What kinds of information do you give away?

Book promotion experts these days tell us that we will ultimately gain readers for our books by giving away information on our sites.

The rationale behind this advice comes from the fact that authors who don't have HarperCollins publicity department helping them create a presence and a level of trust with their prospective readers need to do this themselves. Sharing information is not only a friendly thing to do, it brings people back to our blogs and websites. Then, once they get to know us, they might consider buying our books and sharing our web address with friends.

Some writers fill their websites with writing tips and writing links. Not bad, but how does this help the bulk of an author's prospective readers who are certainly not also going to be writers?

Writers of nonfiction often have a built-in closet of information: articles, links, tips and links that spin off from their books. People come to their sites for information and discover their book is one of many sources they offer.

But what does a novelist give away. The websites of well-known writers don't offer anything to mimic, for they're posting nothing on their sites except a list of books, a tour schedule, and possibly an excerpt from time to time.

What does a novelist have to share other than "how I wrote the book," a subject which seems to really limit the appeal of the site to others who are also writing books.

This has been a hard marketing concept for me to put into practice.

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

I think you can learn a lot from the book tour. Which posts interest you the most? The ones about the book's contents or those about how the anthology was put together? Gear the information you put out to the things that interest you. After all, you are trying to attract like-minded people to read your books.

I like that, Shelagh. Hadn't thought about things that interest me so much as what would attract the most site visitors.

Malcolm

My video for Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine has been viewed over 1,700 times but I doubt it has produced a single sale. The video is popular because viewers are interested in me. The idea is to get people interested in the book. The video isn't a complete failure but it fails to sell books.

Here is an example of giving out information that produces an unexpected result. In 2004, I didn't even know how to set up a new topic on a forum so I asked the administrator to do it for me. He started a thread that has now received more than 8,600 views. Over the last four years, I have added information about my books and minor achievements (top ten finisher in P&E reader's poll etc.) to the thread.

A few weeks ago, a radio broadcaster, who had been following the discussion, asked me if I would be interested in the serialization of Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine. If I had not kept the thread going, the offer would not have been made. You have to create your own luck! You can read about the offer on the eleventh page of the thread:

http://forum.leylandtown.info/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=644&whichpage=11

Some people serialize their novel, or side stories of their characters on blogs. That may be a way to draw readers in who might then be interested to learn more about the characters and buy your book.

The title of your thread asks "...what...do you give away"?


My site is pretty simple, it has:

* A list of my books plus a short description.
* Links to where they can order them from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and my publisher (though they can be ordered all over).
* A short vague bio.
* Links to my other sites, my favorite sites, and a handful of fellow writers.

And that's about it.

Now when the book sales take off and I get my first movie deal ... I just may have to redo the site.

But for now it works for me.

When you mentioned not knowing hot to start a forum topic, Shelagh, Published Authors comes to mind now as something many of us never would have thought of setting up when we first started writing. Congrats on the serialisation, by the way.

JoElle, when the movie deal comes through, "your people" can re-do the website.

Malcolm

Malcolm I think one of the other things to consider would be giving away "stuff" like a contest -- Jock Stewart t-shirts or promotional items that reflect your brand as a writer. Some people just eat that stuff right up (or is that 'write up'). Hmm, this might be a really good idea. I think I need to start working on my writerly brand...


Shelagh - a serialisation - holy smokes, wow and congratulations!

Thanks Malcolm and Pam! If this comes off, you will be able to listen to it. I received an email two days ago and the project is still alive.

That is great, Shelagh. Congratulations and I'm glad it is still alive.

Being a poet and author, not only have I shared "how to write a book" offerings, but I post sample poetry. Some from the book and a portion not from the book. Some authors have posted some opening chapters from their book, as an enticement to get people to purchase their products. If you give it all away, then you reduce people's incentives to buy your book.

--Joe Breunig
http://www.squidoo.com/book-isbn-1419650513

I try to give away just enough to get their attention. One of the things I like about smashwords.com for those buying e-books is the fact it allows readers to look at the first chapter or so--just like we'd do in a bookstore.

Malcolm

When Simon and Schuster accepted my first book, I started a webpage (myname.com) with the book on it, a link to an excerpt plus a link to the book on Amazon.com. Plus a little link to email me.

After my book started to sell, I started getting email from fans, some asked the same questions over and over so I started a FAQ.

Four books later, my website has the current book on the front page, a link to my blog, a link to my page on the HWA website, a page for previous books, excerpts and some free stuff like discarded chapters from my books and the ever expanding FAQ.

I also link to sites like WritersBeat, my publisher, authors who have posted how-tos (John Scalzi, Lawrence Watt-Evans, PN Elrod, etc). I also put up links to warning about various writering/publishing scams because you can never have too much info about those things.

When I tour I have a link to the schedule.

For personal information, I put my name, the town I live in, marital status and my pets.

The only stuff I update is the current book and my blog. The FAQ is pretty set and the book tour I do when I have one (and I wont have one for a while, thankfully!)

Basically, I work on the theory that readers won't care about you as person until they read your book, or maybe after the second or third book. I have met many authors who share this philosophy, so I think I'm doing it right.

I don't see a link to your website. Does not advertising your website work for you?

Shelagh wrote:

I don't see a link to your website. Does not advertising your website work for you?

It works great, I just don't put the link here. See: Marie Pacha's treatment of cdemu for the reason why.

It's an odd paradox, I think, that self-published and small-press authors are always asked for personal information on their blog tour interviews when, if you're right (and I think you are), nobody cares about this stuff until they've followed an author's books for a while.

Malcolm

I know absolutely nothing about my favorite authors. I know something about some of the more notorious authors because movies were made about their lives or newspapers revealed their lifestyles. I never sought the information or cared. Today, curiosity and the availability of Internet info does lead me to look for some info; but it is secondary to the book - unless, obviously, it's an autobiography...