How can I PROMOTE my book without ticking off the masses?

12/4/2011

Writing the book was only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, if you will. Now the REAL work (the uncomfortable part of this whole writing gig) comes into play. Put on your working gloves and your hard hat, it’s time to get busy.

Because we all know that books don’t sell themselves. They just don’t. That’s a given. You can’t write a book, sit back, and wait for it to be noticed—regardless if you self-published, used a small press, or went the traditional route. To sit back and do nothing will equal certain failure. The adage, “If you build it, they will come” only holds true in movies about dead baseball players. This approach does not work in real life. I promise.

You may be a genius (of course you are) and have written the best darn book the world will have ever seen, but unless you do some sort of fancy-shmancy kind of dance act with juggling balls, no one will ever know it exists. Sad, but true.

There are KABILLIONS (this is a made up statistic, but you get the gist) of books published and placed in the market each and every year. KABILLIONS. If you don’t believe me, hop on twitter for a few days. I used to think I was special because I wrote books and heard voices. Not so much anymore. EVERYONE in the world has written a book (or at least it feels that way). Sorry. This is sad but true, too.

We have all been told that the success of any book will be up to its author. We ALL get that. We’ve heard it numerous times. And this is very, very true.

But how do we go about becoming noticed? That is the million dollar question. There are many websites devoted to this very thing, but few have real, clear-cut ideas.

A couple of things I’ve seen:

1)    Set up a blog CHECK
2)    Get a Facebook fan page CHECK
3)    Set up a twitter account CHECK
4)    Join Goodreads CHECK
5)    Etc…ect…

Here’s the problem with the above ideas (and not just these ones, but others as well): EVERYONE IS DOING THE SAME THING and we're all following other writers? How does that work exactly?

Everyone is implementing the same advice on how to promote your book and so now when you go to most of these sites (especially twitter) all you see is “Buy my book!” “Check out my review!” “Look at my book trailer!” “Follow my blog tour!”

This has become nothing but white noise for me. There is so much of it that I tend to ignore all of it. This isn’t just me either. Many feel this very same way.

But this is what we are told to do. I have scoured hundreds of posts on promoting and marketing books and it’s nearly all the same advice. I have yet to find anything new to grasp onto as a golden nugget of genius. And that’s what I’m looking for—I want to do something different. I don’t want to become white noise that people skim over. That would totally suck.

My book comes out in February and except for doing the same old-same old, I’ve got nothing. I guess I’ll be tweeting too. I’ll be ticking off the masses with my incessant tweets and posts about my book. Because even though these promotional tactics don’t work all that well, what other choice do I have? Say nothing? Do nothing?

I can’t.

Yes my book is about zombies and yes it is a little bizarre, but I like that corny book and I think others might enjoy it too. That’s my hope. So shutting-up isn’t an option.

I just wish there was a better way to do it. I'm still looking.

What do you think? Does this whole marketing stuff drive you crazy, too? What other choice do we have?

51 Comments

Collier link

12/4/2011 05:50:15 am

Hopefully I will be where you are one day (soon). I have a built-in audience among my fellow architects. I've already started to build anticipation for the story I've written. I'm counting on word-of-mouth within my profession to lead to sales. It's my first. We'll see.

Patricia Royal link

12/4/2011 07:55:51 am

I know what you mean about white noise. Another bit of advice I always hear is to find readers to follow you and it's like how???? No one has any answers to that either. In the end, I've decided, like you, to keep doing what I'm doing and cross my fingers and hope for some luck.

Carolyn Hughey link

12/4/2011 08:01:24 am

You know, I'm doing the same thing and I know it's annoying, but like you, I haven't the faintest idea of what else to do to promote my book. I've left messages on other people's blog because that's supposed to get your name out there, I've whored myself on Twitter, FB and Google +, I sent an email out to my mailist, and that's all I have.

When you find out--let me know and I'll do it too. :-)

And If you'd like to be a guest blogger on my site, let me know, I'd love to have you.

Kortnee link

12/4/2011 08:12:25 am

The best advice I've heard to promote a book is to write another book.

Although, I did write about promotions on my To Do List. Mostly it was tongue in cheek :-)

Darlene Jones link

12/4/2011 10:10:01 am

Yes, the marketing is driving me crazy and I seem to be spending too much time on it, but like you, I want readers. My book deserves them.

