Here's how you market your book: You try to build as large a following on Twitter and Blogger as you can while remaining true to yourself. You publish a book. You contact all the people you've become friends with and ask if you can do a guest post on their blog. You post frequently to Twitter about your new book and your guest blogs. Then...the contest! You know someone with "cred." You will leverage that cred to draw people to your blog, exposing them to your new book while they try to use you to get access to this other person.
How do I know this is how you market your book? Because this is how everyone is marketing their book right. Traditionally published or self-published, it doesn't matter. My Twitter feed is awash with hourly posts reminding me to check out one's book/blog/guest post. Multiply this by the number of people I follow (which is small compared to most people) and you can understand how Twitter is becoming less and less fun. It's like that scene in "Demolition Man" where they have a radio station that only plays commercials. I do not go to Twitter just so I can read your commercials all day.
Now, the first answer I always receive is "that's what lists are for," which is technically correct but misses the point. It's not about whether or not I want to read about your self-published opus with the conflicted hero who has to go on a killing spree to find himself. It's that in your effort to reach everyone, you're drowning those you already reached. Overexposure is worse than underexposure, I think. Overexposure turns off people that might have otherwise given you a try, and does so with finality. Underexposure allows for a trickle down later. (And really the goal is to hit the sweet spot where you're exposing yourself without prefixes.)
And then there's the contest. Oh there are so many contests, most of which smack of nothing more than a cheap gimmick. First there are the unethical contests (rate me on Goodreads for a chance to win!). Then there are the hassles (follow my blog for two points and tweet about my contest for one point..!). Then there are the false promises (my agent will read a random person's manuscript--oh wait, she's too busy). There are two simple rules to contests: 1) The participant needs to be the winner not you. 2) The participant needs to actually win something. If people participate in your contest and you can't deliver on your promises, it's not an unfortunate mistake. It's fraud. You defrauded people. Maybe not intentionally, but you established conditions and reneged on your promises. At best that makes you a liar and at worst it makes you a politician.
What does this all boil down to? With the flood gates of self-publishing open, there are a metric shit ton of people peddling their literary wares and most of them are trying the same things to get your attention. Simply shouting louder than everyone else in the room (metaphorically speaking) is not the way to win that contest. It may be hard work, but find some new way to get people's attention or you may find yourself losing the attention of those you've already won. And if you are starting to say, "But I don't have the time..." shut up. This is publishing not play school. If you can't make the time to do anything more than spamming Twitter you need to go find yourself a new hobby. I hear thumb twiddling is fun.
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3 comments:
Sometimes I think about marketing, but mostly I try not to worry too much about it. It's a subject I feel very conflicted about. I know I will need to market myself and my books. That's a given. But it feels like the methods to do so can often come across as gimmicky, like you said. How do you know when you're overexposed versus under? How do you know if reaching people or not?
Because to me, that's the rub. Some agents put a big emphasis on blog and twitter followers. But there's no way to really calculate how effective they are. A 1,000 followers in no way shape or form translate to a 1,000 readers. It could mean one of your followers recommends your book to someone else, but there's still no gurentees.
That being said, I think keeping a web presence IS important. So yeah, I dunno. Mixed feelings abound.
As best as I can figured, the best thing is try to remain as honest and genuine as you can. Because people can and do spot a fake a mile away.
Totally agree with this. I have a tough enough time wrapping my head around Twitter to begin with, so receiving hordes of hourly posts to the tune of "Buy my book!" from the same person just wears me out. Similarly, I feel like anybody who starts a tweet with the simultaneously pathetic and appalling phrase, "Worth the RT?" should be summarily ejected.
Asking other people to retweet unless you're in a contest or raising money for charity is just a crass thing to do.
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