Promotion requires Promotion requires Promotion

Promotion requires Promotion requires Promotion
This is a strange concept but it is true.
New authors are caught in a perpetual cycle of the need for promotion.
First off the need to promote has to be promoted otherwise we would not know we need to promote our work and will never sell our books .
In order to promote our work we are told:

1. To set up a website (which also needs to be promoted).
2. Start a blog (which also needs to be promoted).
3. Create a book trailer (which also needs to be promoted).
4. Eventually if your fortunate enough do book signing's (which also needs to be promoted).
5. Get a facebook page (which also needs to be promoted).
6. Get on Twitter (which also needs to be promoted).

The point is to be successful we have to promote ourselves at every turn and more.
To do all this requires dedication and time that a writer often can’t spare.
Should we give up? No way!
Stubborn Persistence is needed. Use every means at your disposal.
To Quote Galaxy Quest : “ Never Give Up Never Surrender”.

It's a hard row to harrow, according to some school of thought. Mixing metaphors?

Promotion? LC doesn't do it. Oh, but she will -- as soon as her fiction story is accepted.

I would very much like to read about how one uses facebook and twitter to promote things. I had a twitter account, and couldn't see any point to it. I have a facebook account and rarely go there. I realize that I don't understand the inner workings of these social networking media. There are websites that discuss this. I'm looking at some of them now.

I'm with you there, Al. I have both with no tangible promotion results that I can measure anywhere. Twitter seems to benefit those who spam me...and I have all these "followers" that are selling things. I leave it up, but it's not useful for me. It seems like both are great for those with celebrity already....

Yes, that's the key, DK. Once you have a degree of fame, you can maintain public awareness through Twitter and Facebook.

Promoting and selling are much harder than writing. That is why I would like to see us promote each other.

This article might be of interest:


http://www.futurebook.net/content/author-kit-berry-how-she-got-book-deal-building-social-network

here's another

http://www.futurebook.net/content/case-study-how-and-why-i-sell-books-through-facebook-best-selling-author-owns

From one of Mike's links:

<< This is very different from people who just arrive and, rather clumsily try and use facebook just to sell books. Authors that do this are easy to spot. It’s a bit like a sledge hammer. I promote my books quite hard – I feature the covers and don’t hesitate to ask people to buy them. But this is only a small part of what I do there. Mainly I listen. If you get it wrong, even for a day, you soon notice as people vote with their virtual feet. >>

Seems to be spot-on. If you're going to use a site to spam and solicit, at least give people a reason to hang around.

mike bryon wrote:

This article might be of interest:


http://www.futurebook.net/content/author-kit-berry-how-she-got-book-deal-building-social-network

Interesting, Mike. The Published Authors Network has 1,601 members -- it will disappear on Monday September 6th along with all the other free Ning networks. However, the Published Authors Network on LinkedIn has 1414 members:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=84480&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Published Authors on Goodreads has 1,107 members:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8322.Published_Authors

Published Authors on Facebook has 901 members:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Published-Authors/347802583419?ref=sgm

The networks are all in place; now, I have to capitalise!

Speaking of self-promotion, this made me laugh:

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/02/2193570/young-fashionistas-make-a-statement.html

These kids are tapping into their peers' desire to see what everyone else has and buys (we have our own thread on that here, lol), getting lots of followers, and corporate attention and dollars as a result! Fabulous!

Maybe I should put together videos of our "What did you buy today?" and "What did you cook today" threads. There's money in them there threads!

dmondeo wrote:

Stubborn Persistence is needed. Use every means at your disposal.
To Quote Galaxy Quest : “ Never Give Up Never Surrender”.

Oscar-winning writer, Julian Fellowes, said: "Initially, I would write for nothing, but I know plenty of people who are successful without any talent and the one quality they all have is persistence."

Quote :

Maybe I should put together videos of our "What did you buy today?" and "What did you cook today" threads. There's money in them there threads!

That's no joke. If you study what are the most popular websites and threads, they all somehow tie into what most people are ultimately most interested in, and it's not highbrow stuff. Giant, busy forums are built around handbags (http://forum.purseblog.com/), TV -both watching it and laughing at it (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/)- food, decorating, hobbies. Same thing with books. The ones built around what people care about are the most successful.

“The networks are all in place; now, I have to capitalise!”

Shelagh, you may well have accomplished the hardest bit. Now you need to find the product. Why not go along to the next futurEbook meet and discuss it with them?
You can RSVP here http://twtvite.com/futurebookdrinks2

P.S. LC is 100% right!

I agree about our what we bought today column - and Shelagh is good at that trailer production business.

I just revised my web site at www.dkchristi.com but the trick is getting traffic to flow there...traffic that is interested in the type of book I write. Self-promotion is new for me, and I have been following every suggestion I get.

It still goes back to the ultimate hook - a celebrity endorsement. In the meantime, persistence is the "word."

I'd be delighted to have you check out the website, make recommendations, and feel free to join and add another bit to your promotion. The picture gallery is a good promotion spot...

Quote :

It still goes back to the ultimate hook - a celebrity endorsement.

I don't think celebrity endorsement or even being a celebrity is the ultimate hook. Just TALKING about celebrities will do it. Hugely popular websites -Perez Hilton, PopEater, Lemondrop- just dish about celebrities. Who was Perez Hilton (a stage name, no relation to the Hilton family) before his site took off? Combine celebrity worship with handbags and you have The Purse Forum, which Sitemeter often lists as one of its most popular sites.

mike bryon wrote:

“The networks are all in place; now, I have to capitalise!”

Shelagh, you may well have accomplished the hardest bit. Now you need to find the product. Why not go along to the next futurEbook meet and discuss it with them?
You can RSVP here http://twtvite.com/futurebookdrinks2

Thanks Mike! I'll follow up the lead.

When I can find the time (26 hour days?) I'll set up the videos for the two threads.

"...really, I don't have to promote anything at all..." ventured the goblin now, adding "...but I do have to find those forums that can advance my writing where more and more readers are turning up on this forumland here, for I would have thought that once one is widely known across forumland for interesting posts, then ones readership base was secure, moreover, if one knows the direction the wind is blowing in, if you yourselves, along with everyone else in this busy internet age, are reading less books than one once did that is, then wouldn't it be wise to adjust to here then, rather that trying to call readers towards your stuff by way of links and promotions...", in fact, the goblin never forgot when alice posted "why are you just reading, you're writers, write something" for it was actually true, adding "...ah, but don't expect the reader to go to your blog, no your blog has to come to the reader here, conquer forumland is all I am suggesting, the rest becomes plain sailing..."

Dear Goblin, that's a very awesome picture...

Shouldn't it be plane sailing? Or castles?

"...I suppose the question is really whether one can become known by ones posts alone..." replied the goblin now, adding "...perhaps, perhaps not, does it matter, for I'll still have my "journey to self" to fall back on, but you and I are here because we want to feed on content in a live context, so ask me what I read and my answer is "why you of course", and ask anyone out there what they want to read and they'll reply "why great posts of course" but don't I already know that you are reading this here where my goal is just to get more of you to do so now, simply I am the creature that you have created with your replies now, for I am a livewriter who feeds on forumland..."

Quote :

Dear Goblin, that's a very awesome picture...

"...thanks, I just go though hundreds of pictures on photobucket, so that now, whenever I do a post, some picture usually springs to mind, other times I have to go back through the albums again, and still other times I just give up and place everything in brackets, conversely, if I had never done this, then this ability wouldn't have come, but by now I am really glad I did because of the illustrator's eye, like ones posts in general improves with practice not so much for the reader here but for the one that does it..."