I'm doing pretty much all the standard things you've mentioned and haven't come up with anything new or brilliant.

I must say, though, that the support from fellow authors is a bonus (doesn't always translate to sales) but sure feels good.

12/4/2011 10:11:50 am

Kortnee, how did writing another book help? I do have a second book ready to be published and I'd really like to know how you worked that angle.

Laura Pauling link

12/4/2011 10:18:57 am

No, it doesn't bother me. Maybe b/c I understand why they're doing it. Promo is hard. But I agree, we have to try and be original to make it through to the masses. But how? That is the question.

Michael A. Robson link

12/4/2011 10:33:18 am

When you say 'set up a Facebook page'.. that's just the first step. Just dinner cooks itself. These are tools. And the goal is to build an AUDIENCE. It's not just a loudspeaker where you yell at everyone that you have a new book out, these are tools to ENGAGE your audience (and really, to FIND your audience). Set up all those 'tools' to automatically repost (via rss, etc) your blog posts, then start blogging. Start writing a ton of great stuff (this is called 'free content'), and now and then some one will poke their head in an ask, 'Hey.. this is cool, what's this thing?'.. And you can have a chat with them, and later another guy will come and ask something.

Very slowly you start to build an audience and you start to find your voice. All the web technologies are set up to basically make connecting with your audience easier. That's it. Facebook isn't really your audience and, "I have a Twitter" account isn't your audience either. Those are little TINY ways you can begin to interact and find your audience on the web.

The most important thing, is that you're blogging alot and writing lots of interesting and great stuff. You do that, and you'll meet your fans. If they love your stuff enough, they WILL promote for you, at no charge ;).

12/4/2011 10:34:36 am

"Just dinner cooks itself"

Huh? What I actually wrote was, "Just because you turned on the stove, doesn't mean dinner will cook itself"

Michael Offutt link

12/4/2011 01:24:28 pm

Joe Konrath says selling books is all luck. I got nothing as well.

12/4/2011 01:30:12 pm

Darlene, that's a very complex question, which I will answer with 'how long do you plan on writing?'

I would imagine you're going to want to write more than one book.

So, taking the long view, what you're trying to do is build a readership. Most people, when they try a new author, do so because of the covers and because they'd heard it was good. Once I've read something that I enjoyed, I'm going to go looking for what else they've written. If I really want more information about what they've written, I'll go looking for a website or a twitter account, but I do that pretty much after I've already read their book. I use Twitter and Facebook to connect with other authors. My readers may find me on these sites (though my personal facebook is hard to find for a reason) but these are my support systems, NOT my marketing tools.

The most important thing is to have things for people to read. Once they like one thing you've written, they'll come looking for more.

I've found this post to be a lot of help with perspective, if nothing else: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=398

12/4/2011 01:53:34 pm

Oh, and my 2 cents about twitter? Be interesting! Don't spam my feed with nothing but 'buy my book' or 'read my review'. Say something I actually want to hear or it'll be like listening to the radio with nothing but commercials.

J. P. Yager link

12/4/2011 02:51:39 pm

I'm not sure if this works yet but I'm doing all the things you listed plus-
1.website (used godaddy and deeply regret it but at least it exists)
2.my blog (starting doing funny comics for it)
3.I used smashwords to release free short stories (this I did to get something out in the universe and to get feedback before I release my novels)

And I had these silly stickers made that I'm going to make friends and family use

I started three weeks ago so I have no clue if it's working. It has been quite fun tho

12/4/2011 03:18:34 pm

Oh, it occurred to me that there are some things that should be being done by somebody. I would expect a publishing company to do them but if you're self-publishing or if you are responsible for ALL your own promotion, you'll want to do this.

Press Releases: These need to be sent to libraries and local book stores. I would also send them to local book clubs. I would make sure to tweak them for the different groups you're sending them to. Make sure to let them know that the author is local and (for the book clubs) available to come and answer questions. I wouldn't offer to do readings, they'll request those if they want them, a lot of book stores are moving away from that kind of event.

Conventions: Go to them. Especially the local ones. As a panelist if you can. Contact the organizers and let them know you are a local author.

Reviews: Get them. If you have a friend who's a librarian, bribe them with chocolate to write one.

Interviews: If you have the opportunity, go for it.

Keep writing! There is really no better promotion for your first book like your second book.

