Promotion? You bet!

 

Terry here, with our question of the week: As writers, we are often told that promotion – publicity and marketing – is half the game. Are you aware of other writers’ promo influencing you? 

 That’s a resounding yes! I often get notifications through Facebook or newsletters or book sites of new books that come out, and those notifications can persuade me to buy the book. There are a number of factors that go into the decision: 

 The name of the author. If it’s an author I’ve read and enjoyed before, I’ll either buy it at the moment or put it on my “To Buy” list, often without paying attention to any other identifying information about the book. 

 The cover. The cover isn’t a deal breaker or maker, but a good cover may mean the difference in whether I slip by an ad or pause. 

 The name of the book. The name can tell me a lot about whether it’s a book that will be interesting to me. I don’t read a lot of cozies, so if the name is “The Muffin Lady and Her Cat Solve a Mystery,” I’ll most likely slip on by—unless #1 and #2 grab me. In other words if it’s a cozy author I’ve read and enjoyed and/or the cover is appealing, I might dip into it. Same goes for thrillers. I like thrillers, but am put off by, “The Extraordinarily Brilliant and Buff Amateur Spy.” 

 Tag line or description. I usually don’t read the description, because I don’t like spoilers, and I like to dip into a book without knowing much about it. But a good tag line can catch my interest. Something like, “The year is 2037. Welcome to Earth+” (Past Crimes, Jason Pinter), “Sex, Thugs, and Rock-n-Roll” (Go Down Hard, Craig Faustus Buck), “A Wilderness Retreat Gone Wrong” (There and Back, Eric Beetner).

 Blurbs. This is very iffy. Depends on who is doing the blurb and what it says. We all know there are authors who will blurb anyone who asks them, so their blurbs don’t count for much. And there are stock phrases that show up in blurbs that don't mena much. But I might glance at the blurbs for anything that stands out. 

 The sub-genre. I’m not exactly picky, but I’ll have to think about these: 

     Paranormal—unless it’s an author I am familiar with or it has been recommended by a punchy blurb by a writer I’m familiar with 

     Horror—I just don’t read much horror, although I have been surprised a few times. 

     War Novels—I mean novels that focus on war itself, not the characters 

     Cozies—there are some I really enjoy, but I’m selective. 

 I’m always interested in how authors successfully promote their work.

As publishers take less of a role in promotion, it’s up to authors to take up the slack. That means having to do the job monetarily as well as taking the time to do it. Authors generally don’t like promotion and marketing. I certainly don’t. I’d rather be writing my next book. But it’s a fact of life and I admire those who manage to do it well. 

I get a lot of newsletters, and a few of them sometimes grab me. I envy some author’s ability to make me feel as if I’m part of their world and that they are simply reminding me that they have a book out. 

But they don’t have to be friendly to sell me a book. Some people get aggravated if they only hear from an author on social media if the author has a new book out. But I don’t mind straight-up promotion. It’s part of the author’s job. I don’t have to be subtly enticed to read someone’s work by having them try to be my best friend. Just tell me you have a book out and show me the cover. I’ll take it from there. 

 Still, I know that there are clever ways of promoting books that really work. Now if I just knew what they were…. 

 So, in the spirit of this blog, I'm announcing that my newest book, a domestic suspense novel, is out next week, my first attempt at publishing my own book. It has been a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I like the result. Now….to do the promotion, here's the cover: