Author Promotions and what works

[Misfit]

Interesting post (http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/12/08/wednesday-midday-links-what-kind-of-author-promotion-works-for-you/) and comments over at Dear Author today.

[MLE]

Interesting. And exhausting. Here I am slaving away to craft a story that will hold a reader in the face of all the other temptations and competition for her time, and now I have to become expert at all this too?

[Misfit]

Interesting. And exhausting. Here I am slaving away to craft a story that will hold a reader in the face of all the other temptations and competition for her time, and now I have to become expert at all this too?

Yes. You. Do. ;)

IMHO I would say you're better off learning what not to do, if that makes any sense.

[fljustice]

Interesting. And exhausting.

Makes me tired, just reading about it!

[Michy]

Outside of self-pubs, why would an author have to self-promote their own books? Isn't that one of the things that publishers and booksellers get paid to do?

Or, are the authors this is talking about self-published, and I just missed that part? :p

[Divia]

I thought the authors on here promote their books as well. I mean they do blog tours n stuff. Isn't that taking their own time to promote?

Maybe I'm wrong.

[boswellbaxter]

Outside of self-pubs, why would an author have to self-promote their own books? Isn't that one of the things that publishers and booksellers get paid to do?

Or, are the authors this is talking about self-published, and I just missed that part? :p

I think most of the Amazon spammers are self-published, but traditionally published authors are expected to take more of a role in promoting their books than they were in the past, so you'll see them joining in the Amazon antics from time to time (as well as engaging in reputable promotional tactics such as blogging, etc.).

There's one big-publishing-house author on Goodreads who comments every time someone marks one of his books as "to be read." He must devote at least two or three hours per week to doing this. Gives me a "I'm watching you" feeling myself, enough to dissuade me from reading his books.

[MLE]

Outside of self-pubs, why would an author have to self-promote their own books? Isn't that one of the things that publishers and booksellers get paid to do?

Or, are the authors this is talking about self-published, and I just missed that part? :p

From all I've heard, only the big hitters get promotional budgets. The rest usually plow their own advances into producing trailers, hiring publicists, and whatever else it takes to attract attention. And if they manage a tour that involves travel, they pay their own way.

That's why writing isn't a business very many authors actually eat on. One source says fewer than 10% of traditionally multi-published writers can support themselves that way--they need a working spouse or a day job. Right up there with musicians, not quite so bad as sculptors.

If it was about an hourly wage, you'd make more as a greeter at Wal-Mart.

[SarahWoodbury]

The big publishing houses do less and less for an author unless they are a big name. All those front and center spots at the big bookstores are paid for by the publisher, and if you, as an author, don't get them to do that, your book is spine out in the racks. The same for promotion in catalogs for libraries. I know many authors who pay out of pocket for their own publicist because they have no choice if their book is going to sell. Why a publisher would pay (and sometimes pay a ton of money) for a book they're not going to promote is beyond me, but they do it all the time.

Many authors, if their advance was enough so they could afford to quit their day job, spend the morning writing and the afternoon on marketing, just to survive.

That's why authors like JA Konrath are going entirely self-published and making far more money than when they were with a publishing house. They were doing all the work anyway . . . now, with that route you lose editing (though publishers are doing less and less of that too) and you don't get in bookstores if you're self-published because traditional publishers still have a monopoly on that (in the US anyway).

The world's a'changing. Not sure where this is all going to end . . .

I'd be interested to know what the experience of some of the authors on this thread is . . .

[Misfit]

The same for promotion in catalogs for libraries.

This might be the topic for a new thread, but I've always wondered how the libraries make decisions on which books to purchase. Nine out of ten purchase requests I make they do buy, but occasionally I've been turned down with the "not professionally reviewed" excuse. Just who are those professional reviewers anyway?

[cw gortner]

I personally don't do much of what is mentioned in the article except Twitter, and I don't 'tweet' all that well, evidently. But I do do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to promotion, both financially and time-wise. These days, unless a book was acquired for significant money, as in, over $500K, it's pretty much a requirement if the author expects to sell copies in any quantity and wants a career. I know of books that were bought for nearly a million that had very limited promotional budgets, to the author's dismay. Marketing budgets at publishing houses were never robust; these days, they're practically extinct.

A book marketing maven once told me that most houses spend less than $650 per title on marketing. That is a reality an author cannot afford to ignore.

Authors would be wise to set aside between 15 - 20% of their advance for promotion. Keep the day job, too, while we're at it. Remember, publicity is stuff we get for free, like reviews, feature articles, etc. (though 'free' is relative, as it's very time-consuming); marketing is stuff we pay for, like ads, book trailers, websites, etc.

I do both. I have marvelous publicists and marketing teams at both my publishers' but they're dealing with a massive influx of new titles every season. It's my job to augment their efforts and ensure my books have longeavity. Again, budgets are very tight and that coveted placement on the front table at Borders or Barnes & Noble is usually for 2 weeks max, if you're lucky enough to snag it. After that, the book gets returned or shelved. You have to be the one who keeps it front and center in the public's eyes - and you're competing against myriad other choices for their entertainment dollars.

