Promoting Erotic Fiction -- Ideas for self-promo & for working together w/ multiple authors

thethinker42

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Okay, so I brought this up in the Bordello, but thought it would be better in the open forum so we can get more participation.

Let's face it: promo is a pain in the butt, and getting your name out there without overdoing it (or overspending with no return) is a challenge.

Let's all work together on this. This thread is for the following:

  • Brainstorming ideas for effective promotion.
  • Sharing promotional opportunities with other members (blog hops, blog tours, guest spots, etc)
  • Discussing promotional techniques that have and have not worked.
  • Proposing ideas for joint promo, such as multi-author ads in magazines or websites.

So...what has worked for you? What hasn't? What promotional opportunities are you interested in trying? Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

This is an open discussion, but please don't use the thread as an actual means of self-promotion. Discussing how you promoted your book/name/brand is fine, but this isn't the thread for "My new book is now available..." posts. No, I'm not a mod, so I can't enforce that, but I really want to keep this thread on the subject of how to promote rather than bombarding each other with advertisements. Though that could be an example of how NOT to promote oneself...

Anyway. Go forth. Discuss. How do we and should we promote our erotic fiction?
 

thethinker42

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My thoughts:

Pretty much all of us have blogs, so there's no reason we can't organize guest posts, blog hops/tours, etc., to help each other out. My blog doesn't get a huge amount of traffic, but I'm always happy to host guests and pimp out books.

Also, a few months ago, some M/M authors and I went in on a joint ad for RT Magazine. It doesn't take much to fit three authors on a 1/3 page or even 1/4 page ad, and it's really not too expensive to advertise in (for example) convention/conference programs. I think my ad in one program (GRL or AAD, I can't recall right now) was something like $50 including having someone design it for me. The one in RT Mag was considerably steeper, but the smaller venues are reasonable and have a pretty good reach. Ditto with banner adds on review sites such as Joyfully Reviewed. How much do they help sales? I'm honestly not sure, but more visibility is always a good thing. If anyone wants to do a joint ad, I'm game. Say, if three of us have books coming out around the same time within the same genre, or whatever.
 

elindsen

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I'm not good online, but for in person I use Vistaprint. They have Rack cards which are nice. They're two sided. On one side I have info on my children's books, book listings, the charity, ect. The other I have my romance stuff. Same thing. I have a blurb for my two series and the books in those series. They have very neat designs.
Best part? If you join Vistaprint you get promo emails that sometimes offer the rack cards free. I got 50 and I designed them (very easy to do) and all I paid was 6 or 7 for shipping. They're nice when I'm out. Since there's two sides I can come multiple genres without losing the interested person in the process. They're about the size of my wallet too.

That's all I've found that really works for me. Some people swear by Twitter and FB, but I really haven't seen anything. I actually quit following people who promo too much.
 

thethinker42

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Okay, one more and then I'll shut up...

One thing I recommend against is abusing social media. Resist the urge to tweet your "Now Available" buy links more than a couple of times (my usual M.O. is to tweet it in the morning, and then again at night for people in the other time zones). Retweet reviews in moderation. Make sure you're tweeting about non-promotional stuff in between. The most common complaint I see on Twitter is people who do nothing but promote, and it's one of the quickest ways to lose followers rather than sell books. Twitter is an absolutely amazing promotional tool, but... all things in moderation.

Same with Facebook. I can't tell you how many people I've unsubscribed to because my newsfeed was getting cluttered with post after post after post about a new release (i.e., reposting every single Goodreads review, doing promotional posts every hour, etc.). Facebook is a fantastic promotional tool just like Twitter, but go easy on it. And for the love of God, please please please don't set up your release/launch as an "event". This is something I've been hearing a lot of complaints about lately too, and they seem to be more likely to earn an emphatic "NO! I'm not attending!!" than a sale. Not good.

So does that mean you should be scared to tweet or post? Of course not. This is what social media is for. USE IT. Facebook and Twitter have their pros and cons, but they are *free* and they are useful promotional tools. It takes time to build up a following, but it's worth the effort.

Okay, that's enough from me for now.
 

thethinker42

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I'm not good online, but for in person I use Vistaprint. They have Rack cards which are nice. They're two sided. On one side I have info on my children's books, book listings, the charity, ect. The other I have my romance stuff. Same thing. I have a blurb for my two series and the books in those series. They have very neat designs.
Best part? If you join Vistaprint you get promo emails that sometimes offer the rack cards free. I got 50 and I designed them (very easy to do) and all I paid was 6 or 7 for shipping. They're nice when I'm out. Since there's two sides I can come multiple genres without losing the interested person in the process. They're about the size of my wallet too.

