Just writing the word promotion some times makes me dizzy. There are so many ways to promote out there that it is easy to get lost along the way. You have your blogs, guest blogs, yahoo groups, chats, conventions, interviews, websites and on and on and on. LOL. Some of it I love. I'd go crazy without authors and readers to chat with on some of the loops or without my blog where I can say whatever I want, but what I really want to know is what works?
For those of you who don't know I write not only sexy romance under the name Kelley Nyrae, but also erotic romance under the name Madison Scott. My Madison books are fairly new and I'm really looking to get my name out there, but how? As a reader, how do you find new authors? If you're a writer, what have you found that really works for you?
It's so hard to divide your time between promoting and writing, but we have to do it. I DO enjoy it too. I love having chats. talking with other writers and readers, sharing excerpts and adding to my incredible to be bought list is the best, but what else is there out there?
3 comments:
You're right, making time for promo is so tough. At one point I thought if ONLY someone would take me on and publish my book. Shoot..the work is just beginning after that. Dividing time between writing and promotion and other 'life stuff' is insane.
I blog a lot, as you know. I also visit quite a few chat loops. Not to drop excerpts so much as to say HI and let readers get to know me a little bit. I've found that FB, Myspace and twitter do very little toward promotion really. On my last release day (Jan 6) I had tons of hits to my website and only four of those visitors came from facebook. I was really surprised. I'd heard facebook was a great tool for that. Yes, I'll continue to do them but I'm not sure they help all that much.
I just discovered I was a tiny bit too cautious with the debut of my first e-book. Going to step it up a little when the second one comes out!
But I get tired of seeing the same promo excerpts week after week, and so I try to mix mine up. Kind of hard when your book is only 32 pages long. My next one is longer, so I'll have more scenes to post.
I think the best way to promo is when it doesn't seem like you're actually promoing at all. Like getting in on reader groups, chatting and making friends on Facebook, and having a group blog where you talk about MORE than just YOUR books. Of course it never hurts to do a few ads here and there if you have a new release, but always beware of where you spend your money. A lot of sites that sell cover ad space don't get the hits they claim they do.
Still, the best promo is writing the best book you can write. Readers talk and you want them to talk about YOUR books--in a good way, of course. LOL
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