Promotion. Promotion. Promotion.

Promotion and Marketing. Two bad and distasteful words for many authors. For self-published authors, the words take on new meanings of importance. If you opted to have your own imprint and publish your own books, you will now have to wear all the hats. Promotion and Marketing can make or break your book or at the very least, make some profit or lose your investment in the book.

So, what works for you? Do you spam everyone on your email address book? Some consider notices about new books spam. Do you mind receiving a notice in your mailbox from an author on his/her new book? How about paper advertising? Many authors still love postcards. But you have to actively collect physical addresses for postcards. Is that cost effective? Or do you use postcards to stack up on the freebie tables at writing conferences? Most of us know we should have business cards handy at all times so I won't include that in hard-core promoting. And many of us also get some kind of bookmarks done. Again, how effective has that been? Flyers? Press releases? How many review copies of your book do you send out?

We seem to be moving into the digital era at warp speed. Many authors believe online marketing and promoting is the way to go. Would joining reading and writing online groups and posting BSP (Blatant Self Promotion) notices for the release of your new book be cool or will members of that online community chase you off their group? How much is too much BSP? Having a professional and informative web site is a real necessity, but when you are a self-publisher, how prepared are you to have a site for your own publishing imprint? Can you afford two web sites? And if you have an author web site, you should make sure it is active and kept up to date. Do you think contests work?

Okay, how about you share some of your self-publishing promotions that work?

Comments

Juli D. Revezzo said…
As a reader, I can say I love the goodies. :) Bookmarks, pins, postcards, business cards, are great. Whatever they want to offer, I'm a author-goodie collector, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. As a writer who would have to pay for said things, I say, just because you think a fan would like them, by all means, don't break the bank. There have been many successful authors who give webgoodies, such as printable bookmarks, fan and support banners (for instance "I support Rose" banners that floated around the Charmed fansites a few years ago.) I've seen that kind of thing work too. So, just a few suggestions. I hope they are helpful to someone.
JAD, I love your idea of webgoodies, especially the printable bookmarks. Thank you.

Popular Posts