Promotion is hard. Let's eat donuts.

[seanan_mcguire]

So several people have said, basically, "self-promotion is hard." They are not wrong. And one person has said, "you should really give helpful hints." Also not wrong, although given my "90% of all advice is bullshit" stance on anything not self-explanatory, like "don't lick toads" and "don't go spelunking in the whale carcass," possibly just a way to get me to bullshit for a little while. Regardless, here are ten things to keep in mind about self-promotion.

1. There is no "one size fits all" solution; there is no magic bullet. What works for me will not necessarily work for you. What works for you will not necessarily work for Jim. You need to really look at both the logistics and the potential impact of any promotion efforts before you commit to them, because you only get so many shots. Which leads us to...

2. You only get so many shots. You have how many opportunities to make a first impression? Right. One. Assume that the average reader who is interested in your genre and could possibly be convinced to give you a second glance is willing to give you as many as four opportunities to be impressive. This is a very, very generous estimate; most readers will give you one shot, maybe two, because there is a lot of stuff out there to read. So if you run three unsolicited BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK Twitter campaigns, you only have one more chance to reach that reader. That unimpressed reader.

3. Most people don't like junk mail. Don't be junk mail. I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've received something in the mail that I didn't ask for, looked at it, and gone "oooo, yes, I want this thing." Well, if you send me a bulk email without my having asked for it, you're in that mailbox. Does it work sometimes? Yeah. Send 1,000 emails, sell three books. But you've potentially just associated yourself, however wrongly, with the word "spammer" in 997 readers' heads.

4. Be appropriate to the venue. Let's say Olga wrote a book. And let's say she's been thinking a lot about promotion. She sees this article. She sees people talking about promotion, and books, and hey, that Seanan girl's a writer, right? All her commenters must be readers! So Olga goes around and replies to every single comment with "let me tell you about my book." Olga has now been inappropriate to the venue, and odds are she's gathered very few sales.

5. Building a brand is more vital than flogging a single book. I love the cover to Discount Armageddon, almost as much as I love the book itself. It's exactly what I wanted. Some others were not so impressed, since it was the first portrayal of a sexualized character on one of my books (and so PINK!). Many of them bought the book anyway. Why? Because I have built my brand, and they knew they could trust me. Sometimes the sales of book one will not rock your world. But they'll increase awareness for book two, and that can be vital.

6. Do not put yourself in a box. There are a thousand ways to promote yourself without resorting to junk mail and thread-jacking. Buy ad space on popular web comics. Do guest blogs. Send review copies to book bloggers you trust. Sign up for things like Scalzi's Big Idea. Don't just go "oh, I found the one way, I'm good." That way lies madness.

7. You will never have all the readers. It is not possible, barring your becoming the next Stephen King or Stephanie Meyer, for you to have name-recognition with all the readers, much less be read by all the readers. Even King and Meyer don't have all the readers. Maybe people don't read them. It's just that many more people do. Don't freak out about the ones who won't read you, they were never going to read you anyway.

8. It does not end. Yesterday, I emailed a reviewer that I know isn't on any of my lists and asked if she wanted a copy of Ashes of Honor. Today, I will give away two ARCs. Tomorrow, I will go to a convention. Promo never ends, and if you think it does, you're going to be very sad.

9. Choose sincerity. You can't just do things with the photo op in mind; you have to do them because you want to, because they're the right thing, because they're fun or awesome or somehow make you happy. That's promo, too. The ripple effect works.

10. Once someone says stop, you need to stop. The number of times I've seen an author permanently alienate a reader or group of readers by continuing a) to barrage them with promo, and b) explain their brilliant idea is...bad. It's definitely not good. Now, I am not saying "do not blog about your book." Your blog is YOUR SPACE, and anyone who's going to get pissed at you for talking about something that is a huge chunk of your life in YOUR SPACE is a jerk and you don't need them. But if you follow me around Facebook trying to explain your genius, we're not going to be besties.

There. Those are my helpful hints. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spelunking in a whale carcass.

