Hopefully the last discussion on promotion
There is a shocking amount of confusion around the difference between promotion and self promotion and I thought I could help clear up some of the confusion.
First I guess I need to give you my background: I am the publisher of SPINETINGLER Magazine. As we start our third year, we have published eleven PDF and web-based issues and recently crossed over a million hits. Our average PDF downloads exceed 10,000 copies per issues and that does not include any webpage views of the fiction, interviews and reviews we publish. My wife and I personally know well over one hundred authors. Through their experiences and my own, I have seen a number of promotion techniques that work and don't work.
This year, my wife and I have added over forty books that we purchased or received as a review copies. I read three to six books a month and review the majority for the magazine.
Now that's out of the way, let's discussion promotion. But the best way to explain it is to follow the process.
So you're happy that your book came out today. In the US during 2005, 19 books per hour were published, so you have just over three minutes to feel special before someone else joins the club. In the UK that number is 24 books per hour so it's only two minutes. While this is not meant to diminish the joy of your book coming out, if space was set aside here for every author who is published this year to toot their own horn, crimespace have nothing but press releases on it.
So how do you get the message out there that your book is available for sale?
NETWORK
No man (or woman) is an island. Building a group of friends who are writers can make a huge difference in your career. Talking to people who walk the same road as you can give you a richer perspective and help you develop your craft.
But if you see everyone as a potential buyer or someone who can help your career, or competition, then you’re on the wrong track. As I said in a prior post, other authors are not here for your benefit.
Your personal website is the place to promote yourself. It’s your home. Go nuts. Tell your visitors that you're the best writer on earth if that makes you happy. No one can tell you what you can or can’t do.
Everywhere else is not your home. Crimespace, for example, is like a hotel. You have your own room but you don’t own it. We all share the space. We show each other respect by following the rules.
CHECK OUT WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING
If your Crimespace page is a giant advertisement for your book, then how do I get to know you? Are you just a book?
Check out the established authors and see what they’re doing. Are they a walking advert for their current book?
Now I imagine some people will say, “Well, they are with big publishers so their publisher is promoting them.”
If you really believe that, I’m sorry to tell you that you've been really misled. It is very seldom these days that a publisher drops thousands of dollars on an author for promotion. Often the biggest difference between a large publisher and small publisher is the big publisher has better distribution.
I have three great examples of authors who I think are going to break out this year Ray Banks, Al Guthrie and Steven Torres. What is the same about their pages? No in your face self-promotion, no essay length “About Me”. What’s the other thing these three guys share? All of them were recommended to me by another reader. I enjoyed their work and have recommended their work to others. In fact in the next issue of SPINETINGLER, I am reviewing two of these guys. In our most recent issue my wife reviewed and interviewed the third. Great books deserve endorsement.
PROMOTION
There are a number of people out there recommending the “Sideshow Snake Oil Salesman” approach. Have a little show; dazzle the locals into buying your product and then on to the next town. Every chance they get, they tell people to promote, promote and promote more. Failure to succeed is failure to promote they say.
But putting your book's entire success on your own shoulders is a massive task. You can only be so visible, only participate in so many conversations on forums and listservs. It is a full-time job that has little payback.
Some people would say, “I have sold hundreds of book this way.” To that I ask, what’s the cost? How much time and money was spent selling those books. If it cost you $500 dollars in savings and vacation time to make $200, then you are out $300. You’re losing money.
But there are low cost ways to get sales.
Here is a good example of what I am referring to: every night I get Google alerts for my wife’s name and SPINETINGLER. It tells me who is talking about either of them.
I found one hit that included a small interview with a debut noir author with a well-regarded press. It peaked my interest, so I followed the link to his crimespace page and the line that greeted me was that he was shameless about self-promotion. Right there he almost lost me but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. So I looked for a website. None. Next an author page on the publisher site. None. Information on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. None. This was a book I might be interested in but no one seemed to want me to find out anything about it.
The main thing is, if you want to sell to people, you need to understand your market. You need to understand what really works and what doesn't. Pushy sales efforts might sell some books, but what about all the customers you've driven away?
The greatest compliments my wife gets were from people who said they don't read mysteries but found her blog interesting and decided to read her book and loved it. Now they're interested in books she recommends. She gets emails from people saying, "I read my first Ian Rankin or Stuart MacBride" and such, and to her, that's the best thing, because more people are discovering the great work out there, and that's good for everyone.