If you're interacting with the world in a professional capacity, make sure you act in a professional manner. Be pleasant, wish people the best, no matter how much you want to poke them with a sharp stick. Do not be obnoxious. If somebody says no, thank them for their time and move on! That one no is not going to make or break your career. Smile and let it go. Take boxing classes if you need to.

(This is all stuff I learned doing marketing for a small press. I spent days researching and calling libraries and independent book stores in my authors' states and the three surrounding.)

Don't mean to spam the comments, Angela, just trying to help :-)

Penelope link

12/4/2011 08:50:15 pm

"BUY MY BOOK!" is not interesting or entertaining or compelling in any way. In fact, if you do it over and over again on Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads, etc. it is spam.

How about this instead? "Can zombies fall in love? Stop by my blog and chat today!" Make your promo fun and interesting and entertaining....you'll attract readers who will check out your books and links.

Writers have awesome imaginations...we need to use them in our promotion, too. It works!

Hayley link

12/4/2011 09:40:49 pm

Maybe an idea would be to tap into those who do book review blogs?
If you're on GR then find a group that maybe discusses the genre that your book falls into and/or check out some of their blogs to see what they're like with their reviews. After that get in contact/start a thread asking for someone to review. If they have a following then there's a chance that a few people reading the review will look into then getting your book.

Just a thought tho', no promises, sorry but that's all I got :S

Benjamin Wallace link

12/4/2011 10:36:07 pm

KABILLIONS is my new favorite made up number word.

Nancy Lauzon link

12/4/2011 10:56:07 pm

Hi Angela,

Love your posts! John Locke, author of the best selling Donovan Creed novels, wrote a book called 'How I Sold 1 Million e-books in 5 months'. Needless to say, that got my attention, and I bought it. It's very cheap. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/6atrd8y

Anyways, he has some good ideas. I don't think they'll work exactly the same for everyone, and I certainly think it will take me more like 10 years to sell that many books, if ever, but I liked his basic philosophy. So check him out.

I think you sell one book at a time, and that takes time. If you can build up a posse of 100 faithful followers/friends (even if they are fellow writers) I think they'll help you promote when the time comes.

A couple of nuggets of advice I've heard: Decide what percentage of time you'll devote to promotion, and stick to it. The other percentage of time should be writing your next book. Authors who have a deep backlist sell more books. My husband is a marketer, and his mantra is: product, product, product.

Keep blogging. I would be interested in reading your new book because I like to read your blog, and presumably you write the same way in your blog as you do in your book. Blogging helps potential readers figure out who you are as a writer.

Facebook is okay, but Twitter is better, in my opinion. I can retweet other people's Tweets, and maybe they'll retweet my tweets, so it's a win-win.

Goodreads is where the readers are. So my NY resolution is to be more active on there.

The fact that you're writing for a smaller niche market (Zombies) is GREAT, according to John Locke. The narrower your reading audience, the more you can focus strictly on them. If Zombie fans are anything like Vampire fans, they are very loyal and buy a lot of books.

That's it. No totally different, golden nuggets of genius. If you find any, please pass them along!

Nancy :)

Angela Scott link

12/4/2011 11:06:51 pm

Kortnee, I love your comments. They are extremely helpful and hopefully everyone will put your advice into play. So spam away :)

For the most part, it looks like we're all in the same boat--crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. At least I don't feel all alone when I say that I'm frustrated with promotion.

If I find any interesting ways that work to promote books, I will pass it along.

12/5/2011 12:08:41 am

Thank you everyone - great tips here, and Kortnee, I have 1 book published, 2 ready to go and a third partly completed so I'll get them out there as soon as possible.

Thank you, Angela, for getting this discussion going.

Gretchen Hohmeyer link

12/5/2011 12:15:47 am

Ooh, do I hear this post! I try to frequent Twitter, Goodreads, my blog, etc but...ugh. Where's the line? I want to support my fellow authors by following them and the like, but it's just so hard when they're spamming up my feed with BUY MY BOOK. I've had to unfollow a few, they're so bad. My rule of thumb is BE INTERESTING. Tweet other things beside BUY MY BOOK. Be funny, tweet about writing or SOMETHING. Post interesting things on your blog. I usually refuse to retweet a blog publicizing a blog post or my books more than twice a day. After all, if you post once a week and retweet twice a day, that's fourteen times your post will show up in someone's feed! I just do what I think is okay and try to go with it and test it out. It's clearly the only thing we can do.

