Criminal Minds

Terry here, talking about the business of promotion: 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? 

 Oh, how I wish I did. It seems like the professional thing to do. Instead, for me book promo is a chore I’ll do almost anything to avoid. It wasn’t always that way. At one time I felt inventive, excited about promoting my books, exhilarated even. I felt as if my publisher appreciated everything I did, and was willing to help any way they could. 

Then two things happened: My publisher sold out to another company, and after a few months of seeing how the new owner operated, I began to feel orphaned. Because of his “different” business practices, I felt unvalued as a writer. Eventually I left the publisher. Then it got worse. He refused to return the rights to my book, except at an exorbitant cost. So I fell into a resentful mode, feeling like if I spent money on promotion, it was money that simply went into the hands of someone who didn’t value me. 

To make matters worse Covid struck and I began to feel marooned. Always in the past I’d been able to go conferences and discuss matters with other authors, maybe getting some perspective and reorienting myself if things weren’t going well. Plus, with things shut own, there were no personal appearances, which I had always loved. I was willing to spend the money to go on book tour because it was a great way to meet readers and booksellers, and promote my books. 

Without this, I began to withdraw from my previous excitement about promotion. The publishing business in general seemed to undergo a lot of upheaval during Covid as well, so my search for a new publisher hit a snag. I went ahead and wrote the next book in my series, but without a publisher, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. 

Finally, as Covid began to wane, my agent connected me with Severn House, a publisher that readily takes on “broken” series—series that for one reason or another is no longer with their original publisher. And I love SH. They produce a really nice book with good covers and great editing. But their business practices are taking a bit of getting used to. They have a “no return” policy on their hardcover books, which means bookstores are reluctant to hold events for an author with a new book out.

Now, I’m learning that there are ways to deal with this, and it’s time to get back into some promo. I have a paperback coming out in June and the return policy is better, so I plan to hold some events at bookstores and libraries. 

But hold the phone! During all this upheaval, we moved from Northern California to Southern California. In Northern California, I’d established myself with several bookstores so I had only to ask in order to be supported with book events. 

Now I’m starting from scratch, with bookstores and libraries I have no history with. That’s where this week’s question comes in: Do I set aside time to do promotion? No, And I need to start setting aside time to do that. In the past few months here’s what I’ve done: I’ve spent money on bookmarks and pens, handing them out at every possible event. Done some advertising in magazines and conference handouts. Participated in two book festivals—Tucson and Los Angeles. But there’s a lot more I can do: 

Remembering that the important thing is to keep my name active out in the world of mysteries, here are some of the things I plan to do: 

I need to team up with authors in Socal who have books coming out so we can do some bookstore and library events together. 

Research advertising on-line, and in social media and through my newsletter. Volunteer to write blogs on popular sites. 

Contact people who have podcasts, to host me when my next book comes out in the fall. 

Look into how to use You Tube as a promotional tool. Find out how to get book clubs interested in reading my books. 

 To do all this, or at least some of it, I’ll need to start setting aside time for it. The haphazard approach isn’t good enough. And in keeping with promotion, I have a big reveal: Severn House has just decided on the book cover for my next Samuel Craddock book, out in the fall:

Bulletin: Promophobia won an Agatha!! I have an essay in the book, and it's chock full of advice about promoting your work.