Marketing Tips and Advice from Danica Favorite

This summer, take a step back and focus on what you really need to do on Goodreads and in your writing career. As we’re getting ready to attend this year’s Romance Writers of America conference in Orlando, we asked Danica Favorite, author of Rocky Mountain Dreams and community host of the Harlequin.com, about her tips to interacting on Goodreads, balancing work life, family life, and writing life, and advice about attending the conference for the first time.

Let’s start simple: tell us about what you love most about Goodreads!

I love the chance to interact with readers, especially those I may not see otherwise.

What’s your approach to using the site as an author?

I’m still playing around with it in a lot of ways. I do not seek out reviews of my books, and I try hard not to read them. A good review will make you feel good, but a bad review makes you feel awful. It’s not a good idea to engage with reviewers, so I try to ignore that part completely. I participate in groups relevant to my books, Q&A’s, and interact with people on my page.

What have you learned in your role running the online community for Harlequin.com?

People really enjoy the opportunity to interact with authors. They still have their fan moments; it’s special to them when an author takes the time to say “Hi.” We authors forget how much that means to readers, and what to us is a passing comment is something they treasure for a long time. Sometimes that doesn’t translate to an immediate sale, but I’ve seen the community relationships turn into fandoms for life.

People remember that you took the time to get to know them and interact with them, so down the road, that translates to someone who’s always going to be talking about your books and how great you are, which does lead to more sales. That said, it will be quite clear if all you do is come around to pimp your book. Make sure you’re also working to participate in conversations, not just talk about about your latest release.

With so many ways of connecting now, it’s important to make sure you’re letting people know you have an event (even an online Q&A) in as many ways and places as possible, and asking your friends to do the same. I think we’re afraid of annoying people, with so many others out there posting cute puppy pictures, interesting articles, funny memes, etc., our message to come to our fun event or buy our books gets lost.

What is your favorite area of the site to explore on Goodreads?

I really like the groups and being able to see what people are talking about and participate in conversations.

Check out the Harlequin group on Goodreads!

What advice can you share with busy authors about online marketing? Having a plan is important, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed. I work full time, have crazy busy kids, and I write! After spending all day promoting everyone else’s books, the last thing I want to do is promote my own (and to be honest, promoting myself is harder than promoting others).

The only way I get anything done promo-wise is to put doing it on my calendar. I don’t always succeed or pull off my marketing perfectly, but doing something, even if it’s not perfect, is better than doing nothing. Sit down once a week, or every other week, and plan out what you’re going to do for that week.

There are a lot of great apps like Hootsuite that can help you schedule all your posts across all platforms, and BAM! You don’t have to think about it for another week or however long you choose. Then, you take 10-15 minutes every day to respond to comments and comment on other people’s tweets or posts or whatnot. If you want to be more active, you can do it in a morning chunk, afternoon chunk, and evening chunk.

Any tips for navigating the RWA conference for the first time?

Pace yourself. Get the recordings and take a nap when you get tired. I schedule promotion, I also schedule naps! Even though you paid a lot of money to be there, resist the temptation to do everything. Identify a few things you really need to attend, and save the rest for the recordings

Danica will be joining Goodreads and Harlequin on panel at RWA on Friday, July 28. Read more about it here and make it your One Thing at the conference if you are attending.

Questions for Danica? Leave them for her in the comments below!


Next: The Five Readers You Meet in Publishing

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