This week there has been a lot of interest and discussion around the internet on author self promotion.
Writers always struggle with self promotion. If your typical writer is an introvert type then your typical marketer is an extrovert type. As writers we are encouraged to have an online presence and be Google searchable. We must be actively promoting our books as publishing companies are not going to do this unless you are a 6 figure income author.
Increasingly the word around the web is that the big names get promoted, the midlist has to do their own promotion and debut authors have only the one book to make an impact. Bob Mayer had an excellent post which I linked to last week on what to do about this.
Children’s writers have a harder struggle with self promotion. Who do they promote to? Their readers are not the buyers of the books. If you have an online presence who is it being aimed at? Most children’s writers stick to a static web page with biographical information for children’s book reports and information about their books. Some writers develop teacher pages with teaching notes to support their books. This is a sort of ‘build-it-and-they-will-come’ mentality. However many writers are finding this is not enough and they have to engage with the community...and we’re back to who is the community the children’s writer has to engage with?
Janice Hardy has an excellent article addressing this for mid grade writers. If you are a children’s writer this is a must read. Janice has identified the ‘Influencers’ that a children’s writer must be aware of and cater to.
Nathan Bransford has been struggling with the self promotion part of being a children’s writer now that he has crossed over to the other side of the desk. Nathan has a very popular blog and his community (his readers) is made up of writers from all over the writing spectrum.
Nathan tried to promote his book on his blog and found that it was not the success he had hoped for. This led Laura Pauling to write a wonderful article on Nathan’s problem and what he could do better. The comments are especially good as the top children’s writer bloggers have all weighed in to discuss the tricky art of self promotion.
Jody Hedlund has a great article on author marketing and who it is for...not the author.
CopyBlogger takes a hard hitting approach to online marketing...some tips in there for writers and Tony Eldridge has gathered a list of his top ten marketing posts for authors.
The wonderful Writer Unboxed has a list of the 5 Must Do Book Publicity tips...starting from 6 months out...
In the craft section,
Julie Musil takes a look at why Jodi Piccoult is a best seller (news today from Publishers Weekly Jodi is writing a YA with her daughter.)
Taleist takes a look at mind mapping and how Authors can use this tool and Passwordincorrect has a nifty new way to make ebook covers.
Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on
Supporting Indie Bookstores WinWin...( this is a great article, go here if the button is broken)
26 Tips for Using Images To Engage...tips for websites and fan pages
12 Easy Tips for Making A Viral Video Trailer (takes the hard work out of researching)
Google ebooks Lands Pottermore
To finish,
Self publishing coach has a top ten list of blogs to follow for authors...these are all related to marketing in some way...whether it is Joe Konrath talking about why to do it to Bookbuzzr telling you how to do it...
If you are wondering whether all the above relates to the principles of marketing... David Meerman Scott has taken a close look at the 4 P’s of marketing and discovered that in this new digital age...they are broken.
The FaBo team are still going strong and letting the current genre (Horror) have a few weeks more because of the holidays...In the sidebar there is a nifty little note to the kids about new books from the team that they might be interested in...a subtle kind of marketing...
I’d love to be able to scream buy my new book (long story)...but I’ll have to settle for Buy The FaBo Teams New Books - they will be very good and Christmas is coming up...
maureen