Vistaprint swag is definitely a good idea. I even have a magnet on my truck that I ordered off Vistaprint. So yes, inexpensive and simple paper swag is a good thing to have. Business cards are a MUST, IMHO (and you can get them ridiculously cheap off Vistaprint).

That's all I've found that really works for me. Some people swear by Twitter and FB, but I really haven't seen anything. I actually quit following people who promo too much.

Yeah, there are people who over-promote on social media, and it backfires. The trick is learning to walk the fine line between too much and not enough.

But it's worth learning. To give you an example, when I did my big giveaway on my blog recently, I tweeted it and posted it on Facebook or anything. Within an hour, it had been retweeted something like 25 times, and the blog had over 100 hits. That was just within the first hour.
 

c.m.n.

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One thing I have seen that works is a blog hop, at times. I've posted "The Next Big Thing" and meh... not too much traffic, maybe 3 or 4 more views than I previously had.

But in Feb, I participated in the Vampire Bite Blog hop with a free ebook giveaway. My traffic skyrocketed (well, if you consider 50 hits in two days skyrocketing).

My question though, does offering free ebooks really help to promote sales?
 

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I said this in the Bordello, but...One thing we could do is maybe a neutral person could ask all of us a question. We all answer it as our characters. So, what does a vampire slayer think of Buffy? Or someone who was abused? Some more serious questions to give us glimpses into the characters but then fun ones. We do interviews as our characters?
 

thethinker42

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One thing I have seen that works is a blog hop, at times. I've posted "The Next Big Thing" and meh... not too much traffic, maybe 3 or 4 more views than I previously had.

The Next Big Thing turned into a pretty epic fiasco. It was almost like a blog hop equivalent of a chain letter, and I don't think it was terribly effective for most people. Good idea on paper, but it didn't seem to work out.

My question though, does offering free ebooks really help to promote sales?

As long as you have a backlist, yes. The idea is to get a free book into someone's hands, and if they like that, they'll buy the other books you have on your backlist (or your new title). I've gotten e-mails from a number of readers who've received books of mine in giveaways, and went back and bought others. The surveys are also trickling in from readers who got free M/M books during my "Try It, You Might Like It" giveaway, and every one I've received so far has emphatically said they're going to try more within the genre.

So yes, freebies work if there is something the reader can buy once you've got them hooked.
 

thethinker42

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I said this in the Bordello, but...One thing we could do is maybe a neutral person could ask all of us a question. We all answer it as our characters. So, what does a vampire slayer think of Buffy? Or someone who was abused? Some more serious questions to give us glimpses into the characters but then fun ones. We do interviews as our characters?

Those can be a lot of fun, too.

Also, a post-game interview. That's where you're basically interviewing one of the characters after the book is over. These can get really hilarious, especially if YOU are interviewing the character, and they're mad at you for putting them through the wringer.
 

elindsen

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Those can be a lot of fun, too.

Also, a post-game interview. That's where you're basically interviewing one of the characters after the book is over. These can get really hilarious, especially if YOU are interviewing the character, and they're mad at you for putting them through the wringer.
That would be so much fun. :D
 

thethinker42

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That would be so much fun. :D

They are.

Trust me. :D

ETA: Those are both from blog tours that are required by Riptide for each release. I have no idea how many hits they actually get, but they get a fair amount of comments. Key for those? Have a giveaway for the entire tour. We usually do a $10 gift card for Riptide's website, and anyone who comments is entered in the drawing. Each tour is 5 posts long, one per day, starting the day the book is launched. It's a pain to come up with five blog posts, but as far as I can tell, it's an effective way to make the book visible to a lot of people.
 

MsLaylaCakes

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Blog Hops (esp. the ones with giveaways) definitely lead to much increased traffic on my blog. I don't know if it translates into sales...but I guess the more I can get my name out the better.

I think the best promo I've had (where I've seen an uptick in people adding me to goodreads) has been getting reviewed by someone who has a following. It's the word of mouth effect - but amplified through social media. The downside is that people mark the book as "to read" but they haven't bought it yet.

In short, I don't know if anything I'm doing promo-wise is working or not :p. It's kind off discouraging, actually.

I'd be interested in doing a joint ad :). I'm beginning to think that paid promo might be the way to go.
 

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I think the best promo I've had (where I've seen an uptick in people adding me to goodreads) has been getting reviewed by someone who has a following. It's the word of mouth effect - but amplified through social media. The downside is that people mark the book as "to read" but they haven't bought it yet.