The old days of suave parties, gilded author tours, instant New York Times reviews, and building authors' careers despite soft sales are over. Now we have blogs, twitter, Facebook, Bookscan numbers, and a whole lotta noise. Getting noticed in the mayhem can be quite a challenge. The trick is to do it without looking like the proverbial bull in the china shop, smashing your book's merits over unsuspecting readers' heads. That author Susan mentioned, who comments on every Goodreads addition? Bull.

It's not easy, and it's a rude awakening for many writers who first get published and begin to realize what lies ahead, after the champagne fades and the hangover sets in. But many of us have had to learn it. And some of us, like me, have even come to enjoy it.

I forgot to add, this is one of the reasons self publishing can be more appealing to certain writers. I've done both and can honestly say, while publishing the actual book on my own was tough, it was nothing compared to the promotional efforts required of me now. If I sold 2 or 10 or 200 of my self published title, it was my business. It wouldn't sink me. My book could live on in perpetuity. But with a major house, that is a death knell. I can't afford to be complacent, if I want to publish more books with the major house. Something to consider when deliberating what is the right choice for you.

[Michy]

Gives me a "I'm watching you" feeling myself, enough to dissuade me from reading his books. More like, "I'm stalking you." Ugh.

Just who are those professional reviewers anyway? Harriet, perhaps? :p (rolls on the floor convulsing with laughter)

This is a great thread, BTW. Very interesting and informative.

[LoveHistory]

I think I'll stay with self-pub.

[Ariadne]

This might be the topic for a new thread, but I've always wondered how the libraries make decisions on which books to purchase. Nine out of ten purchase requests I make they do buy, but occasionally I've been turned down with the "not professionally reviewed" excuse. Just who are those professional reviewers anyway?

They could mean it hasn't been reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, or Kirkus, but it sounds like an excuse to me too, if they want to give some reason not to buy it. Review space is way down, so there will be many worthwhile books not covered by any of those four journals.

[MLE]

Didn't Kirkus fold? Although I noticed something using their name where they review for pay.

[Ariadne]

Things looked bad for Kirkus Reviews for a time, but the magazine was purchased (by the owner of the Indiana Pacers basketball team, an avid book lover!) and is back in business. They have a separate pay-for-review service called Kirkus Discoveries. I'm on the email list for the latter and often see historical fiction reviewed there, but I'm rather wary after being burned once.

[Margaret]

Quote:
Interesting. And exhausting. Here I am slaving away to craft a story that will hold a reader in the face of all the other temptations and competition for her time, and now I have to become expert at all this too?

Yes. You. Do.


But not yet. I still think the most important thing of all, by far, is to write a really good book. I guess if you're a celebrity, your dog can write a book, get it heavily promoted, and sell millions of copies. But for the most part, the books that become bestsellers sell because readers feel moved, stirred and excited by them, recommend them to their friends, who recommend them to their friends, and so on and so on. You do need to do enough PR to get the first batch of readers to read it. But once the really good book is written, then you can start becoming an expert in marketing.

[wendy]

[quote]"First, it is run on flash. Flash, as you may have read, cannot be viewed on any iThing. So that is like 80 million devices that can’t view whatever it is the author spent so much money to have on her site. Plus, it takes time to load and people with slower internet connections are likely clicking away. Further, many people visit during work hours and can’t even see or enjoy the fancy shmancy thing."[quote]

Using flash doesn't seem to have damaged the careers of Stephen King, Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell, JK Rowling . . . and I'm guessing that anyone who owns "any iTHing" likely has a regular computer too.

Shouldn't a web site strive for individuality? I want mine to reflect the uniqueness of my work and capture the general themes I write about.

What's important to you?

[Misfit]

What's important to you?

I don't have any I thing, and only work on PC's but I loathe flash and my coworkers feel the same way when we're having to click our way past it.

Another thing to take into consideration is that not everyone on home PC's has the fastest PC and connection. My old dinosaur finally died and got replaced and things are much quicker even with the same connection (which I'd upgraded with the old PC and things still went very slow). If a page takes too long to load I am just not going to go there. There are a couple of blogs that never ever make it outside of Google reader just because there's so many widgets, gidgets and pics on them the load time is frustrating.

The comments on the DA thread should be helpful to any author - there are readers there telling what they do and don't want to see.

I also think blogging is great for authors - that is when they talk about more than their books. I like to know what they are researching, odd bits of history, etc. An author who has a blog merely to make announcements about the availability of his/her book and providing me with links to Amazon to purchase said books will go on permanent ignore.

For me the best thing and what you see here at HFO and Goodreads is author's participating in reader discussions as readers. One time over at Goodreads Sharon and EC were helping out on a discussion and in comes a group member just impressed as all get-out at that and said she'd be putting them on her to-read list lickety split. I'm more inclined to try out a new author if I see they have similar reading tastes to mine.

[Libby]

An interesting thread and article. I agree that to be successful as an author you need to help yourself, but no-one wants to keep reading about your book so it has to be a balancing act.

I have a Facebook friend who is an author and most of her posts seem to be links to blog reviews of her book. They get annoying after a while.

