How Much Promotion Is Too Much

[John Michael Brantingham]

I am a poet, writer and blogger, and I tend to publish or post three or four times a week. That sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm not. Poetry can publish all the time, and I'm trying to promote a couple of  upcoming novels and to create a brand. The thing is that I want to support those places that have my work, but at the same time, I don't want to annoy facebook friends and email friends.

 

So my question is how often should someone promote and where? How often do you do it? When does it become annoying?

 

I guess that's 3 questions, but they come down to the same thing.

[Reginald]

Funny, I should come across this post.  I'd emailed my online mentor just today regarding promotion of a blog.  He advised me that when he was first starting out, he set a goal for himself.  He would do about 10 posts per week to the forum of his choice and at least 1 guest blog article on a popular blog that would accept his work.  Seemed to work for him.

Reg

[John Michael Brantingham]

THat's about what I'm doing as well. It works, but then do you promote on facebook etc.

[I. J. Parker]

I frankly neither have the time nor the patience to blog and promote on social sites.  Social sites are also quite hostile to author self-promotion.  A lot of people exchange promotions with other authors and get by doing that.  The whole business is ultimately dishonest and smacks of desperation.  In any case, people seem to want something in exchange for reading an ad.  So you are expected to be a regular participant in book discussions.  And that takes more time. 

[John Michael Brantingham]

I can't see exchanging promotion. That's odd. But telling your e-friends what you're up to can get overwhelming.

 

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Engaging people in actual conversation is the best form of free marketing. Readers tune out spam.

[John Michael Brantingham]

That's the problem. You're interested in talking about what you're doing, but it often turns into spam.

[Stacy]

How: The best promotion is the smallest yet most effective amount.

Where: This depends on you. It also depends on the books you write and your genre. My main social network site is Facebook. I interact there on a personal and professional level. For me it's helped me gain new readers, exposure and it's fun. I am a member of many writing and book groups on Facebook and I have scored book club reviews, reviews, cross promotion opportunities and other opportunities from being on Facebook. It's because I focus on groups that I enjoy and I became a part of that community. A lot of groups actually let you promote as well but I rarely promote in groups I am not active in. You get more support from the community that has gotten to know you. It takes time. Social networking is not easy.

 

When: You can promote any time you like but I'd suggest not doing it constantly on any site. You will only alienate people. This ties into becoming a part of an online community and not just promoting. If you find something you enjoy then stick with it. You don't have to be on every social network and you don't have to promote everyday. Just make sure that when you do, it counts.

The good thing about becoming a part of a community is that you don't have to worry about when to promote because most likely people will become interested in you and your work without you having to always mention it. Just you being in the community will bring support from different people.

It Becomes Annoying When: When everything you post is about your book constantly, every second of every single day. Authors forget they are not the only author out their drumming up book sales. If you look at it from the readers' point of view, you can see why they don't like it when authors promote too much. It can get pretty overwhelming when you got thousands of authors promoting their books constantly.

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net