Maintaining a Consistent Web Presence Will Increase Sales

According to Wikipedia, 2009 saw 288,355 books published in the United States alone. 558 feature films were released in North America. 1,099 video games were published. Roughly 15,000 TV channels broadcast programming worldwide. And that's not even touching the wide variety and ridiculously huge amount of entertainment the internet provides.

In order for your work to stand out amidst everything clamoring for our attention, you need to be putting yourself out there in as many different ways as possible. Blog. Use Facebook and Twitter. Record podcasts. Start a YouTube channel. Any and all of these things can be important to helping you achieve brand recognition (you being the brand).

But think very carefully before you overextend yourself, because potential fans value consistency and dependability. If you create any of these things and fail to "feed the beast," as it were, you're likely to end up with disgruntled readers or subscribers who stop trusting in you, which will probably lose you fans and hurt your sales over time.

Basically, if you're going to start something, you need to maintain it. Frequently. If you have a website with a blog, be sure to update it several times a week, and always respond to comments to keep the conversation going and personally interact with readers. Facebook and Twitter accounts should be maintained daily, if possible, both by posting content on your page and responding to people. And things like podcasts or YouTube channels should receive new content as fast as you are able to produce it.

Now, this isn't meant to discourage you about using any of these marketing tools. Used properly and consistently, they will absolutely work to your benefit, growing your fanbase and web presence, which will, in turn, increase your book sales. All I'm saying is to look before you leap, and think realistically about how much time you'll need to maintain your web presence while still going about your daily life and finding time to write the novels that you're doing all this for anyway. Make a schedule for yourself and follow it just like you would a regular job. Plan ahead for future posts, tweets, and so on when you find yourself with extra time. And always remember that the people following you and buying your books are your "employer," and your job is to make them want more of you.