Opinions on promoting your novel before you sell it?

Personally--this is just my opinion, I'm not a publisher or agent, I'm not an expert, beware the narwhal--I wouldn't recommend promoting a completed but not contracted work. When you promote a book, people want to know where they can buy it, and if you don't have an answer they may forget about you by the time you are under contract. I haven't heard about anyone landing a publisher/agent by doing this, which doesn't mean it doesn't happen but probably means it's fairly uncommon.

That said, I personally sometimes post excerpts or blurbs or whatever of my works in progress on my personal blogs and on a couple of private Yahoo loops I belong to, not so much to help me land a publisher (I have several of those already) but to let my readers know what I'm up to and to share things I'm particularly proud of.

Same as Kim - I don't see the point in "wearing out your welcome" by promoting a novel that people can't buy. That's the main reason I'm not telling my work colleagues - I want to be able to tap into any excited congratulations by saying "buy my book/come to my launch" not "it'll be out in another ten months' time".

By all means build a platform and connect with your future readership, but apart from a few friends, it's mostly going to be about getting your name out there as an interesting person who's involved in your genre's community.

Also, your promotions may well look undesirable to the potential agent of publisher--e.g. excerpts not well edited, giving away too much of the book, striking the wrong tone, identifying it as being in the wrong genre for them....

I agree with the consensus on here. If you are itching to get something going about your story or people excited, write an article for a magazine (hi profile online mags count too) about your topic. This can HELP you get an agent and find a publisher. The thing is you want the agents to come to you. They read tons of publications. Try it.

Kitty Pryde said:

Hi gang. I'm sure there are conflicting opinions on this. What do you think: waste of time, can't hurt, mildly helpful, best idea ever?

What I mean is, blogging (about your story, or posting a few chapters, but not the whole novel), social networking, or other online efforts to promote or show off your completed WIP, as part of an effort to find an agent/publisher (for a complete and polished work). I have seen this recommended in some places, scorned in others. What's your take on it? I know the odds of having one's beautiful novel noticed by anyone of import are pretty low, but is there any value to trying to create interest to agents and/or future audience? Is there any use of having a Facebook fan page for my novel of awesomeness?

Please illuminate me!

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Anne Lyle said:

Same as Kim - I don't see the point in "wearing out your welcome" by promoting a novel that people can't buy. That's the main reason I'm not telling my work colleagues - I want to be able to tap into any excited congratulations by saying "buy my book/come to my launch" not "it'll be out in another ten months' time".

By all means build a platform and connect with your future readership, but apart from a few friends, it's mostly going to be about getting your name out there as an interesting person who's involved in your genre's community.

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This pretty much says it all.

Very educated opinions in here. Thanks to everyone who's replied - I've enjoyed reading the thoughts.

The only thing I have to add is that it's okay to mention a little about a work in progress. A tweet about your word count, or thoughts on a title, or one thing you're excited about, can get very positive responses. You don't want to overdo it and wear out the novelty of the project or frustrate people who want to read it right now - but you can engage a little bit. This week on Twitter I had a little discussion about possible topics for my current novel. Readers were happy to feel included in the process.

That's a fair point. People who follow me on Twitter already know I have a book coming out, so the occasional progress tweet (with the #amwriting hashtag) goes unremarked and in fact helps me to pick up new followers. What I don't try to do is promote the book itself to the fantasy-reading public in general.

Promote yourself, not the (non-existent) product!

I agree turning yourself into the product instead of the book. These days authors are brands.

Promoting a WIP

I am now into the thick of the editing stage of my second book, 'To be Maria' and would like to start promoting it without giving to much away.

Where or what could I do to build buzz for this book without giving too much away or over promoting it?

Thanks


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My blog, http://desstories.blogspot.com

Alarm bells went off in my mind when I read your post. I had a bad experience promoting a WIP because the publisher with whom it was contracted ended up (nice language, please!) not honoring the bleeping contract. I then felt like an idiot because I'd swirled up all sorts of interest in a book without a home.

But that's just me. Maybe you already have a publisher or are self-publishing. If so, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd suggest you develop a log line, like you would for a query letter. Use it as a teaser in Tweets, on your blog and FB, giving intriguing updates as you edit, like "The heroine will never get out of this...will she?" (but better than that because you know the actual story!)

Good luck!

Thanks, Lizardmaker. I'm sorry to hear about your bummed contract. I hope you do find a home for your book soon.

I think that article writing is one way to build buzz about a book, that is taking a theme from the book and writing an article based on that theme.


__________________
My website, www.deannaproach.com
My blog, http://desstories.blogspot.com

I occassionally talk about things I'm working on, but I don't think going all out for promotion for a book that hasn't sold is a good idea. If nothing else, people will get bored of hearing about it.

Careful

Be very very careful about posting excerpts that may be line-edited or completely changed in the final product. Even if you're planning to self-publish and have a time frame in mind and this is advance promotion for that, until you are absolutely ready to shut the book on revisions, do not post excerpts.

Once it's out there, it's out there, and unless you want to look sheepish and uncertain, you'll be prevented from following that huge realization or that great revision idea, because early versions of the book are already set in stone.

Protect your drafts.