November 2008

A Stitch Here, A Stitch There: Tailoring Your Marketing To Fit You
by Brenna Lyons

Brenna Lyons wears many hats, sometimes all on the same day: former president of EPIC, author of more than 60 published works, teacher, editor, wife, mother... She's a member of ERWA, TELL, MWW and Broad Universe. In her first five years published in novel-length, she's been a finalist for 6 EPPIES (in five different categories), 3 PEARLS (including one HM, second to Angela Knight), and a Dream Realm Award. She's also taken Spinetingler's Book of the Year for 2007. Brenna writes milieu-heavy dark fiction, poetry, articles and essays. She teaches classes in everything from POV studies to advanced editing, networking to marketing.

It's a given that you have to promote your books... or more precisely brand yourself and attach books to it, as they come. There are a ton of articles that will tell you which conventions to hit, what sorts of physical promo gear to get, and so on. But there are a few things you don't want to forget.

Primary among them is that no single promotion will capture the attention of all readers, and marketing gurus claim that you need between ten and fifteen individual impressions of your book on a reader not already acquainted with you to make a sale. That means you need a wide range of promotional efforts that work together.

Secondary to that is the return on investment and your budgetary limitations. It is far too easy for an author to get into debt in an attempt to promote, and chances are the starting author isn't going to get a huge advance, if she gets one at all. That means your wide range of promotional efforts has to include some that are no- or low-cost alternatives.

What sorts of promotions are essential?

An author web page tops the list. A MySpace, Ning, Facebook or other community might be good for a start, but the web page or both web page and MySpace is preferable for any professional author, unpublished or published. It doesn't have to be expensive, as long as it's in place, easy to find, and gives readers a taste of you and your books.

But all marketing works together, and it can't end there and still make you your impressions to new readers. Ideally, all of your efforts should entice readers to other efforts you've made in a spider web effect. The web page and/or MySpace page is the center of your personal net, but it isn't the entirety of the web.

Beyond that line, an author needs to make choices that satisfy personal comfort zones, time limitations, money limitations, and personal strengths. Other priority promotions would include joining Yahoo groups and/or forums for readers and writers of your genre, having a full set of strong, representative blurbs prepared for your books, and using an eye-catching tag line (signature line) for posts.

Evaluate the lists/forums you choose to join with an eye to several things: number of members, volume of posts, and rules for self-promotion. That doesn't mean your sole purpose is to self-promote; far from it. You should discuss what the group is discussing, of course. If the group allows and it fits the discussion mentioning your own work is perfectly acceptable, and you always have your tag line.

These lists may also offer opportunities for author spotlights, announcements of new releases, interviews, and other promotional outlets you may want to take advantage of, for free or at a low cost.

Remember that it's not enough to have interviews and reviews. You have to use them. This is where the web turns back on itself and starts tying your efforts together. Use snips and links to the full on your web site and community pages. Talk about them on your blog. Use them in your tag line. Don't let them only attract the readers in the original venues; bring new readers to their venues to read what's there.

For many people, blogs are a natural next step, and blog communities like Blogger and Livejournal abound. In addition, many other communities, like MySpace and Amazon Connect, have associated blogs.

All professional articles you post should be fully fact-checked. Otherwise, you're just a hack with a blog and not the professional you proclaim yourself. While the core intent of a web page, MySpace, or personal blog is to give readers more of you, never forget that your readers are not your confidants. There are things to share and things to keep to yourself. Keeping several blogs on different communities and using the same or (preferably) similar posts on them will help your blog posts reach a larger audience without a large increase in workload.

Certain promotional efforts are thought of as the "publisher's job," including sending out a certain amount of review copies, but don't stop there. Find out where the publisher is sending them and pick a few more appropriate venues to hit. Readers who frequent review sites usually have one or two favorite sites, so having more review outlets (within reason) is a good move.

As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to do everything, but you should do as much as you are comfortable with. Some other ideas you might want to try would include:

1. Schedule yourself at online chat rooms, if you are comfortable with the chat environment. Arrange a buddy chat to build cross-readership with other authors and to ease you into the experience, if you're new to chats.
2. Use banner ads on your own site, review sites, and to cross-link with other authors.
3. Make a book trailer and place it on your communities and Youtube.
4. Make a video blog with a web cam and/or podcast you talking about your books or reading an excerpt and place it in the same places.
5. Place group ads in major magazines and on review sites, to make promotion affordable for the individuals and to affect cross-readership.
6. Cross-link with other authors, publishers, and review sites.
7. Issue free or low-cost press releases online, when your news is timely and of general interest.
8. Issue media releases to local media.
9. Have a media page and/or news page on your site.
10. Write articles for professional sites and magazines for the byline.
11. Write short stories for genre magazines for the exposure, even if the pay is less than you might otherwise accept. Remember, using the magazines to build your career doesn't end with the publication of your first book.
12. Submit review copies to magazines that will give you an announcement of release, even if they don't ultimately give you a review.
13. Offer free short stories or outtakes from your books as give-aways or contests, printed or online. Offer out-of-print books or the first book in a series, contract permitting, as an e-book giveaway for a short period of time.
14. Carry a copy of your book with you, especially at conventions.
15. Wear t-shirts for your books. Have a bumper sticker for them on your car. Carry a keychain. Any promo gear you carry with you is a plus. Note that this type of billboarding doesn't work well, if you are an erotic author in an intolerant area or your job depends on your personal anonymity or something similar. As I said, you don't have to do everything.
16. Carry extra promo gear with you and offer it to people who ask about your books. Even though paper promo isn't overly cost-effective, always have sign-ables with you, because some readers collect them.
17. Leave useful promo items like promo pens at bank machines, restaurants, etc. People may pick them up later and use them.
18. Start a street team. Send promo gear to carry/wear to readers and friends to billboard you in other areas of the country/world.
19. Start a card cult. Card-carrying members of some group associated with your book is fun... and not all that expensive.
20. Place local author or award-winning/bestselling author stickers on your bank cards, library cards, etc. It's a great conversation starter.
21. Wear your convention badge as a small purse.
22. Form a promo pack team with other authors. It will build cross-readership and give you a low-cost way to offer promo packs.
23. Trade promo gear with authors heading to conventions you aren't to increase your convention presence and theirs.
24. Donate something to promo baskets being given away at conventions or for charity events.
25. Donate a copy of your books to your local library with a local author sticker on them.
26. Get in on group author CDs.
27. Enter reasonable but respected contests.
28. Be sure to use the right keywords on your web site and other online communities.

Now, start planning your promotions with the following information.

What lists, forums, review sites and other online communities are the best fit for your books? Ask around on reader and author lists to flesh out your list.

What industry magazines and genre magazines would you like to associate with/submit to?

What are you most comfortable doing/capable of doing or trading favors to get someone else to do? Never underestimate trading favors to get (for instance) a banner ad made for you in exchange for something you can do in return.

Try to take on a cross-section of possible promotional efforts. Don't make all of your promos web pages and web communities. You'd be better served choosing some web communities, a blog, cross-linking, donations, a chat once a quarter, an interview...

In the end, the closer the weave of your promotional web, the better it will work for you, the better branded you will become, and the fewer impressions you'll need to accomplish the sales you want to accomplish with your time and money investments.