I'm still very new to this but this method has worked best for me so far too. On the likes of goodreads, it's been really good to see that readers invest so much time with an author, even after they've read the book just by encouraging other readers as they pick up the book and update their status.

I haven't tried blogs, wouldn't know where to start, what to do. I'm not on twitter and I've only just joined facebook. I've also not done interviews yet. I didn't know whether it would be better to wait and see how the first book went down. :Shrug:Although I have had one review site come and ask for an interview and also do a giveaway, which I'd like to see how it goes down.

So this thread is a very good idea. :) It's good to see what is/isn't working for other authors.
 
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Filigree

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I've discussed this with Amergina and a few others, but one of the relatively dependable promos I do is through the Love Romances Cafe group over on Yahoo.

Caveats: you have to join Yahoo (I loathe Yahoo almost as much as I do Facebook), and the list is huge and high-volume (be a speed-reader or set your preferences to digest!) The list is also very inclusive of Romance and Erotic Romance publishers, so I have chosen to stay silent on days that feature publishers I find to be problematic. (Filigree's Rule, again.)

But the group has been around a long time, and has a wide and diverse membership. They have special Promo days when authors are allowed to post 1 teaser excerpt with buy and author links, or link to contests or reviews. I take advantage of the Loose Id Publisher Spotlight Day, the M/M Day, and the LGBT Promo Day. Once a week, there's usually some promo spot I'm eligible to join. I have one particular excerpt that has worked very well (in getting positive comments), and it usually seems to snag one or two sales in the day after I post.

I get to see hundreds of promo excerpts for other people's books, so I am building my M/M and M/F library.

I meet other writers and get invites over to their sites. I'm participating in a One-Liner promo at someone's blog soon, where a dozen writers will post one sentence from their books along with their pen name, blog site, and buy links. The author has a huge following, so this might be an interesting foray!
 

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Those can be a lot of fun, too.

Also, a post-game interview. That's where you're basically interviewing one of the characters after the book is over. These can get really hilarious, especially if YOU are interviewing the character, and they're mad at you for putting them through the wringer.

This looks really, really good. I think I might try this one!
 

Oldbrasscat

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When Je veux... finally makes it to the top of the queue, there's a scene in it where my studious MC is being pestered by my non-reader MC because he's bored. So studious MC passes him over his Ipad, open to his smut library. The original idea had been to subtly self-pimp, but then I decided that it might be fun to have a contest to have a reader choose the name of the book, the author and make up some suitably ridiculous event in the book (all within reason and subject to approval). I know I've seen other authors do this with character names--this is my little twist on it.
 

MsLaylaCakes

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I haven't tried blogs, wouldn't know where to start, what to do. I'm not on twitter and I've only just joined facebook. I've also not done interviews yet. I didn't know whether it would be better to wait and see how the first book went down. :Shrug:Although I have had one review site come and ask for an interview and also do a giveaway, which I'd like to see how it goes down.

So this thread is a very good idea. :) It's good to see what is/isn't working for other authors.

You can definitely get away with not having any of the above, but here's how I would rank the various social media outlets - Blog, Twitter, Facebook - in terms of utility.

1) According to my wordpress stats, there are people who land on my blog (blog hop, link from different blog, twitter, google) who then click on buy links. I can't confirm that they ended up buying (no sales data yet), but I do know they went to amazon/b&n/Goodreads after they dropped by my blog. Some also click on links to the reviews posted about my book. As such, I do think a website/blog is worth having as a landing point for people researching book purchases (one need not blog everyday...just have pertinent links)

2) I mainly use Twitter to network with other authors and review sites. The most useful aspect of it is when other authors I'm following get reviewed, it pops up on my twitter feed (I do the same - I link to a new favorable review if I get them). This helped me build a list of places to submit review requests where I have a slim chance of getting accepted (so many review sites aren't accepting requests, some have really long waiting lists, etc.). I also tweet my blog posts, which leads people to my blog, where I try to lure them with strategically placed cover art that leads to buy links :D (I sound so mercenary right now...oh well).

3) I have a facebook page mainly because Wordpress and Rafflecopter don't like each other, so I need a place to run a Rafflecopter giveaway my wordpress blog can link to (I've invested too much effort into my wordpress page to switch to blogger...). It also lets me join groups using my author page instead of my real name. Otherwise, I haven't been able to leverage it and I would love to hear how people have used it successfully.

That said, are any of the above time investments yielding viable royalties? Nope. Not even close. I think the idea is that you're getting your pen name out there and as you build up a back list, people are more likely to buy your book. It's a really really really long game that we're playing *sigh*, and it's so easy to lose steam.