Marketing remains more mystery than science to me. So whenever I see an article on how to promote better I read avidly. Last month Josh Lanyon posted about simple and free ways writers can market themselves here. Since he's obviously an expert on promotion, I soaked up his words of wisdom.
Alas, I found his excellent advice a tad difficult to follow.
Tip number one: become a regular reader and commenter on popular blogs.
Sounds great, but then reading on I learned the efficacy of this method depends upon being witty and clever. Due to severe limitations on my attention span and energy level, I reserve all my best thinking time for creative writing. Sadly,there's nothing left over for clever blog comments.
Tip number two: write an article for a webzine or popular blog on a topic you know well.
At first glance this advice seemed more promising. After all I do write and there are a couple of subjects where I have some small expertise. Upon further reflection, I fail to see how articles on my specialties: accounting; finance; domestic arts; and how not to train a dog, would further my erotic romance writing ambitions.
Tip number three: use an email address that matches your pen name.
Oh dear, I was supposed to have a pen name? Is there a remedial marketing class?
Tip number four: give away books.
I'm fairly sure my contracts prohibit doing this in anything like useful quantities. Buying my own titles and then giving them away would result in negative income. Plus, the book pirates are doing a fine job of this with absolutely no cost and no effort on my part. But Josh knows marketing. I'm still trying to figure out how to implement his fine idea.
Tip number five: post excerpts.
Thank goodness there's one surefire method I can adopt without qualms!
Bonus tip number six: (from me) Write lots of wonderful stories.
While he didn''t mention the last strategy specifically, it has been working brilliantly for Mr. Lanyon, check out his backlist!
Feb 18, 2011
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3 comments:
Bonus tip number six: (from me) Write lots of wonderful stories.
The problem with that piece of advice is every writer earnestly believes they already DO. :-D
Fun post. Thanks for the rec!
You may well be right about those other writers. But you really do. :D
I read Josh's article about marketing too and have been attempting to take his advice. Josh is very successful and if it works for him it will work for the rest of us with time and effort.
I also have a small time, engergy and wit for blogs, but you have to try. I suspect most readers here on this blog are writers and it's the readers we want to reach. But this is a good place to practice.
I did take the advice of giving books away. I think we are allowed to do it here and there especialy to review sites.
A few months ago, being extremely angry about the pirating issue, I asked Josh's advice and he sent me a great email that set my mind at rest and made me less annoyed about it all.
Evanne Lorraine? That is your real name? It's very unusual so don't worry about a pen name. The idea is to stand out and your name does that already.
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