Suzie Quint link

12/5/2011 01:42:45 am

We're all looking for that magic bullet that will find us readers without eating up all of our writing time. The smartest thing I've done was to write a short story (10k) that features characters from my books and to give it away free. The first week alone on Amazon, it was downloaded 28k times (yes, that's thousands). It hit all the kindle top 100 lists and even went into the top 10. It increased awareness of my presence quicker than anything else I could have done and I expect it will be paying dividends in book sales into the distant future.

Wodke Hawkinson link

12/5/2011 02:16:45 am

Marketing & promotion do take a lot of time. We've found that meeting people on social networking sites is very rewarding, not only for sales, but also to forge new friendships. It's true that many of the most supportive people out there are also indie authors. But, that's good because almost without exception, authors are readers. We are avid readers ourselves. I don't know about my co-author, but when I need a new book to read, I search my list of indie author friends first. We are happy to promote other authors' books along with our own. We haven't found any easy answers for promotion. Twitter can be addictive, not just for promo, but also for connecting with readers and other authors.

K. E. Ireland link

12/5/2011 05:50:40 am

Found the link to this on Twitter.

Thank you for posting it! Its good to know I'm not the only one feeling this way about twitter.

I've found that I follow lots of writers but none are interested in reading my book, and some I've unfollowed because they bot-tweet pages and pages of stupid ads. WHY would anyone think that's a good idea? The ads aren't even hashtagged. The tweets are just going out to people who ALREADY follow the author. And if they already follow the author, they would already know about that author's book.

I've been experementing by hashtagging my ad tweets with things people who don't already follow me might be interested in. Like #aliens and #smartcharacters.

Mostly, I'm trying to be an interesting person and talk about a wide variety of stuff to draw in more followers. And I go to events where my target audience congregates. Hooray anime conventions! :3

Suz Korb link

12/5/2011 07:53:10 am

My novel has zombies in it. I don't market it much because I don't like to bug people. I think I'll start asking reviewers if they'd like a copy of my books once I've got at least 10 published. That way it will be the quality and quantity of my novels that markets my books for me and I don't have to bug the crap out of my friends on the internet.

Robert David MacNeil link

12/5/2011 10:04:02 am

I'd like to take a different viewpoint ... That of a satisfied customer.
I'm thankful for authors that pitch their books on twitter. Over the past six months, I've discovered a number of new authors on twitter. I've discovered books that I love, and will probably read again. In many cases these books were more enjoyable than many of the books I've bought at bookstores, but at a fraction of the cost. They have given me many hours of reading pleasure.
I never would have heard about these books if the authors had not marketed on twitter.
So to all of you indie authors... PLEASE tweet about your book! Use good taste, and don't hit me over the head with it, but DO tweet, and tweet at least daily. I usually have to hear about a book a number of times before I think to give it a try, and YOUR book may be the next one I read!

Steve link

12/5/2011 09:58:10 pm

Nobody hates blowing his own horn more than I do, and nobody is more turned off than I am by those who do it relentlessly. What's even more galling is that some of that crowd seem to be successful with their crass approach. But I've never bought a book from any of these hucksters, and I never will.

Everyone must choose his own way, of course. There's no magic formula, no yellow brick road. But it's my belief that you win your readers one at a time, and then let them spread the word for you. Competing with and contributing to what you aptly called the "white noise" on twitter is at best futile...at worst, obnoxiously rude.

Ultimately, it's the writing that matters. Take enough pride in what you do to present it professionally, then market it as your conscience dictates.

But most of all, have fun. Otherwise, you've got nothing.

Diana link

12/6/2011 03:27:17 am

I say do the balloon thing. That's a money idea if I've ever heard one.

Callie Norse link

12/6/2011 05:53:18 am

I took a break from writing to promote my books. I still wonder what is the best way to get my name out there. I am trying book signings. I sell books but mostly to people who already know me. Hopefully, rather a friend or new acquaintance, each who reads my books will enjoy them and pass the word along. I'm wondering how long this might take to show me this approach works. And, oh my...I do hope I'm not advertising my books too much. I try to mention them at various times during the day so followers who have thousands of followers will see my tweets. We can't read all our followers tweets now, can we? I do buy many kindle books...problem is finding time to read them all, but I'm working on it.
It put a smile on my face to read writing another book helps. I have published 2 and now ready to polish my 3rd for publishing. All make up The Carrington Series.

