

Neither of those would automatically turn off outside interest. But they might make a curious agent or editor wonder if you're too hotheaded for public appearances (or whether your controversies can be mined for $$$). Clumsy writing on a blog (or AW posts) probably won't influence consideration of a well-honed mms, but it might make someone wonder how much editorial guidance and revision you're going to need later.

OTOH, if you're already blogging, tweeting, etc, it can be a great way to keep in contact with writers and readerships.

If I got an offer today from a publisher insisting on my social media presence, I'd nail down how much marketing and promotion they want me to do, and how much they'll do. If the burden falls on me, I wouldn't be interested in that publisher. Not unless they give me startlingly high percentages of the royalties.

Thank you so much. Great reply. This is the kind of feedback I was hoping to receive from this website.

Internet is double edge sword as we know. For instance I posted on my personal FB "hoping 3rd x's the charm for interested agent. Then an agent wants to see my FB and they see two have passed on my project. So won't be posting any updates on my submission process for friends and family anymore.

Mostly I think it depends on genre - correct me if I am wrong or being smug here, but category fiction might be better suited to a strong internet presence than serious literature. Great opportunities for that genre, but limited for serious fiction where I think too much personal info spoils the pot. But with category, there's a sense of community that broadens appeal and exposure in a positive way
 
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I find it interesting that you don't consider "blogs" to be websites. They are actually the perfect website platform for authors. I always recommend that authors build their blog or website on their own domain and hosting and not on blogspot or wordpress hosted.

But a blog is indeed a website.

Yet elsewhere we are told that building a platform involves specifically selling the author. Conflicting signals here.

Of those, only Preston and Child have a website. The others have blogs. Preston and Childs' website is a cluttered mess. It's colorful and animated, but it's too busy for my eye. But if that's what it takes...

They're mostly dead. The authors, that is.

From what I've seen and you've said, so far, with the small amount of time I've had to research it, I'm leaning more and more towards thinking that an author's personal website is not all that important in the larger scale of things. Mine was quite useful when I was entertaining. It's a necessity in that business, because clients can watch videos, read the kudos of other clients, and fans can buy your CDs and DVDs and keep up with your performance schedule. But for writing? I just don't know.

I did have fun building the Javascript for the moving panorama of book covers. I did it mainly because a Flash expert told me it couldn't be done in Javascript. That's not something people should tell me. :)

Looking around with google as I write this: Konrath's website is not very pretty. Bland, in fact. http://www.jakonrath.com/ Do you think it's a good example of what an author should strive for?

Neither Hocking nor Locke have personal websites. Locke has a blog.

They all tweet their effin' brains out, though. Maybe that's the next thing I'll be asking about. Twitter and Facebook are like the world on the Jerry Springer show. I can't stand it. :)

I'll keep surfing. I sure appreciate your insight in these matters.
 

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I find it interesting that you don't consider "blogs" to be websites. They are actually the perfect website platform for authors. I always recommend that authors build their blog or website on their own domain and hosting and not on blogspot or wordpress hosted.

But a blog is indeed a website.

Blogs and websites are different things.

A blog is an online journal, or magazine: it's intended to be updated with some frequency, with previous articles left visible. Usually there's interaction between its author and people who read the pieces provided.

A website is more static and usually goes only one way--from the author to the readers. When it's updated, previous versions are usually deleted.

Note that a blog can be part of a website.

This is the website of a friend of mine.


This is her blog, which is contained within her website.


See the difference?
 

Deleted member 42

I find it interesting that you don't consider "blogs" to be websites. They are actually the perfect website platform for authors. I always recommend that authors build their blog or website on their own domain and hosting and not on blogspot or wordpress hosted.

But a blog is indeed a website.

Err, not, quite.

A blog refers to a particular page format; a series of posts that are in reverse chronological order, most recent first, with a time and date stamp, and an author. Blogs tend to have date-based archives.

A single Website can host many blogs. blogpost.com is a Web site.

Wordpress.com is a Website; both blogspot and Wordpress.com host many blogs. Some Websites do not host any blogs; some Websites consist entirely of a single blog.
 
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cwschizzy

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Thanks for all of this information. It'll really help in the coming months.
 

Shirokirie

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Hey Medi,

I've been browsing through this thread, and I've found the info in it terribly useful - like most people. The only question I have is geared towards author websites:

Is it better to make the website right away, as you're making the second book, or is it better to wait until you have a few titles under your belt first and then make the site?

That's the only thing I've been curious about, since I'm contemplating getting one, but I'm not sure if it would benefit me at present.

Also, forgive me if you've answered this already - there's only so much I can 'scour' before my head wants to explode. :(

Thanks,
Shiro.
 

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I'd get a website straight away.
 

CheG

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I have been pretty happy with my Wordpress blog/site. I like that I can have multiple pages which is something I never figured out in blogspot.

But I am lost when it comes to marketing/self-promotion. I sent one e-ARC to a review blog but that's it! A friend of mine told me to go to book sites similar to what I'm writing and personally contact people who post on those blogs and tell them about my book, but I just can't do it! And it works for her! I don't know how she does it!

Other than that I made bookmarks... LOL! And I'm going to a convention in October...
 
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