I don't deny that a fair bit of what I do on the internet is designed to draw attention to my books, but I do enjoy chatting about other stuff as well - because I'm at home most of the time it's my main social outlet.

I have a website which is just basic information about myself. It's very cheap so it isn't anything spectacular. I have a blog, but I don't talk about my books. It's about historical snippets really. I enjoy writing them. I think people enjoy reading them and if gets me some publicity then that's a bonus - though most of the blog searches that bring visitors to the site are 'Robin Hood's grave'.

As for my personal experience of being published, I think I've been quite lucky. Although there was no marketing budget (and damn near no advance) Waterstone's book shop is supportive of small independent publishers and mine was picked up for their 3 for 2 offer in July. The publisher (bless him) made the payment they demanded and so the book was on those tables near the door for a few weeks.

Apologies for the blatant promo in my signature - but an author has to do what an author has to do! ;)

[Misfit]

Apologies for the blatant promo in my signature - but an author has to do what an author has to do!

I don't think you'll find anyone (at least not here) having a problem with that. Interesting, an author wanted to start participating over at Amazon's romance board and she was kind enough to post first and ask what the *rules* were so that she didn't ruffle feathers (those gals don't like spamming). The last time I was on the thread I hadn't seen anyone having issues with the signature line. Personally I think it's great, it lets me know who is an author and who isn't.

[boswellbaxter]

[quote]

Shouldn't a web site strive for individuality? I want mine to reflect the uniqueness of my work and capture the general themes I write about.

What's important to you?At a minimum, I want an author's website to list the author's books and give a description of each book. I also would like to see an excerpt from the book, or at least a link to a site where I can see an excerpt.

When an author writes historical fiction, I like seeing pieces about the history behind the novels and suggestions for further reading. When I'm familiar with the period, I find the latter particularly helpful, because I can get an idea of how the author's going to treat her subject or the extent of the research she's done based on what references she lists (or doesn't list).

I don't like a lot of flashy geegaws on a website, and I don't like to have to do a lot of navigating through the site just to find out what an author's written. I seldom look at book trailers--they really don't tell me anything about whether the book would interest me.

[LoveHistory]

I don't much care for flash either. I like websites to be fairly simple in that I can find the info I want easily. For an author website I like to be able to read a bio, know what books he/she's written and where they are available, excerpts that don't appear in pop-up windows, and contact info.

I have a question about author websites/blogs. What does an author who is not writing historical fiction do for post topics? When the subject matter is fiction, and isn't drawing from current news-like events, what else is there? Does anyone want to read about the author's day to day life? Would it be better to stick to various books the author enjoys? Ok so that's really four questions.

[Misfit]

What does an author who is not writing historical fiction do for post topics? When the subject matter is fiction, and isn't drawing from current news-like events, what else is there? Does anyone want to read about the author's day to day life?

A very good question. I haven't strayed from HF in sometime so I don't follow other author blogs. I'd be interested what other members say who do read them.

[cw gortner]

A very good question. I haven't strayed from HF in sometime so I don't follow other author blogs. I'd be interested what other members say who do read them.

Though of course I write and blog about hf, I don't post much about my research; not sure why, but it's such an organic process for me, so layered, it feels hard to elucidate it for others. Plus, I never think anyone is very interested, though evidently I might be wrong?

But I also don't like to post a lot of "Look at me, livin' la vida author" stuff either. I think a little goes a long way in that particular department. I've had readers tell me they want updates, but I try to mix it up; so I post reviews, guest blogs from other authors, interviews. I try to keep it hf-focused but also eclectic. I've been wanting to liven it up a bit over at Historical Boys, too, but haven't quite figured out how.

Honestly, between the marketing, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Librarything, etc. it's a miracle we find time to write:eek:

[fljustice]

Honestly, between the marketing, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Librarything, etc. it's a miracle we find time to write:eek:

You find time to write!!??:rolleyes: It's been months since I've written fiction!

[wendy]

"When an author writes historical fiction, I like seeing pieces about the history behind the novels and suggestions for further reading. When I'm familiar with the period, I find the latter particularly helpful, because I can get an idea of how the author's going to treat her subject or the extent of the research she's done based on what references she lists (or doesn't list)."

A great idea BoswellBaxter - I can see how that would be useful. Thanks for the tip.

[Margaret]

I don't care for the fancy animated intros on some authors' sites either. When I go to an author's site (and nowadays I expect an author to have a website and am disappointed when I can't find one), it's to get information, so it's annoying to have to spend extra time watching a bunch of introductory stuff before I can get to the information. Fortunately, even the authors who put this stuff on their sites nowadays usually offer an option to skip past it. Even then, it's more of an annoyance to me than a positive benefit. What I do really like are extra pages offering information about the history behind the novel, the author's research, and beautiful pictures of places related to the novel. I've been known to go to an author's website for a very specific piece of information and then spend a bunch of time exploring it, when it offers these sorts of extra enticements.

[fljustice]

From Galley Cat:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/10-nontraditional-ways-to-promote-your-book_b29220