Cary Caffrey link

12/6/2011 05:59:41 am

Korntee & Michael Robson nailed it.

I wouldn't worry too much about promotion until you've got three or four solid books on the market. When your fans do find you, they're going to want a lot more than one book. If you have a solid offering in place, you'll be in great shape to take advantage of the free PR your fans will offer you.

Be patient. Write.

Of course, during the time you're writing you'll be spending some time blogging and tweeting and building up your support group.

I like Michael's take. All these social-networking sites are great tools (still). When your fans find you, they'll be there to help and work alongside you (if you make yourself available and nurture them).

I'm new to Self-Pubbing, but I'm a veteran in the music side of the entertainment industry. To this day, I see people sit back and wait for someone to come along and discover them. Often, that attitude speaks volumes about the artist (and their failings).

Self-pubbing still gives us the opportunity to be 'discovered', but it's one fan at a time.

But... if you treat them right, they'll tell two friends, and their friends will tell two friends. And there you go.

Oh, and having a good book is key.

12/6/2011 06:32:30 am

Oooh!

Here's a totally different take: Marketing your book in other mediums. This is something I really learned from the music industry.

Okay. I said 'music industry,' but don't start hating me. :p

When I was working as a musician I learned very quickly that the real money wasn't in selling records/cd's/downloads (unless you're selling huge volumes). The real money was in the licensing of the music to Television and Movies and Games. (Actually, the real, REAL money is in billing the artists for services, but that's a whole other thing).

Licensing my songs paid off in spades in terms of finding fans who'd never have heard of me otherwise. I used to get way more fan emails from people who'd heard me through videos and movies than ever from having heard me on the radio.

Now, obviously, you can't sell your book to a Movie company as background music. But you can develop your story into a film treatment or TV series concept; and don't turn your nose up at comic books either. All of these offer different avenues to expose readers and viewers to your work (and make you money).

Approaching a movie studio with the film treatment of your book isn't any different than approaching a publisher. Like everything, it's all about hooking up with the right group of people who dig your work (just like on twitter) and have a passion for what they do.

I guess, all I'm really saying is that, yes, there are other avenues to market yourself beyond twitter, and beyond books even.

I would urge every writer to look for alternative avenues to market and develop their IP's.

It's not as far-fetched as you might think.

12/6/2011 06:50:34 am

Yo, this is one of the most awesome blogs I've read on this subject- bitingly honest, but funny, too. Just keep doing what you do, someones bound to notice. Best of luck.

AG- RegectedRiter

Kari Marie White link

12/10/2011 02:28:01 pm

Even thinking about marketing a book gives me hives. I guess it's a reality that every published author faces. I wish I had an innovative idea for you. Good luck.

E.B. Black link

12/15/2011 05:56:55 am

I really enjoyed the honesty of this post.

Also, I don't think it's a BIG deal to promote your book as long as you don't take the route of one person I've seen on twitter who literally promotes her book in EVERY. SINGLE. TWEET. If it's once a week or something, that's absolutely fine. =)

And also, I don't know how they did it, but I've noticed that the more popular authors didn't have to do any marketing. Like Stephenie Meyer doesn't even bother to update her own web-site anymore even though she still has new stuff coming out.

Ileandra Young link

12/18/2011 03:24:16 am

Funnily enough I was wondering exactly that myself. I think however I do this publishing thing, in the end I'm going to want/need to do some/lots of my own marketing. And I haven't figured out a good way to do it either.

When I built my very first website (online RPG) I did the then Flora Marathon and ran around with the slugline and web address on my back. That got me a couple of hits.

With my current site, I created business cards and started to leave them in all sorts of fun places hoping that someone might be curious enough to look.

Then I discovered Facebook and the power of Twitter and realised that yes, I could start shouting about it there... but yes... everyone else is doing the same thing. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've stopped following because they're tweets are about nothing but 'their upcoming book,' 'their latest novel,' 'their awesome book trailer' (I didn't even know books had trailers!).

I'm going to figure it out though, for sure. I guess I do have a radio show that I can talk about it on, but its not exactly teeming with listeners either.

