Promo Puzzle

 

Terry here, with our doozy of a question for this week: What is the best money you ever spent on promotion and marketing? Travel for bookstore reading events? Advertising? (If so, where—in a conference program book? Newspaper? Social media? Amazon)? Giveaways? A “discovery” website like BookBub or Fresh Fiction? 

 Promotion is so hit and miss that it hardly seems possible to figure it out. Gone are the days when publishers routinely promoted their authors—maybe by helping pay for an ad or buying bookmarks. Or even, heaven forbid, helping to arrange a book tour. I look on with envy at those top tier authors whose publishers organize a book tour. And with absolute raging jealousy at those whose publishers actually pay for the expense of the tour. Not that I begrudge them, mind you. I mean I just wish we all could get those perks. 

Still, I have had some enjoyable promotional experiences. Probably my all-time favorite was when I stopped in at a local wine store and started chatting with the owner. She found out I was an author and asked if I might like to do an event at the store. I wrote a proposal, she accepted and it was a rousing success. I had a local bookseller come to sell the books and she sold out the forty copies she’d brought. I had arranged to give a ticket to each attendee for one glass of wine each. The store sold so many cases of wine that she simply opened up the bar for “seconds.” Not only was it a rousing commercial success, but it was great fun. 

On the other end of the spectrum, an Eileen Fisher clothing store asked if I’d like to do an afternoon “stop by and talk to the author” event. It was a dud. People came in to buy clothes and seemed confused about why an author was standing there with a pile of books. Not that they minded partaking of the wine and cheese the store had provided! 

So, it’s really hard to tell what’s going to work. 

The most common events, of course, are bookstore readings. And Covid threw a big wrench in those. Before Covid, I routinely went to bookstores not only in Texas and California, but in other states in between where I knew people who could help by bringing in readers and book buyers. 

It was a grand old time, even though occasionally no one would show up. I knew that was always a possible. 

When I was a new author, it seemed like anything I spent on promo was “worth it.” Hop on a plane and go from place to place reading at bookstores? Great! Buying promotional items like pens, little flashlights, bookmarks? Yes! Buying ads on Amazon or Facebook? Sounds good to me. BookBub? You bet! Fresh Fiction? Sure. I loved talking in front of people. Giving away swag was fun! Ads seemed smart. I was selling books, I was welcomed by bookstores, I arranged to read with other authors. I was invited to be on panels at Book Festivals. I was flying high. 

It barely entered my excited “new author brain” that most of the money I spent was going in to the pocket of my publisher. And that I was spending a lot more on promotion than I was getting back in royalties. And I was a little spoiled because although my first publisher didn’t spend money on my travel, they paid for bookmarks, they promoted my appearances, and they brainstormed with me about how to promote the books. Plus, my books were carried by Penguin-Random House, and their local rep got me all kinds of gigs I might never have gotten into.

My first inkling that I was spending a lot more than I was getting back happened in the dead of winter. At a bookstore event in Austin, even though it was sleeting outside, I had a good audience, including people who had driven well over an hour to attend.

The next day I was to go to Dallas, but I heard that the weather was going to be awful there. So I called the bookstore to make sure they were still going to have the event. They assured me that I should come despite the weather. Expenses: A plane trip. A hotel. A car. No one showed up. No one. Turned out that people in Dallas didn’t go out much when it was 15 degrees. 

And then Covid happened and for those of us who are firmly mid-list, the bookstore events because harder to book. I began to find that only if I arranged to speak with other authors would bookstores welcome me. And other authors lamented the same thing. The other issue was that I moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. In the Bay Area I had wide range of bookstores that were happy to host me, knowing I’d bring in a good audience. In LA I know some people, but they are all spread out geographically, and it was hard to get them to drive an hour in the evening. I actually feel like a poor country cousin, depending on long-established LA authors for invitations to join them. And those are few and far between. But there are people like fellow "mind" Eric Beetner, who beats the drum for authors all over LA. 

So I’m left these days wondering where the promotional money should be spent. I take out ads in mystery magazines and conference programs. I have run a few Amazon ads that seem to go nowhere, and Facebook ads simply baffle me. I think the writers who are most successful with those ads hire book promoters to run ad campaigns, and from what I’ve heard, those are expensive and authors rarely make their money back. Which leaves word of mouth. Always the best. Friends and family. Newsletter friends. Old fans. Golden. People who buy books for their relatives, who tell their book clubs, who tell friends. 

So…if you’re reading this, first….BUY MY BOOKS.

And then tell your friends.