Hawking My Wares
It's no secret among my friends that I am terrible at promotion. Really. I stink! I'm just not very comfortable with talking about my books. I think it stems from the fear of coming across as one of those writers. You know the ones I'm talking about, right? Every Facebook status update, every Tweet, every visit to a forum is a link to their new book or an excerpt or whatever. That's not a great promotional strategy because it annoys readers.
I finally (yes, finally!) got around to making a Facebook page and a fan page. I make sure my blog updates to my page so readers don't have to visit multiple places for info. I have a Twitter account (@lowriter)…but I've never used it. I just don't get Twitter. I keep telling myself I'll figure it out some weekend but I haven't yet.
I typically have a signature linked to my website and use one of my book covers as an avatar on the various boards I frequent. Romance Divas, Kindle Boards, etc. I used to have a signature on Absolute Write but I nixed that after I received some really horrible emails and blog comments last year. I'd made a comment about my experience with a certain publisher (nothing evil, just a sales #) and I guess it ticked off a couple of writers. I don't need that kind of drama so the signature went away and I don't link my AW ID to Lolita.
In the past, I've tried purchasing banner or cover ads on some of the bigger review sites in the romance and erotic romance community. I didn't get much of a return on my investment. One or two ads led to a small uptick in sales but nothing to write home about, you know?
In my experience, the publisher of the books or the genre drives sales more than advertising, networking and promo. That may be changing now that more and more writers are going the self-pub route and ebooks are reaching a wider audience. I've noticed with a few of my books that my third party sales are skyrocketing and eclipsing my publisher direct (i.e. Ellora's Cave or Samhain) sales.
So I'm going to try and figure out this promotion thing. My plan is to study the writers I know who successfully promote. No reason in reinventing the wheel, you know? I have a feeling it's going to require me to go outside my comfort zone but that's okay! Growing and changing is part of life, right?