First I guess I need to give you my background: I am the publisher of SPINETINGLER Magazine. As we start our third year, we have published eleven PDF and web-based issues and recently crossed over a million hits. Our average PDF downloads exceed 10,000 copies per issues and that does not include any webpage views of the fiction, interviews and reviews we publish. My wife and I personally know well over one hundred authors. Through their experiences and my own, I have seen a number of promotion techniques that work and don't work.
This year, my wife and I have added over forty books that we purchased or received as a review copies. I read three to six books a month and review the majority for the magazine.
Now that's out of the way, let's discussion promotion. But the best way to explain it is to follow the process.
So you're happy that your book came out today. In the US during 2005, 19 books per hour were published, so you have just over three minutes to feel special before someone else joins the club. In the UK that number is 24 books per hour so it's only two minutes. While this is not meant to diminish the joy of your book coming out, if space was set aside here for every author who is published this year to toot their own horn, crimespace have nothing but press releases on it.
So how do you get the message out there that your book is available for sale?
NETWORK
No man (or woman) is an island. Building a group of friends who are writers can make a huge difference in your career. Talking to people who walk the same road as you can give you a richer perspective and help you develop your craft.
But if you see everyone as a potential buyer or someone who can help your career, or competition, then you’re on the wrong track. As I said in a prior post, other authors are not here for your benefit.
Your personal website is the place to promote yourself. It’s your home. Go nuts. Tell your visitors that you're the best writer on earth if that makes you happy. No one can tell you what you can or can’t do.
Everywhere else is not your home. Crimespace, for example, is like a hotel. You have your own room but you don’t own it. We all share the space. We show each other respect by following the rules.
CHECK OUT WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING
If your Crimespace page is a giant advertisement for your book, then how do I get to know you? Are you just a book?
Check out the established authors and see what they’re doing. Are they a walking advert for their current book?
Now I imagine some people will say, “Well, they are with big publishers so their publisher is promoting them.”
If you really believe that, I’m sorry to tell you that you've been really misled. It is very seldom these days that a publisher drops thousands of dollars on an author for promotion. Often the biggest difference between a large publisher and small publisher is the big publisher has better distribution.
I have three great examples of authors who I think are going to break out this year Ray Banks, Al Guthrie and Steven Torres. What is the same about their pages? No in your face self-promotion, no essay length “About Me”. What’s the other thing these three guys share? All of them were recommended to me by another reader. I enjoyed their work and have recommended their work to others. In fact in the next issue of SPINETINGLER, I am reviewing two of these guys. In our most recent issue my wife reviewed and interviewed the third. Great books deserve endorsement.
PROMOTION
There are a number of people out there recommending the “Sideshow Snake Oil Salesman” approach. Have a little show; dazzle the locals into buying your product and then on to the next town. Every chance they get, they tell people to promote, promote and promote more. Failure to succeed is failure to promote they say.
But putting your book's entire success on your own shoulders is a massive task. You can only be so visible, only participate in so many conversations on forums and listservs. It is a full-time job that has little payback.
Some people would say, “I have sold hundreds of book this way.” To that I ask, what’s the cost? How much time and money was spent selling those books. If it cost you $500 dollars in savings and vacation time to make $200, then you are out $300. You’re losing money.
But there are low cost ways to get sales.
- Write some good short stories and get them published. There are lots of places that you can get a story published. A short story lets people sample your style and can spur further interest.
- Get some reviews. There are many review sites out there and they often will reach the kind of people who might buy your book. Follow the guidelines (if present) and pick suitable sites for your subgenre.
- Pay attention to reviews. If you are getting a lot of bad reviews, hold back the promotion until you understand what people don’t like. I’ve heard stories of people who are trashed on Amazon, Listservs and review sites and they are still promoting hard, spending a lot of money and wondering why their sales are bad. The best advertisements in the world won't save you if the writing isn't strong.
- Follow the rules. If you are on a Listserv or Forum and you’re the only one with a signature, for example, ask yourself why no one else is doing it.
- Get a website or a blog. If your only web presence is crimespace and/or MySpace, then kiss sales goodbye. Most people want to find out information about you and your book(s) and expect you to have a website. If all they find is a MySpace page, how many will think you’re not a serious writer?
