♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #166
We did this a couple of years ago, but your answer may have changed. What are the best sites you use for publicity?
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.
Let me start by directing you to some earlier posts on the matter of selling books.
OBBH No. 8 – Selling Books
OBBH No. 39 – Writing Historical Fiction Roundup
OBBH No. 52 – The Tool Chest
OBBH No. 101 – Author Startups
OBBH No. 116 – Author as CEO
OBBH No. 127 – Free Isn’t Free
OBBH No. 148 – To Those Who Want to Write
OBBH No. 165 – That’s Business
Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
The importance of linking you to these other entries is that it gives a good slide of the business side of writing. That’s what this question is sussing out. One of the most important items isn’t readily apparent in that list, however. If you read them, you’ll find it: that other authors are the gold mine from which you learn to run your author business. That doesn’t mean one should copy copy copy. No two businesses are alike, as no two humans are exactly alike. You’ll need to figure out what works best for your business. You simply cannot copy that off of another person’s work. Would you want to? Would you want to know in your deepest depths, even in your shallowest depths, that you were unable to do this thing, and just laid back and applied someone’s work to your own? I certainly wouldn’t, and I don’t know any authors who would either.
But, I am here to answer this question and offer my expert guidance. The truth is that the answer to this question is always changing. Just like it states, this was asked a few years ago. I’ve been doing the blog hop for a number of years now, and how I handle my marketing has evolved in that time. In the beginning, I had no idea how to do any of it. I stumbled along, doing signings and even nabbed an appearance in the local paper. My presence online gradually grew, from days on deviantArt, to my growing presence across Google and social media (see the ribbon on the upper right).
Today, I’m really enjoying the use of Twitter and Instagram. I find that I connect with a greater number of interested parties on both of these platforms. The interactions are much more worthwhile. I’ve made friends and loyal readers through the years spent on social media. The reason being humans seek quality experiences. Never forget that readers are first and foremost your fellow human beings. Respect them enough to not inundate them with ads and instead give them quality content.
You might sneer, thinking that authorship is no popularity contest. I’m sorry that you would diminish human interaction down to such a flat conjecture of what is actually being suggested. No one is asking authors to compete as if it is high school. They’re being asked to show the readers why they should bother with their books. Those quality interactions should always be focused on what’s in it for the reader.
Photo by Jonalyn San Diego on Unsplash
You might additionally sneer, because this is getting far more complicated than you bargained for, not to mention the sheer effort involved with performing for the public daily. Yes. Marketing is very hard work. Yes. At times, it can feel like performance. What you miss, if you’re sneering, is that your book cannot advertise itself, and no publishing house or anyone else is going to do it for you. Yes. Marketing by a traditional publisher is a myth (unless you happen to be one of their very top authors, who they are guaranteed to make bank on). Look, the truth is that there are a lot of advertisers out there, and the only way to stand out is to be unique, and the only thing about you that is unique is yourself. Be yourself. 100% authentic. It’s very rare that a person can create a persona (outside of the performing arts), that people will not sense is inauthentic. Just don’t bother with that. You can share as much or as little as you want about yourself, but make what you share authentic, sincere, and worth connecting to.
Don’t worry. Whatever you’re writing about, you are passionate about it. Share that with others. Intoxicate them with your excitement. That’s not something you can pay others to manifest on your behalf. You’ve got to feel and express it genuinely.
I hope this helps you think about the steps you’re taking as a writer to market yourself and your work to the public. Best wishes in your journey, writers. Now, let’s hop on over and see what the other authors in the hop have to tell you…
Yes, even most of the traditionally published authors have to market their own books. It is hard work, and for me the worst part of being an author. Nevertheless, it’s always exciting if one or more of our marketing schemes pays off.
I’m so with you on that! I think it gets in the way of my creativity, too. It really is nice when a new reader gets on board. I am so excited then!
I’ve never got the hang of twitter even when I hire a company to do tweets for me. It doesn’t seem to result in sales for me.
I hear you. I’m starting to think those companies are unable to follow through on their promises.
That’s the same with me. I think some market exists there because sales drop off when I stop posting there, but it’s not a steep drop, so whatever Kelly is doing definitely works for her, but Twitter is still a time suck that doesn’t give me return on investment. And, I don’t use the companies. I did use my teenager for about 18 months, but he’s rather make his own chocolate chip cookies so he can give up his Twitter duties.