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A question of promotion
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Patti (baconater) wrote: "So, I've just spent the past couple hours nosing through the group, tidying and suchlike and I noticed something interesting.Some authors post promos in first person and some in third person.
Wh..."
I always try to do them in second person. "You wrote this book, now read it!" Hasn't been very effective, I'll admit.
Have I got my persons confused?
First person, every time thank you
Patti agrees with you, Rosemary.
I'm with Rosemary on this.Far nicer to say 'I've just published my new book Blah', then 'Lynda Wilcox's new book, Blah', I think.
I tend to mix it up a bit. I'm doing more third person stuff with my latest as I'm only the translator, I want to play down my role a bit and leave Casanova at the forefront of people's minds.
Missed the second paragraph there, as a reader I definitely prefer the first person (apart from the cover blurb, of course).
When promoting something I've created, 1st person. Only reason to use 3rd, as far as I can see, is if you want to give the impression that it's someone else promoting it for you.
The blurb notwithstanding, I always go for the first person. What I like about Goodreads is it allows me as a reader to connect directly with authors and vice versa. By using a third person approach this completely destroys this benefit (unless you're the author's publisher, natch) and comes across as being a bit pompous.
1st person - I read it, I write it :)
And another thing....In terms of promotion do other people find that they get a response from fly posting releases, both from a sales perspective as an author and emotionally as a reader? When I first joined Goodreads last April I immediately fell into the trap of hawking my wares across multiple groups etc with muted response both in replies and sales. It was also a pretty unfulfilling exercise for me as it was such a one way affair.
Sales and interest started to pick up though once I gave up actually trying to flog my jumble of words and just had a good old chit chat with the lovely collective (especially here, natch). Coincidence or not? Dunno but certainly much more fun than being the literary equivalent of someone shoving take away menus through letter boxes.
As a reader I like first person. It's your book and I want to know about you, and what you've written - and maybe even why.I'm pretty new to writing but the only 2 groups in which I've actively promoted are those where I'm known anyway and if I started saying 'Kath Middleton has written...' they'd all think I'd gone poncy and posh on them. Like that'd work!
It's interesting. I've done my 'about this author' bit on Goodreads in the first person, 'Old enough to know better and young enough not to care. I'm married with a wife and three daughters.'But on my Amazon author page I've used the third person, 'Jim Webster is probably fifty something, his tastes in music are eclectic, and his dress sense is rarely discussed in polite society. In spite of this he has a wife and three daughters.'
I haven't a clue now why I did it like that, perhaps I felt that self deprecating humour can work better in the third person?
But generally in promotion I think I use the first person, but wouldn't be surprised if there's examples out there which prove me wrong :-)
I think my author page things are third person - because someone else wrote them for me! :)
Same here! My author page was also written for me, but I must confess that had I penned it I would have opted for the third person perspective.
Hey, if it's good enough for Julius Caesar...
In my case, it depends - more often than not - where I've cut and pasted it from, I think.Here, this group, I'd probably go for the 1st person. But in 'customer-facing' biogs and all that I think 3rd is better because 1st can appear a bit creepy, oleaginous, over-familiar.
But then, I am a weird unsociable old git.
Andy wrote: "You're not that old, David."Burn! Hehehe
Andy wrote: "You're not that old, David."Oh, but I am. I've been 97 ever since I was sixteen.
Well I'm an old blues man
And I think that you understand
I've been singing the blues ever since the world began.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Andy wrote: "You're not that old, David."Burn! Hehehe"
?
You're too old to get it, David.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "You're too old to get it, David."Oh, is it something you youngsters say, probably something about those popular beat combos you do all that jiving to, or something like that, I suppose.
I was young, once - I didn't like it.
My author page is 3rd person, cos it's formal. But if I post stuff in my thread, then it's generally 1st person, cos it's me chatting. Unless it's a quote or sommat.We gonna get a February book pics section?
Not if Simon doesn't pull his thumb out, Tim.
He probably thinks his thumb is all that stands between Biggleswade and major flooding...
Some authors post promos in first person and some in third person.
Which do you lot feel is most effective?
Personally, given the nature of our group, posting a promo in the first person would be better. Third person seems to insert a barrier between the author and potential readers, I think.
Of course, I'm willing to amend my view if the argument for third person is strong enough...