Lucille Montague
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi, my name is Lucille Montague & I have 2 books self published through KDP/Amazon and I’m not getting many sales. My question is; did you hire a book marketing company to market your work & if so how does it work? Thanks for your help.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have a 40-year traditional publishing career behind me, which did my marketing for me, pretty much. So I'm not the best person to answer this question. I have no idea how such things work, but I'd be very cautious of claims from would-be book marketers, or anyone else who is making their money from you and not from your book (as a publisher does.) There are simply too many ebooks competing for too few eyes, too little reading time.
This is the internet age, so there have to be a million self-help sites and vids out there; the problem is finding a legitimate and actually useful one. Kristine Katherine Rusch's blog is a good known starting point for experienced advice. https://kriswrites.com/ Another more recent presenter I ran across who impressed me with being pretty level-headed was YouTuber M.K. Williams, ferex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LsqE...
But ultimately, books have to sell themselves, be appealing enough to enough readers to keep them coming back for more, and recommending them on to their friends. This requires a) writing enjoyable or useful books, and b) writing more books to come back for. As a rule of thumb, both pre- and post-internet, a writer is better off directing their limited time-energy budget toward producing new quality work than various frantic or annoying attempts at marketing.
An error I saw in the early days of the internet egoldrush with respect to b) was writers throwing all kinds of old crap up just to have more items to catch the eye, ultimately counterproductive. Every book put up needs to be good enough to bring its random reader back for more, because that may be the only chance to snag that readerly eye the writer gets. (The hitch in this plausible advice is the definition of "good", which in reading is very subjective. Understanding this has allowed quite a few indie writers to do well in their own quirky niche markets that Big Publishing is not structured to serve.)
If any commenters do have actual experience with modern book marketers, or "marketers" as the case may be, good or bad, do chime in down below. It strikes me as an arena that would be rife with scamming pitfalls.
Ta, L.
I have a 40-year traditional publishing career behind me, which did my marketing for me, pretty much. So I'm not the best person to answer this question. I have no idea how such things work, but I'd be very cautious of claims from would-be book marketers, or anyone else who is making their money from you and not from your book (as a publisher does.) There are simply too many ebooks competing for too few eyes, too little reading time.
This is the internet age, so there have to be a million self-help sites and vids out there; the problem is finding a legitimate and actually useful one. Kristine Katherine Rusch's blog is a good known starting point for experienced advice. https://kriswrites.com/ Another more recent presenter I ran across who impressed me with being pretty level-headed was YouTuber M.K. Williams, ferex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LsqE...
But ultimately, books have to sell themselves, be appealing enough to enough readers to keep them coming back for more, and recommending them on to their friends. This requires a) writing enjoyable or useful books, and b) writing more books to come back for. As a rule of thumb, both pre- and post-internet, a writer is better off directing their limited time-energy budget toward producing new quality work than various frantic or annoying attempts at marketing.
An error I saw in the early days of the internet egoldrush with respect to b) was writers throwing all kinds of old crap up just to have more items to catch the eye, ultimately counterproductive. Every book put up needs to be good enough to bring its random reader back for more, because that may be the only chance to snag that readerly eye the writer gets. (The hitch in this plausible advice is the definition of "good", which in reading is very subjective. Understanding this has allowed quite a few indie writers to do well in their own quirky niche markets that Big Publishing is not structured to serve.)
If any commenters do have actual experience with modern book marketers, or "marketers" as the case may be, good or bad, do chime in down below. It strikes me as an arena that would be rife with scamming pitfalls.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Steven Sarafian
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I read e-books on an iPad and mostly get them from iBooks. The indications of genre in 'Library' view are all over the place: "Penric's Demon" is labeled 'Historical', "Penric's Mission" and "Paladin of Souls" 'Epic', "The Curse of Chalion" 'Paranormal'. Of course many others are better labeled. I suppose that you are not the decider, but do you have any influence? And who does decide?
Seantheaussie
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
“A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.” Count Aral Vorkosigan. I have loved this insightful quote for decades, is it completely your creation or have you paraphrased from somewhere? I am betting on either, "Did I write that?" or, "Way too long ago to remember."
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