So you've had a book (or three or more) accepted for publication.
Now is the time to think about the dreaded P word - promotion. For
some writers it's the best part of writing, a different creative
outlet. For others it's a chore. So why do you need to promote?
How? And more importantly, what?
Why self-promote?
Your job as a writer is to not only write and sell that book for
your editor, but to also sell it to readers. Unless you’re a
mega-bestseller or have written a chart-topping, genre-breaking
story, your publisher won’t have much (if any!) promotional
dollars to spend on you. And as most writers are introverts, happy
to stare at the computer all day, self-promotion can seem like
sticking hot needles in your eyes.
In her workshop Three Simple Rules for Self-Promotion, Cindi Myers
(www.cindimyers.com) advocates "doing self-promotion that you are
comfortable with. Don’t do something just because everyone else is
doing it."
So what do you do to get started?
Determine your goals and establish a target audience
For most writers, our target audience will be readers, booksellers
or the media. Cindi Myers elaborates: “Different methods work for
each of these audiences. A news release can be highly effective in
garnering free media publicity but would fall flat with readers.
Bookmarks might work well with readers, but would be almost
useless to the media. You have to know what you want before you
can even start thinking about what to do.”
She believes in asking yourself, “’How do you want to go about
selling more books?’ By building a relationship with booksellers,
with distributors? Would you rather deal with readers directly,
establishing a presence with them? Do you want a lot of media
coverage? Reviews?” For the new author, she suggests “a narrow,
focused campaign”, which is often more effective and accessible to
start.
In her article 10 Quick Promotion Tips for Writers,
Vicki Hinze advocates promoting yourself, the author, not the publisher or one
particular book. "You are spending your money to promote - and you
should be spending it to promote you. Authors sell books based on
name recognition - regardless of the types of books they write.
Many authors write in several genres and most authors ‘reinvent’
themselves three to four times in the span of a career. Often they
do so by switching genres. Some readers follow, others don't. But
the more familiar they are with your name, the greater the odds
they will find you and have the opportunity to decide presented to
them.”
Silhouette Desire author
Bronwyn Jameson reiterates that reasoning. “I've come to believe that items
promoting author name rather than book title are more
dollar-effective. Especially when an individual book has such a
short shelf-life. I've done pens, bookmarks, magnets, notepads,
all with my website and ‘from Australia’ branding. When not
book-specific these can be printed in larger numbers and
distributed over a longer timeframe.”
Set a budget
The general consensus is 10% of your advance or 10% of your
projected income. While printing, a website and mailing lists can
cost anywhere from free to exorbitant, you have to weigh up the
pros and cons of each.
Chart your plan
Diarise your release date then work backwards from there. It’s all
about creating a buzz and presence prior to your book’s release.
Ask about deadlines for your local newspapers (for a local author
interview), review sites (to generate interest in your book),
writers’ journals and newsletters (to write articles) and writing
community workshop schedules (to conduct online workshops).
If you’re a Harlequin author, people will be able to buy your book
as an e-release a full month before it hits the shelves. And
bookclubs get them earlier than the stores too.
What others do to promote
HM&B Medicals author
Fiona Lowe says, “The
best tip I got was from Trish Morey - free business cards from VistaPrint (you pay for postage only). It has my website, my
year's releases and I keep them in my purse and hand them out when
people ask about books. I also have a newsletter with links to my
site and blog to remind people I exist, which I send out just as a
book hits the shelf. I do regional newsletters... one to the UK,
one to Australia/New Zealand to coincide with the release. I
contact the local paper twice a year with an 'angle' for some
publicity. I donate hard copies and Large Print to my regional
library system. On my website I always link to photos of the area
I set the book, tell people why I wrote the book, what inspired me
and put in an excerpt from chapter one. I run a competition to get
email addresses for my newsletter but the jury is out on the
worthiness of that... although the last one I did jointly with Amy
Andrews which got me ten more email addresses.”
On the other end of the scale, Queen of Promo
Debbie Macomber sends an annual four-colour, four- to six-page newsletter to more
than 50,000 fans. Twice yearly she sends out an e-letter,
including a recipe, from one of her characters in her Cedar Cove
series. She also writes a Dear Reader letter at the start of her
mass market American Romance series, and maintains a website that
features twenty-three separate links (Debbie's Store, Readers'
Recipes, Debbie's Mom's Page, etc). While you probably won't have
the budget of Debbie's, there are a few things you can do to keep
your name in the public eye.
The website and online presence
Whether you have a you-beaut Flash interactive site or a DIY one,
every author I spoke to agreed that a website is a must.
Anna Jacobs elaborates: “A website is an
essential. Mine has covers and first chapters of books, as well as
a booklist and a latest news section.”
Nalini Singh concurs and adds “Excerpts! You
must have excerpts on your website. Readers love excerpts and use
them to decide whether or not a book interests them. The longer
the better.”
Amy O'Connor
gets a lot of hits through her
website “even when I'm not actively on the loops ‘being heard’ -
probably a couple of thousand a month at the moment and I've
barely promo'd anything other than a couple of banner ads
recently. I occasionally run a competition on my website (usually
for a journal or similar that will work anywhere in the world).
That increases the hits a lot but I'm not sure just how many more
books it equates to. As well as listing the prize on my website, I
always list it on
The Romance Studio -
costs about US$2 / month for membership which also gives you
plenty of promo opportunities.”
Lots of authors, including RWA award-winner
Melanie Scott advocate a blog to keep an on-line presence. It’s interactive and
immediate, and gives your readers a more personal feel for you.
