As I’ve said before, I love reading what other folk have to say. But when two blogs show up in my Inbox with conflicting advice, I’m forced to think about taking sides. First came Rachelle Gardner’s post.
Her headline read: “Authors, Are You Spamming? Stop It!” That got my attention. Yes, I’d read Joel Friedlander’s earlier one, “Yo, Author, You Spamming Me?? Cut it Out!”
I get it. I’m there. Spam anyone? Horrors. I’m more likely to hide behind a bush and hold out my book, hoping you’ll notice it and not me. I wasn’t any good at promoting my art work. What makes me think I can do better with a novel? No, I’d rather go write another one.
But needs must.
Still, I love the advice Vaughn Roycroft and others have given: make relationships. Become part of a tribe. Marketing will take care of itself.
Excellent advice. Excellent. Absolutely. But I’m not sure I’m particularly good at tribe-building either. (I have talked about that before.) Is there an answer for those of us who are basically shy and completely intimidated by the idea of leaping into a crowd of any size, an answer that falls somewhere between being thrilled that five or ten people will buy our book and wishing for thousands?
The second post showed up on Catherine Howard’s hilarious blog. It seems that Mel Sherratt approaches things differently: “How Mel Sherratt Sold 50K Self-published Books.” Ah ha! Mel tweeted. A lot. And then other folk tweeted her tweets and bam! Out of Amazon and onto e-readers.
I’m a non-twitterpated tweeter. My blog posts show up there, but that’s about it. I have tweeted about a few other folks’ work, and I think I have one independent-of-blog tweet, because, hey, my little free time goes to checking email and bopping over to Facebook.
Obviously, I need some clarity. Vaughn says what I want to hear, and Rachelle makes me want to nod and sigh and say, “Amen, preach it!” But then I read Catherine’s post–she’s always a hoot–and I think, um, maybe I’m wrong? Maybe the folk out there waving their flag–or their book–have the right answer? I mean, 50K copies?
How on earth? Would someone come and give me some insight? Let me know that Rachelle and Vaughn and those of us who prefer one-on-one, who are introverted more than extroverted, can make this work just by hanging in, hanging out, and being friendly?
Your thoughts?
I don’t think the two posts are in conflict, because although Mel used Twitter, she certainly didn’t do it in any kind of spammy way. (If she had I wouldn’t be following her, because I can’t *stand* an endless stream of “My book is out now [Amazon link] BUY IT!” type tweets.) Mel has great relationships on Twitter and she didn’t abuse them when her book came out. I also think it was only one facet of her marketing plan—if I had to say what pushed it over the edge for her, it would be well-placed reviews from very credible sources, and glowing Amazon reviews. (And so, a good book!) The message is social media is about connection, and people you make a connection will hopefully want to support you when your book comes out or whatever. But no one is on there for endless “buy my book” style tweets.
Glad you like the blog! 😀
Catherine, hello. I should go find Mel on Twitter (if I can figure out how to do that!), because I need to know the difference. I need to figure out the hows and whys of tweeting. If you could invite her back to explain these (or maybe I should?), I think it would help us novice/intimidated folk to figure things out.
Making connections. Okay . . . um . . . trying here!
And, yes, I love reading your blog. You always make me grin.
I posted about the difference here:
http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/05/28/why-promoting-your-book-online-is-a-bit-like-fight-club/
Nicola Morgan also has a great e-book, Tweet Right: The Sensible Person’s Guide to Twitter.
I just linked to that blog post of yours on Facebook. Excellent explanation.
Now I’m off to order Nicola’s ebook.
So appreciate you and your posts, Catherine!
Isn’t it funny how some people can get away with stuff? I mean, some people break every rule and come out smelling like a rose. It happens in music, too. I love music, and I ‘like’ a lot of musicians and bands on fb and twitter. Some promote themselves so smoothly and with so much charm, I happy to have them on my feeds. Others, not so much. Can’t quite put my finger on it, either. What I do know is we each have to do what’s natural. If you ‘force’ yourself to do what isn’t easy and natural, it’s probably doomed.
I like to think of myself as pretty low-key and fairly humble with my online presence, and yet I’ve mangaged to get a tribemate to share a link to my social media in her blog. 😉
Really interesting question, and worth continuing to try to figure out, Normandie. I’m not sure how I’ll feel when I’m finally published, but for now I’ll stick to what feels right, and stay low-key with my focus on the work rather than the marketing. Oh, and the site looks great!
I always appreciate your thoughts, Vaughn. I think that all we can do is try to be true to ourselves, but I’m insecure enough to wonder. I contacted a publicity group to find out what it would cost for someone else to take care of it for me (my daughter was adamant that I DO something — she’s in marketing and very good at it, but she handles designer fashions and not writers), and the cost for help of any sort was so prohibitive that I felt as if I were back to square one.
Perhaps we’ll figure this out together.
isn’t it just difficult when you realize you’ve become customers of your friends? that said, I willingly forward on my writer friend’s new release info – no. gladly.
It is. I agree. And I have done my best to add my mite to all my agent’s clients’ book sales because we’re family.
From what I’ve seen, there is no *one* right way. Authors are entrepreneurs now, so it behooves them to get out and try things on until they find one that feels doable and that resonates with others. That might be blogging. That might be tweeting. It might be sitting with one’s books in a farmer’s market, like Liz Michalski does.
