Promoting Older Trade Published Books

I have three books (published 2016, 2016, and 2017) in a series out with a trade publisher. They were, for various reasons, mis-genred and mis-marketed, and predictably they sank like a stone. I'm going to have to self-publish the last two in the series, but that won't likely happen until 2021 or so.

So I'm looking into doing some promotion.

Things I'm doing already:

- The Twitter/Facebook/blog/newsletter/website thing. I probably pick up a few sales here and there from these efforts, but not a lot. I do view them as critical "Liz isn't dead! She's still writing! Don't forget me!" efforts, though.
- Publishing short stories. I put them up for free on my web site (for various reasons I don't want to try to sell them, although I sold a thing that came out early last year). I'm not fast, though, so it's a story or two a year, tops. I'm hoping to speed up my output on this and maybe self-publish a book of shorts (some new to the collection).
- Writing another book. It is, by necessity, a non-series book, but I got an agent off of it, and I have some small hope it'll find a publisher. Thing is, because of the Catastrophe of the Series, I'll probably have to pub under a pen name, which won't help the sales of my existing stuff.

Things that seem impossible/not useful:

- I can't do price promotion because the publisher controls the price. I'm not even sure about the legality of hand-selling my author copies; when I've sold copies at cons in the past, it's always through a retailer who collects the money.
- I can do Goodreads giveaways if I pay for them, but I can only do them of hardcopies; I have no promotional ebook copies. Having been through the Goodreads giveaway thing before they charged, I can't say they produced a big sales bump, so I'm not sure footing the bill on my own would make sense.
- I volunteered to work at a con that seemed a good fit, and they didn't want anything to do with me. Because that kinda stung, I haven't been proactive about continuing to apply at cons.

Things I'm considering:

- I'm putting together some promotional images I can toss up on Instagram and Twitter, but I don't expect a lot of results from those.
- Pushing the con thing. I'm thinking I'm probably just going to have to keep cheerfully running my face into that buzz-saw. If nothing else, appearing at cons gives the desirable "Liz isn't dead!" impression. (I know I've bought the odd book because I liked how the author came across at a con.) This is probably necessary for my career in general, but I wouldn't expect it to do much for these specific books.
- I hear rumors that there are respectable book bloggers out there who sometimes cover older work. This might be my best bet, if I can find bloggers who are a good fit.

It's likely there's absolutely nothing effective I can do at this point. I do realize that. But I'm not sure my books were ever marketed/promoted in their actual genre. Hell, I'm not sure the second and third books were publicized at all. And I love them, and I'm stubborn.

Any thoughts from the experts?

Polenth said:

In what way were the books in the wrong genre? What genre are you looking to go for when promoting them now?

Click to expand...

The books are space opera. The publisher chose to emphasize the romantic subplot in the first book, and at some point people decided it was a romance (although the marketing materials used the phrase "romantic elements"). Pre-release copies were sent to romance reviewers; it's not clear to me the publisher sent it to SF review sites at all.

This might not have been crippling, except that:

- the romantic subplot is not the crux or the focus of the story; and
- the couple in question is not together at the end of the book, and there are no indications they will be in the future.

I'll also add my opinion that it isn't tonally anything like a romance novel (I've been a romance reader/fan since the 1970s). So whether or not the misgenreing kept the book from its intended audience, it absolutely pissed off people who picked it up expecting a romance.

I don't just need to publicize it as an SF novel. This is a rehab situation. Anyone who sees it and goes to the Amazon reviews is going to see the issue discussed, so I kind of have to think about how to get in front of that.

Bless you for your kind words about the book.

Fuchsia Groan said:

You could go through the reactions of other people who liked the book (especially SFF bloggers and such) and try to find common factors that point to a potential audience niche you could target.

Click to expand...

The trouble is I'm not sure how to target an audience, especially with books that are already out there. I do think I'll have more knobs I can turn with the next book, which will be self-published, but that's a good solid year out.

(I also don't really think of them as niche, which may be my blind spot. I mean, it's Star Trek, really, just darker and with more women with agency. In a way they're maybe not niche enough.)

Fuchsia Groan said:

Getting the rights reverted so you could control pricing might be an option down the road, too. I know it takes a while and can get complicated, but a lot of writers seem to do it.

Click to expand...

I've got my eye on this. The reversion criteria in the contract are pretty crisp, but I suspect I might get Voyager to agree to release them without hitting the absolute thresholds. Right now, though, they've still got some print reach, and I don't want to sacrifice that just yet.