I blogged about promotion efforts on my craft blog. It seems some people have it all together with book tours and celebrity endorsements, contests and on and on. The thing about today's book market is that there are so any authors- so many salesmen- how do you as a reader pick out which books to buy? Do you listen to the person with the slickest promotion? Or are you annoyed with the "feed a family, buy my books" kind of thing going on? I've seen people threaten suicide if their books don't climb the Amazon best seller list. People tell readers that they will give a portion of their proceeds to a charity- but how much is a portion and is buying their book for charity really going to help them with a career? (Hint: send the money directly to the charity and you get a nice write off on your taxes)
If you are on the social network at all, you know the people who promote until you want to stab yourself in your eye so that you don't have to see them any more, or the people who overly/fake gush about how surprised they are that you "like me, you really like me."
So, what draws you as a reader to buy a book? Word of mouth? Favorite author? How to you pick new authors? Contest and award winner? Does promotion matter to you as a reader? Inquiring minds want to know. Cheers~
Book draws? I go for my favorite authors first, then writing friends I meet. The cover design will draw me in next making me turn over the back and read the blurb.
ReplyDeleteI'm despising promoting more and more. There's just no happy medium. If you talk about your story, feels like you're over-promoting. if you don't talk about it, feels like you're under promoting. If you're nice to strangers, you're fake. if you're not, you're just rude.
Seriously, I just want to hide in a hole and write.
I'll be very interested in the answer too. Whatever you do seems too much. When you do nothing you feel guilty. I'm fast coming to the conclusion that social media marketing is more effort than it's worth. I'd rather be writing!
ReplyDeleteJudy, South Africa
Linda and Judy-
ReplyDeleteI agree!! and boy, do I get it.
My Dad says book covers and titles grab him- but he shops in book stores. So how do people find you on-line.
I buy books from friends and authors I've known and read for years and years.
I really don't know how else to do it.
Linda- have you seen an uptake in sales from a good review? Does who reviews the book make a difference?
It's hard for me to figure out what makes a book get better sales than another. All I know is that my story that gets more reviews than the others (good & bad) sells better than the story with the least reviews. I can't tell if who does the review makes a difference either. Sorry, I'm not much help. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda- I hadn't noticed any difference in sales from reviews- but I don't think I had as many reviews as you did.
ReplyDelete