Promo: What Works and What Doesn't

On Saturday morning at the Lori Foster Reader Author Get Together, I attended a workshop held by Jenn Stark. It was about promotion for authors, what works and what doesn't? It was based off of her own previous knowledge as well as a survey she passed out the night before. The survey had 205 responses. 103 of those identified themselves as readers. 27 said they were authors, and 75 said they were both readers and authors. Though, to be honest, I think most authors are likely readers as well…

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The top three things that readers (pure readers, not authors) identified with helping them buy books were (in order top to bottom) were: contests, free books, newsletter/email promo, and excerpts online or picked up at a signing.

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For authors (both straight authors and reader/authors): excerpts, free books, and blogs.

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If you added them all together, you would have gotten number one as excerpts. Number two as contests, and the third top reason people bought books was Newsletters.

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This was honestly a little shocking to me. I was under the impression that giving away books doesn't actually help people buy more of your work. (Though I still do it, just because I like having fun that way!) I wasn't shocked that writers picked the excerpt first.

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What doesn't work? For readers, they said: virtual book signings, special features online (such as "behind the book" things and spin-off areas on the site) and direct mail (such as mailing post cards, bookmarks, etc.).

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None of that was a huge surprise to me, I suppose. Your typical reader isn't going to be aware of virtual book signings or other virtual promo past your blog and website. And while post cards and bookmarks are fun to look at, I don't know how long they last in anybody's home before they get lost or destroyed.

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So with all that said…how do readers find new authors? As in, they've never read the author before, so they have no idea what to expect, but they'll give it a try. For everyone, the number one way, overwhelmingly, was to have the book or author recommended from a friend that you trust. Someone you know, such as a friend, or someone online that you have trusted before because you know you have similar taste.

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What doesn't work to find new authors? Advertisements by the author and the author holding workshops or seminars.

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Other things that people wrote into the comment boxes and that kept appearing over and over included: Amazon recommendations ("If you like this book, then you might like…"), Goodreads, brick & mortar bookstores with their "coming soon" promo, cover blurbs/cover quotes written by authors you already know, and "buzz."

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Buzz is a big one we see more and more these days as the internet grows and we get things fast. Things can explode on Twitter at the speed of light. A recent buzz that I recall was The Iron Duke. That book was everywhere, everyone was talking about it, and you couldn't ignore the name. I don't really read the genre, and even I was looking it up to see more about it because I'd heard so much.

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We also talked about how to handle bad press. There was mention of a certain self-published author who behaved badly due to a sort of negative review, and the entire thing was all over the internet within an hour. If that. It exploded. Not in a good, buzz-worthy way.

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That was the Promo: What works and what doesn't? workshop. I hope you come back tomorrow to see what I learned from Sue Grimshaw, who used to be the buyer for Borders but now works for Random House. She was extremely knowledgeable and sweet and lovely. So pop back by tomorrow to find out what she had to say!