Hmmm. I'll keep mulling on it for sure. Having the seemingly overnight popularity of Stephanie Meyer certainly isn't something I can bank on, but there must be SOMETHING I can do to get noticed.

amandapoverseas link

12/22/2011 06:33:32 am

I struggle with the same thing. Although I have yet to publish my own book I am trying to help market the anthology Evolution Vol. 1, which a story of mine is in. I have tried to balance posting about that and posting about other things. I hesitated before posting the link to the book on Amazon on my personal Facebook so soon after having posted about BookieJar but I wanted people to know where it's available. Someone saw the Amazon link and let me know she purchased the book, so it turned out to be good that I didn't let the hesitation stop me.

While everyone has Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, a Blog, etc. I have found that, even with a lot of writer friends, it's not only writers or people I know who stop by. I appreciate everyone who supports my writing, but it's especially cool when I see that someone has "liked" my author page when I don't know them or have a common friend, or someone random follows my blog.

As far as marketing your particular book, you have two niches to go with, both zombies and westerns. I imagine there are conventions and conferences for people into either. Zombies have been big lately. I would see about advertising on sites that carry zombie items or promote zombie work, and the same for westerns. Just off a Google search for zombie merchandise I found : http://www.shopzombie.com/brains/
http://www.allthingszombie.com/store.php
http://www.zombiemart.com/zombie-gifts-and-merchandise.html

Good luck :)

Anna Drake link

12/29/2011 06:12:21 am

First of all, Robert David MacNeil you are my dream guy, a person who actually follows our tweets to find books. Yes!
Buit dang, you're a guy! I think the audience for my book (am working on more but not there yet) would be women, and they're probably rural women to boot. I think the hard partof all this is finding the correct audience.
I blog, I tweet, and I stumble around on Facebook. I'm not good yet with that medium. But do it we must.
I also think we need to limit ourselves to a specific amount of time. Otherwise we'll never write that next book.
So, loads of luck to us all

Ann Best link

1/4/2012 03:56:00 am

I found you on Facebook through Celerytree, so I came over to meet you because I was intrigued by your post title. I read some of the above comments, and agree that first you have to have good books to market--one good one, then a second, and a third. I was fortunate to have a first book (a memoir) published by a traditional publisher in May, and it really took off, partly because I had built up a blog following (important as someone above says) and by the time the book was published - WaLa! Then in November I self-pubbed a novelette length memoir and a true short story. BUT, *I* have to promote them, so I know where you're coming from. But, I do have one thing going - I have that blog following. Now I just have to keep putting up interesting posts to keep people stopping by.

Mary McDonald has done AMAZING things with her self-pubbed murder mysteries. The first one sold THOUSANDS of copies. I read where she interacts in Kindle Forums. So, we have to "put ourselves" out there, which isn't easy for shy types like me. Hence, your title: I don't want to "tick off the masses." But if I want to sell my titles, I have to be aggressive - within the "rules."

Excellent post that is obviously a hot topic as evidenced by the responses!

1/4/2012 03:58:31 am

Correction: I found you through Celerytree on TWITTER, not Facebook.

Dougie Brimson link

1/14/2012 05:57:35 am

Well I'm sorry to put a downer on things, but having written 13 books and had them published the traditional way (with some success) I've found the experience of publishing an ebook exculsive to be incredibly frustrating.

I've done all the Twitter, FB and GR stuff with seemingly little or no impact although ironically, having recently released the bulk of my backlist online, they all seem to be selling really well with little or no input from me! One of my novels is currently sitting atop the US soccer paid download charts and another at #1 in the free chart!

But the new one hasn't set the world alight yet although maybe there are genuine reasons for that. Whatever they might be, the fact remains that ebook marketing is hard work. Especially if you aren't that sure what you're doing!

Kristin

1/14/2012 06:37:29 am

Hello! The reason I follow you on Twitter is that you have interesting tweets and don't harp on and on about your book. I've unfollowed authors who I like very much because their feeds aren't interesting, and I only can read so much. The only things that have sold a book to me are 1. recommendation by a *very* reliable source (mom, a few reviewers) 2. careful study of multiple reviews (can't even go by rating anymore) 3. the cover 4. multiple medals on the cover AND good reviews (that's usually the only totally reliable method) 5. The author seems really cool--smart, nice, interesting. Someone who I'd like to know better. 6. genre 7. excerpts. I just added someone to my feed because I remembered her photo from a query website. I had actually been *thinking of her query* because it was excellent and I was wondering whether she had sold the book. Turns out she had, and someone re-tweeted that. Her Twitter pic. caught my eye, *follow* She should follow me back, though--'cause I want to talk with her about her book! I'm excited.