Comments

[dostehseh.livejournal.com]

#4 is good and valid advice across the board and everyone should think about it all the time. This is brought to you by my cousin, who is involved in some kind of selling... electricity... thing, and thought it would be super to aggressively try to recruit people to buy in at my seven-year-old nephews birthday party.

Wat.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Wat.

I just...

Wat. People. What's wrong with them?

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Most of it comes down to "don't be a jerk"; it's unfortunate that so many people need a recipe to follow for that.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Sad but true.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I like donuts.

"Spelunking in a whale carcass" immediately brought up memories of the exploding whale.
For reference, just in case: http://youtu.be/xBgThvB_IDQ

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I remember that whale. :)

[anne_d]

I have built my brand, and they knew they could trust me.

Yes, this. I've read enough of your work to know that anything I haven't read is worth buying. You are on my "buy it as soon as possible list", which is very small and select. :)

Your advice here is very good, and I hope it gets to the proper targets and is heeded.

[mrs-norris-mous.livejournal.com]

I would also be interested in the reasoning ( and whether with hindsight you would do it again about the Mira Grant brand ). I note that I can find Mira's books in a random uk book shop, but I am less likely to find Seanan's...


Re number 8, do you still have a full time job ( apart form writing ) ?.

[kveberle.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about the branding. I have never been a big zombie book fan, but I read the Mira Grant books because I know and like your "brand." Turns out, they are some of my favorite books.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[iamzulma.livejournal.com]

Those are definitely helpful. Thanks for taking the time to write them for us. :)

You know what really chaps my ass, though? When authors follow me on Twitter and I follow them back, only to find out that all they do is promote their book in every tweet. Every review they get, they tweet it. They talk about little else. Really annoying.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

At least then, you can unfollow, which is why it doesn't bother me as much. If I come into your space and all you want to do is talk about your hamster, that's cool. I'm leaving, but it's cool.

[cathschaffstump.livejournal.com]

Number nine is the best advice ever. Well done.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[tal125.livejournal.com]

Number nine. YES. YESSITY YES YES YES.

But not entirely for the reason you state. I get a lot of author's submitting their work as suggestions for purchase my library system. Which is fine. It annoys me greatly when an author submits their work and pretends to be a patron. We're librarians. We're much smarter than we look and we will figure it out.

Tell us up front you're the author. Give us the titles, any professional reviews you have and barring that - detailed customer reviews. No your grandmother's endorsement doesn't really count. Do not get mad if we send a reply that says we'll consider it. All libraries in the US are fighting for survival, much less money for their collection. They may be facing very difficult decisions over whether there is even money to carry established authors much less an unknown. This isn't the library being cruel - its the nature of the economy right now for public libraries.

Also - mo@r submissions isn't better. We can see the unique ID. We know it's you, dear author, submitting your book daily for weeks on end.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Aiigfdjhgurth.

I do NOT understand humans sometimes.

[jennifer wiewel westberg (from livejournal.com)]

Can my kids and I come whale spelunking with you? It just sounds messy, gross, and fun enough to keep everyone happy.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, you can.

[lauowolf.livejournal.com]

It seems to me as if there are two different problems.
The first is "I wrote a book -wheeeeeee peoples come buy my book!"
Because getting that initial readership afloat is the hardest thing, and I have no Idea how that happens for different people
But I'm pretty clear that it mostly doesn't follow from spamming the world.

And then there is the "I'm an author and I must have an innerwebs presence because of reasons."
And this is also hard.
It means your blog is both your personal blog, and also business.
And that you have to blog to begin with.
My sister is a romance writer (won a Rita! because she totally rocks), and she has an online presence.
Her agent told her she had to.
She has an extreme reluctance to have that blog include any information about, say, her daughter.
So when you look at it - I think there is like five or six years of it now - you will not find the names of any family members, or much detail about where she in fact lives.
But she will discuss the dog and cat, and that big storm blowing over a tree.
Otherwise her blog is tutorials on writing or historical information on her period, which is all fascinating and creates a sense of community for her readers.