Melanie blogs about “writing and reading mostly with the odd bits
and pieces on life stuff. I definitely treat it as a professional
blog. Some of my pubbed and unpubbed friends have been nice enough
to link to me, which is good and gets me hits (I recommend having
a New York Times best selling author in your crit group) but I get
most of my traffic because I keep a ‘books I’ve read this year’
list with title and author name in the side bar and talk about
those. Given I read a lot in the genres I write in, I figure that
will work well once I have books out there. I get a couple of
hundred hits a month which isn’t huge but it’s not too bad for an
unpubbed who’s not doing comps or articles etc. I also link to
other Aussie writer sites."
Both Amy O'Connor and
Alexis Fleming advocate banner ads as a way of increasing your website hits. Amy
also occasionally advertises on The Romance Studio and The Romance
Junkies. "RJs have more print than e-books, a massive hit rate and
a love of Harlequin Mills & Boon. A front-page banner ad costs
about US$75/month but you do have to wait a while as there's only
one banner ad a month. Personally, I'd say put your effort into
your website and be careful of spending money where you can't get
a measurable return (the sales and marketing background is coming
out here). With an ad on a reputable, high-traffic site, you can
get click-on stats, and you can also measure your own website's
hit rate.”
Bookmarks, flyers, business cards
While some authors don't necessarily buy a book based on a
bookmark, the booksellers and readers seem to love them. Fiona
Lowe inserts her free business cards into the books when they're
on the shelf so they act as a bookmarks - a double use for those
with a limited timeframe for new releases.
For my own promotional
purposes, I got 500 bookmarks (with a teaser, cover art and my web
address) printed at KwikKopy for less than $200. With 200 going to
conference goody bags, the rest will be placed into the book at my
local KMart, Target and Big W when it's released in Australia.
(While you’re there, ask the staff if you can sign copies and put
a 'signed copy' or 'local author' sticker on the front).
Anna Jacobs suggests a flyer for those with an active backlist. "I
have a list of my publications on a half A4 sheet, which I carry
in my handbag. It has a coloured header provided by a printer, but
I print out the list of books myself, updating regularly. On the
reverse are my contact details and website URL. I give this out to
all and sundry - checkout operators, people standing next to me in
queues, journalists, you name it. The local bookshop says
customers come in with books ticked off on this as they buy them.”
Bronwyn Jameson has used both bookmarks and postcards to advertise
her latest releases, the latter as a unique "postcard from the
heroine" perspective. As to what works... “There's the
million-dollar question! I've done a variety over the years. The
book specific ones -- such as Angelina's postcard from the outback
(The Rugged Loner) and the To-Do-List notepads like Chantal used (Quade:
The Irresistible One) - are fun for me more than the readers, I
suspect.”
While Anna Jacobs says that, for her, “Bookmarks were a complete
waste of time,” Amy O'Connor says, “they’re nice but have to be
different. I've had good results with my Amy O'Connor ones (they
have nothing but a man’s torso and my website details). People
tend to throw away the ordinary ones.”
Other ways of promoting
Alexis Fleming says she’s still finding out what works and what
doesn’t. “I do know that my website stats jump big time whenever I
attend a chat online, and according to my publishers, so do my
sales. I started out in e-publishing so an online presence was
very important. I've done the bookmarks and paid for banner and
cover ads on some of the review sites, but as to how that
translates to sales, I couldn't say. One of the best things I've
done to get my name out there was to become a featured author on
The Romance Studio site and to take part in their Book-a-Day
Giveaway. That generates an impressive number of reader names each
month to add to my newsletter mailing list. As for actual goodies
to give out to readers, my most successful campaign was this
year's Romantic Times convention giveaway. I wanted something
different. I came up with the slogan "Get Hooked on Alexis
Fleming" and decided to give away a promo pack containing
bookmarks, postcards and a pair of fashion earrings with...you
guessed it... French hooks. I got a lot of feedback from that and
it was pretty cool to see my earrings turn up at a lot of the
functions. J Remind me, though, next time I decide to make 700
pairs of earrings that it's a very time-consuming business. "
Similarly, e-published author
Keziah Hill agrees about the unappeal of self-promotion. "If you get published
in the e-book market you have to be prepared to do the bulk of
your own marketing and promotion through online readers’ sites,
blogs and forums. Some people are temperamentally suited to this
and some are not. In the end you have to be comfortable with what
you’re doing, otherwise you start to hate the whole business.
There was some discussion of promotion at Passionate Ink, the
erotic romance chapter of the Romance Writers of America, where
there are a lot of e-book authors. On the whole, many thought the
best promotion was to the write the best books you can.”
Giveaways and gimmicks
From the US Amy O'Connor received a plastic lizard in a bag
labelled “low-maintenance Arizona pet”. Her 6 year-old son loved
it but “I didn't even notice the author name!”
There’s a whole world of promotional products out there - Googling
will give you a score of links. I've seen emery boards, magnetic
clips, plastic bookmark clips, corkscrews, squishy dolphins, lip
gloss, ChapStick, lollipops, letter openers, CDs, stress balls,
plastic fangs and keyrings used to promote an author. While it’s
easy to get caught up in the fun side of gadgets, it's important
to keep your budget in mind - so don’t forget to take into account
artwork set up fees, GST and postage.
Pens are a good choice for writers, but remember that the key is
to buy good-quality ones which last - the cheap ones run out
quickly.
Notepads and sticky notes are also popular promo items and highly
functional - a quality Vicki Hinze recommends. “Non-functional
items get glanced at (maybe) and tossed. Functional items are
retained (often for years) and used. With each use, you gain the
blessing of repetition. So make whatever items you send out
functional items.”
However you chose to promote you and your books, remember - the
best promotion an author can give is to write the best damn book
they can.
HT Editor Paula is delighted to be promoting her very first
book (and herself!) in the next few months, so make sure you ask
about her bookmarks, notepads and pens at conference. Forgotten
Marriage is a September US Silhouette Desire release. Visit
her website
for more information
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