If someone is broadcasting their dystopian, I'll definitely look into it. I might read it--even if it just looks mediocre. I'm a fanatic for dystopian literature--I really don't think there is enough of it in the world, and certainly not enough good dystopian lit.

To catch my attention, a person would be tweeting, and blogging about dystopian literature (using the hashtag--I search!), how to write it, comparing themes, rules, etc. I want to know more than that they've written a book. I want to be inspired, entertained and educated by them. If they invest enough, I'll buy the book just to be supportive back. I'm loyal like that.

If I were into zombies and writing about them, I'd want to read all about them. I'd embrace my "competition" and join the zombie parade. I'd recommend other zombie books. I'd want to know about the different ways zombies are portrayed, opinions about the preferred zombie characteristics . . . Total zombie nerd fest. But, sadly, I do not like zombies. I'm in love with every other sort of apocalypse, though.

Swedish Zombie link

1/15/2012 06:24:35 am

Very interesting discussion, indeed!
I have nothing to contribute with BUT I would love to review your zombie book for the Swedish audience when it is up for sale!
Good luck to you! =)

1/15/2012 08:23:04 am

I will totally take you up on that :)

Phil

1/15/2012 06:44:36 am

There's a lot of angst about how to sell books. The reality is, 95% of us (writers) won't make significant money from writing. Do it for the love or have a plan B. Sad but true.

1/15/2012 08:24:17 am

You are absolutely true. I write for the love, not the money. But I do need to, somehow, get the word out that there is a book to buy. Otherwise, why publish at all?

Patti Mallett

1/15/2012 06:58:55 am

This was a thought-provoking post, Angela. Thanks!!

First, I plan to concentrate on getting a book written. I've discovered I can handle just about anything if I break it into steps, with First Things First. At the proper time I'm ready to do the work necessary, but if I look too far out ahead of me, things can seem impossible.

For now, I concentrate on Facebook and use it as I would a Blog, if I had one, slowly building a group of interested Followers and trying to offer them worthwhile posts, etc. (Plus, I do a bit on Twitter and do enjoy that.)

One of these times, when I decide what the right next step is, I'll take it. And I try very hard not to size up the difficulties. We all know there be giants out there. But I try to stay positive and imagine good things ahead.

1/15/2012 08:26:07 am

I like your philosophy--one step at a time. That's the way I need to remember things. You eat an elephant one small bite at a time.

Thanks for your comment.

Katey Matthews link

6/25/2012 11:41:22 pm

Found your site from another blog and wanted to see where I could find more info

Ashley Snyder link

11/1/2013 07:42:00 am

Well, I am not a writer, but a book blogger. I actually participated in your blog tour. *waves* Hi. You do have a point about all the *white noise* and how eventually all the books that are promoted across the multiple social media outlets do become exhausting. I cannot recall how I stumbled upon your website- I wish I could. I do know that the internet is the only place where I find new books to read and review, so it still plays a huge part in getting your book out there. However, if you are thinking that you actually do want to promote the book others ways so it is not as exhausting, maybe you could try and contact a zombie specialty store (yes, they do exist- https://www.facebook.com/GrantvilleZombieGeeks or http://www.houseofthedeadpgh.com/) and ask them to maybe help with a little promoting. Maybe try to get them to sell your books in their store (although I am sure you would have to work out a payment where they would get some sort of commission) or ask to purchase an ad on their website. Maybe have a poster made that they can put up in their store. Something along those lines. I know this one author who had magnets made for cars promoting her book. lol. I thought that was pretty cool. Other promotional items that would be seen like t-shirts might be more up your alley as well. I cannot think of anything else right now, other than having a street team and getting them to spread the word about your books on the street. Maybe ask their local library to start carrying it. That is all I have for now. *shrug*

11/1/2013 07:48:50 am

11/1/2013 07:50:52 am

Also, lol, when I am on a street team and the author gives me bookmarks, I go to my library and randomly put them in with the bookmark table or in a random book that is similar to the one featured on the bookmark. (: Just thought I would share another unconventional method. Also, to add onto the last comment, maybe you can ask the zombie themed place to host a giveaway for ecopies of the book? Just a thought. Ok, I am done commenting for now.

How can I PROMOTE my book without ticking off the masses?

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How can I PROMOTE my book without ticking off the masses?

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