And, yes, she will show the cover of the Italian translation.
And updates on the progress of the new one.
Which is fundamentally promotional in intent, of course.
But those are all sitting on her blog, quietly awaiting her readers, rather than stalking the innerwebs attacking strangers.

The initial problem for the new writer remains the same: how do they get traffic onto their tasteful blog in the first place.
Leafletting the internet isn't the answer, but it isn't clear what is.
Once you have a readership, then you can employ social networks to connect with them, but that first step is difficult.
Sort of like making bear stew: first you take your bear....

[denisen1.livejournal.com]

Would you mind linking to your sister's blog? It sounds fascinating, and fun to read!

[mrs-norris-mous.livejournal.com]

Sorry I didn't know that only Mira had a publisher in the UK.

Do remember to sleep and rest and have fun as we want a well Seanan not a sick one.....

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my work as me still needs a UK publisher. Write your local and suggest they pick up my series today! (Orbit UK's a good one...)

[aliciaaudrey.livejournal.com]

What if I follow you around trying to explain your genius?

Or like act like my kitten, who is small, grey, and I probably should have just named the Silver Surfer for the way she bounces around ahead of my husband and I as if she is heralding our coming, all woe to those before us. WOE! WOE!

In all seriousness great points. I've always thought you were very classy in the way you handle your fandom and being an Author With A Public Venue.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Best kitten is best.

And thank you.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, donuts...

All these points work well for any sort of promoting too. Which is why I generally limit the promoting of my works to once or twice a week, so as not to overdo it and drive potential customers away instead of to my shops.

And yes, it's vastly easier to promote yourself once you've built a following. It's the building of that following that's hard.

The cover to Discount Armageddon was perfect, for that book, for that series. Even the pink was absolutely perfect for it. The same cover, I don't think would have grabbed me for the October Daye books, and definitely NOT for the Newsflesh books. But like you say, I knew based on your other books, this one would likely be awesome as well, and I wasn't disappointed. (Even if there was a lot of pink.}:P I don't work with pink a lot, I don't particularly care for it personally. But that's just me, says the person who just used pink in some hand dyed silks. Heh)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

And yes, it's vastly easier to promote yourself once you've built a following. It's the building of that following that's hard.

Word.

[denisen1.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Fab Seanan, for the helpful hints.

When my husband Jay's first novel was published last year (hopefully one of a series ...), we took seriously the promises made by the publisher that their PR person would handle publicity: reviewers would be contacted, ARCs provided, book signings arranged, etc. Turns out, notsomuch by them. So ... we held our breath and jumped into the field of book marketing. Remarkably enough, considering our shared lack of experience, copies have sold, reviews have posted, and I don't think we left anyone feeling slimed (though I have a lingering terror that people may just have been too nice to say so ...)

Of all the people who've stepped up to help, though, the greatest support we've been gifted with has been from other writers. People like you who shared info as to what worked - or didn't work - for them, offered a guest spot for Jay on their blog, or mentioned him in a podcast. It really made a difference in our outlook, especially on days when yet another bookseller responded to our requests for shelf space with a kvetch about how many new writers had contacted him that week, or a reviewer started their post with something along the lines of, "Well, I'm Jay's brother-in-law and I thought the book was great ..."

So thanks a lot, to you, and to any other writers reading this who've offered support to the clueless newbies in their midst. The greater community stepped forward, and it meant a lot to us both. We plan to follow that lead as well, reaching out to those who could use a supportive hand at their back. Some day they'll do the same, as well, and lead other newcomers by their example.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Very, very welcome. :)

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

#9 all the way. My short list of authors whose work I buy immediately is, well...short. And most of them are people who I either follow on LJ or elsewhere because, books aside, I find them interesting and genuine and prone to saying thoughtful and entertaining things. It's rarely led me astray as a method of choosing what to read next--unsurprisingly, people I think are awesome tend to write books I also think are awesome.

