May I Have Your Attention, Please?

 Q: Do you set aside dedicated time to do promotion for your book and your brand? If so, how much time and what do you concentrate on? If not, why not?

-from Susan

 

Yes and no. I cop to a lack of focus, especially when it’s a promotional sphere I’m clueless about. The learning time takes up all the mental bandwidth I have at times, witness I was told I had to have an Instagram account and so now I do, but it’s anemic because I can’t figure out on my own how to use it and I’m too impatient to read the extensive how-to information available online. I’d rather be writing. I wish I could hire someone to do that for me, but it’s expensive. 

I focus more when a book is due to come out and when it has just been released. Dedicated time, sort of, although I feel pushed to keep writing the next book. I’m sketchy about specific times to do things, relying more on an hour here or there, or the demands of responding to a specific task. 

It wasn’t always thus. When my first book was in production in 2007, I got serious about ways to promote sales. Because that book, the first in the Dani O’Rourke series, was built around a professional fundraiser, I contacted my former colleagues in the business. I’d been a frequent speaker, panelist, article writer in the field, so I thought it was a no-brainer. So wrong. My outreach led to a few private launch events and book club sessions, for which I was grateful, but the non-profit community didn’t fall over itself to welcome back one of their own. I put together a launch party at my home indie bookstore and invited all my local friends. That worked and sent my spirits soaring. But it turned out my publisher sold mainly to libraries, so they weren’t interested in bookstore sales or promoting the book other than to librarians. For that series, I did what we all do over the years: website, blogs, guest blogs, “blog tours,” contests. Did it help sell books? I have no idea.

Time passed, and when a big five house contracted for a new series, I revved up, determined to make the most of the opportunity. Their publicist met with me and to her credit she got me the one item of publicity I told her I wanted most. The rest was up to me. I made contacts with bookstores, held launch events in different areas, reached put to my mailing list, did a few more book club events, took advantage of every Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America platform. By then, I had learned what we all know about conventions like Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, and Malice Domestic, and participated in everything they offered. My book sales weren’t great but I told myself I was “building visibility.” I reached mid-list status, but remain firmly rooted there.

 My granddaughter even pitched in!

When Covid hit, everything in-person vanished. Like everyone else, I had to concentrate on social media and zoom participation, and realized those formats work best to build my brand; that is, who is this writer and what are her strengths, passions, and interests as a writer of murder mysteries? Facebook and this blog became my primary ways of promoting my brand. I got invited to be a guest on several podcasts, in part because other authors and book reviewers were also casting about for ways to build their listener/viewer/reader visibility! We were and are all in this together. 

Truth is, I’m pretty haphazard, easily made glassy-eyed by technology, much prefer in-person connecting, and long for the old days when newspapers had regular book reviewers and had the staffs to interview local writers. I’m old school in a new world, but I’m trying to keep up. 

Meanwhile:

“The quirky village residents make this an appealing series debut… recommended for fans of M.L. Longworth, Martin Walker, and Serena Kent” – Library Journal