- Be a person with other writers. Being published might make you special with your co-workers at your day job, but it means little when you're around other writers. Be interesting, funny or thought-provoking. Complaining that you can’t self-promote is not going to win you friends. This is a relationship business. You impress me and I will want to review your book or ask you for an interview. Others may want to blurb your book or will talk about it on their blog. That kind of promotion will give you far more sales in a few months than a year hand-selling and promoting your book.
Here is a good example of what I am referring to: every night I get Google alerts for my wife’s name and SPINETINGLER. It tells me who is talking about either of them.
I found one hit that included a small interview with a debut noir author with a well-regarded press. It peaked my interest, so I followed the link to his crimespace page and the line that greeted me was that he was shameless about self-promotion. Right there he almost lost me but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. So I looked for a website. None. Next an author page on the publisher site. None. Information on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. None. This was a book I might be interested in but no one seemed to want me to find out anything about it.
The main thing is, if you want to sell to people, you need to understand your market. You need to understand what really works and what doesn't. Pushy sales efforts might sell some books, but what about all the customers you've driven away?
The greatest compliments my wife gets were from people who said they don't read mysteries but found her blog interesting and decided to read her book and loved it. Now they're interested in books she recommends. She gets emails from people saying, "I read my first Ian Rankin or Stuart MacBride" and such, and to her, that's the best thing, because more people are discovering the great work out there, and that's good for everyone.
Views: 37
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Hatadi on
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This post is so much in line with my personal views of promotion on Crimespace, that, with Evil Kev's permission, I've reproduced the article as part of the promotion section of the help page.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this.
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Permalink Reply by p. b. smith on
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Thank you for the great info. Maybe you're not so Evil after all?
Oh, wait! Sandra said you are! ;-)
Could you please explain a little more about Google alerts and how to set them up?
Pat Smith
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Permalink Reply by Sandra Ruttan on
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Pat, when Kevin gets home from work he'll get that information to you. I'm technically pretty useless...
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Permalink Reply by Steven Torres on
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I'm going to break out this year? Holy cow! What do I wear?
I like the idea of writing short stories to get your work and name out there, and it seems intuitive to me that this would work for promotion, but then I sometimes wonder if having stories out there means I've satisfied the reader and they'll feel like they don't need to buy the book. No difference, really. I write the short stories anyway.
I have also taken the tack of writing up profiles and interviews with other authors partly as a way of keeping my name (at least marginally) in the public eye. The interviews also count as publication credits which in the academic world actually do add up (for things like tenure and promotion). Started doing the interviews for my website (and now CrimeSpree and Mystery Scene) as a means of introducing myself to other writers. I get tongue-tied around people I don't already know. Asking if I can interview them is a great icebreaker...better than I would have thought, actually.
Al Guthrie's next on my list...
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Pretty much anything but Spandex. Well, I'd pass on Rickards' rubber nun outfit as well.
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Permalink Reply by Evil Kev on
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For anyone who has not heard about Steven's new book, "The Concrete Maze", it's coming out at the end of July 2007. I think it's going to be big.
Short stories are a simple way to let people see what you can do. If anything, it will just make them want to see more. For example, the author of a story we published in the magazine emailed us and told us she had an agent contact her after reading her story.
I've bought a few books because of how much I enjoyed a short story he or she wrote.
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Permalink Reply by Julie Morrigan on
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Loads of useful info that makes perfect sense. Cheers, Evil Kev.
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Permalink Reply by Patricia on
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Thank you for clarifying things, from a readers prospective this is really an interesting piece.
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Permalink Reply by Pari Noskin Taichert on
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Evil Kev,
Thanks for such a clear, concise piece.
I've been struggling with this workshop I'm supposed to give re: "Think Published to Get Published" because there aren't any magic bullets. I feel like an ass saying, "Here's how you do it."
Yesterday a wise, published friend of mine said, "You can't tell your students how to do things . . . as much as how NOT to sabotage themselves."
Your article gives a tremendous amount of useful advice about avoiding self-made minefields.
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Permalink Reply by David Magayna on
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One addition I would add to the Crimespace recommendation is to write your profile in first person. It makes you seem more like a real person or "friend". If it's written in third person, it sounds like a publicist wrote it and that contradicts the "hanging out with my buds" approach that encourages people to chat with you.
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Great advice David.
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