You’ll see examples of people doing it well in every medium, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for you or your book.
One thing I do believe: it’s easier to “market” if it’s part of heartfelt service. Some people are great at making others laugh. Others excel at gathering and distributing information. It seems like those who connect have a bigger thing at stake than one book, so then it’s easier for people to follow, like, and purchase their stuff without feeling they’ve been sold.
Does that make any sense? (Not that it matters. I’m unpublished, so I know nothing.)
Vaughn’s comment reminds me I have to repopulate my blogroll since I moved.
Jan, your thoughts make perfect sense. As old as I am, I keep reinventing myself and having fun in the process. At least, the fun happens when I get to engage with folk in discussions like this and learn from their experiences–or just from their opinions.
We tend to write in isolation and then must propel ourselves from that into the public eye, when some of us feel more comfortable sitting behind the computer, writing the next book. And yet we need people, don’t we? For a myriad of reasons. That’s where the ideas and connections for that next story begin–in something we see, some behavior or word, some character wandering into our life: that’s the fodder. It’s also how we keep from feeling bereft and lonely.
Connections.
I was watching a British mystery show with my mama last night, one we’d never seen before. The female detective, Vera somebody, spoke often of loneliness as she sipped her drink. To do her job, she had to move past that and focus on others.
I love getting to know folk. I enjoy all sorts and all ages. I want to know what they think, how they react, what makes them laugh or weep. So, I wade through this social media bit, peeking around corners, trying to reach out and touch. I’m so glad to be getting to know you, Jan, and so many other writers, readers, plain and fancy folk as I make new friends and revisit old ones.
You’re absolutely right, Normandie. The advice on this subject is confusing and conflicting. I think because of your great love for people, when you connect, you connect deeply. People feel that, and that might be what you have to offer more than a thousand tweets a day.
Aren’t you a darling, Robin. It’s certainly true that when you and I connected, we did it full on, throttle forward!
It’s certainly a thorny one Normandie. I took one set of advice and set my page on Bookbuzzr to post a tweet every day at the same time for each of my books. I am never sure if this is intrusive or annoying but how else do I promote the books? I have an author page on Facebook but too little news to post often and I have my websites where the books are on but where I post other happenings that become a priority…..all except Oscar’s Blog which is there because I value my skin. Counting e.books I’ve probably sold about 100 books but given away a lot more on KDP promotions without ever once receiving their fee for book loans.
Short of doing a striptease in the streets with a pile of books before me I don’t know what to do.
By the way don’t worry. No stripteases, I don’t want to scare the horses and this is the UK so just think about the weather.
Bright ideas ( and large orders) always welcome.
Hugs
Striptease sounds like a good way to catch a cold and perhaps get locked up, but probably wouldn’t sell many books, David!
I’m glad I was one of those 100 who bought your books. They’re witty. So, if I can think of something to promote them that doesn’t require nudity, I’ll let you know.
By the way, your Twitter page looks good with those covers in the background. I can’t comment on your tweets because I haven’t gotten any of them yet!
Thanks for the blog post – really thought-provoking, also was interesting reading the comments and replies, I am in the same situation. I want to get my book out and for people to know about it, but I don’t want people to get sick of it or annoyed by me or it. Wish there was a booklet on how to do this. 🙂
That’s why I wanted to hire someone else, Nicua. I wanted to hand the book over (when it finally releases) and just say, “You do it.” But the folk I contacted for marketing estimates gave prices that would break my bank, so, like you, I’m forced to hunt for wiggle room and some good how-to advice.
Hi Normandie,
I’d just like to clarify something from your post above, if I may? ‘Ah ha! Mel tweeted. A lot. And then other folk tweeted her tweets and bam! Out of Amazon and onto e-readers.’ Before I self published Taunting the Dead, I spent two years building up an online presence with a blog, High Heels and Book Deals. I also blogged about my writing journey trying to get a traditional deal, the ups and downs etc. I got to know lots of writers, authors and their publicists by reviewing their books and interviewing them. It’s really time-consuming to keep the blog running as well as write but when it then came time for me to put my own book out, people who I had interviewed etc, or had followed my writing journey, helped me as much as I helped them. As well as crime thrillers, I write women’s fiction under a pen name, just two books on Kindle. Those books have also sold in excess of 50k copies between them, with no social media platform at all. So what I was hoping to portray from my post was that I don’t use Twitter as a way of selling my book, just a way to connect with people.
If you do follow me on twitter, you’d probably find my tweets tedious as I talk about my dog, my shoes, my writing etc but engaging with people is what I like about it. I also don’t think it sells many books as I don’t get many tweets from people who have read it – great when I do though! And I too love Catherine’s blog! Thanks, Mel.
Mel, thank you so much for stopping by to share a bit more about your journey. And THANK YOU for letting me off the hook with Twitter. I feel as if I’m a fish that knows it has to flap up that stream to get home, but is sure someone opened the dam, leaving much, much, much too heavy a flow in the way.
I need to exercise those upstream muscles and/or pretend I’m younger.
By the way, if you’d like to stop by and share some of your thoughts on writing in two genres, I’d love to host such a blog. Let me know!