How much time spent promoting one book?

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Greenwolf103

I realize that there must be some time before a new book comes out, but what about authors who spend years promoting only one book and they never write/publish another one? How do readers see this?

How long is a reasonable time to spend promoting your book? And if a new one comes out, do you focus your promotion efforts on the new one or keep the fire burning with the first one, too?

With me, I'd put ALL of my energy into promoting one book after it comes out then moving that energy to each consecutive book with minimal promotion for the last one. Or do I have it wrong?
 

absolutewrite

Dawn, I'm no expert on this (yet!), but I do focus my energy on my new books as they come out. There's a lot of piggybacking, though-- for example, while researching places that might review my new book, I often find ones appropriate for an older book.

But those first 3 months or so after a book comes out are considered its most important time, bookstore-wise... you want there to be a wild mass of publicity timed to come out in those first 3 months to draw people into bookstores to buy your book; otherwise, if it gets off to a slow start, stores will likely return the copies they have on the shelves and will be hesitant to restock the book unless demand is proven to have gone way up.

That was perhaps the longest run-on sentence I've ever written.

So, yes, while I wouldn't say I do "minimal" publicity on my older titles, I don't do anywhere near as much with them as I do on my new book. But book signings, for example-- the managers have always ordered in at least my two most recent books, and often my three most recent books, so there's a cumulative effect. And I can often mention more than one book when I do interviews. And of course they're all on my website, so when people go there they find out about all of 'em.

Right now I'm gearing up for a big radio push, though, and what I'm pitching is my new book's topic. If I get to mention my other books, great, but that's icing on the cake.
 

Greenwolf103

Thank you, Jenna!! Very helpful stuff. I'll keep all that in mind. (Even that long run-on sentence!)

Take care.

--Dawn
 
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