(I read plenty of books by authors who don't fall into this category, of course, but they're rarely the "The book is out today! TODAY!!!" books.)

It really is boggling how many people in all sorts of fields do promotion in ways they'd probably find irritating if someone else was doing it to them. Just...why?

[dragonsally.livejournal.com]

"My short list of authors whose work I buy immediately is, well...short. And most of them are people who I either follow on LJ or elsewhere because, books aside, I find them interesting and genuine and prone to saying thoughtful and entertaining things."

this, a million times.

[archangelbeth]

Seanan is to Whale as Dogs is to Elk?

[porpentine.livejournal.com]

Happy as a Seanan in Whale? Yeah, I can see that as a phrase that works.

[yellowblackhaze.livejournal.com]

Y'know spelunking in a whale carcass doesn't sound like that bad an idea, it could actually be fun, if a touch smelly.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

And such a good thing to blog about!

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

In addendum to #5, I'd add that an adage (because alliteration is so much fun!) I hear around writer's communities is: The best promotion is writing the next book. This might be a little less applicable to NY publishing, because you guys have a more spread out publishing schedule, but for digital first/only and self-publishing... while getting people to read your book in the first place can be a hurdle, each book you have coming out is another chance to promo (that's less annoying than flogging the same book), and name recognition eventually builds up. I have lost track of the number of books I have bought because I have seen the cover all over the place, or several of the author's books promoted over a long period of time, and thought, hmm, I should finally get around to reading that.

Logically I know that authors arrange blog tours and cover each other and seeing a book or author around multiple places doesn't mean it's good (or something I'd like), but I find it does have a subconscious effect.

re: #9. Sigh. Too fucking true. Siiiiiiiiiiigh.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It's true in NY publishing, too. It shows that you're in it for the long haul.

[mariadkins.livejournal.com]

Be appropriate to the venue.

also make sure the venue is appropriate to you. when my antho came out three years ago, i was invited to the kentucky state book fair -- who listed me in with the non-fiction. sales were good, but they could have been better had i been appropriately listed.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[emerald-ibis.livejournal.com]

....I have built my brand, and they knew they could trust me.

This!! I suggested Discount Armageddan to my sister, and she adored it. She is not into zombies whatsoever, so she wasn't interested in the Mira Grant books at first. She finally gave in and borrowed Feed from the library two days ago, based entirely on the strength of DA. Tonight she is starting Deadline! She is also planning to purchase extra copies of the whole trilogy for her class room library (she's a high school English teacher).

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[beasting-quest.livejournal.com]

Concerning the cover of Discount Armageddon: I likely would have tried out the series anyway, since you wrote it, but I admit I was majorly looking forward to it because I liked the cover, which is pretty unique for paranormal fantasy. In fact if there were by any chance a poster... I would buy it. <.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Well, you could go to Aly Fell's blog post about the art and politely inquire about purchasing a print.

[biteybatgirl.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I think you can read my mind. (Do not fear the velociraptor. He is cute and fuzzy, no?) Self-promotion (and the subsequent nail chewing) has been on my mind a lot lately, so thank you for the advice.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Very welcome.

[shiyiya.livejournal.com]

Re #5, you've done very well on that front. I would never have picked Discount Armageddon up based on the cover - might even have specifically avoided it. (Though reading your lj and knowing about it, I love the cover. Verity's great.) But I know I love everything you write (and I know I love the Price-Healys), so I bought it. (In fact, I buy everything you put out, even though you write entirely in genres that I don't seek out, because you're just that awesome, and I know I'll love it, even though I don't love scifi or horror or urban fantasy or zombies as genres. I don't DISlike them, I just tend to go for pseudomedieval high fantasy when left to my own devices.)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad. :)

[bellacrow.livejournal.com]

god, I want to post this to every person I see spamming me for their self-published book. I just got booted from a FB group that the owner had turned into his own captive audience. I simply said it sucked to be promoted to every day.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

...heh.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

I especially like #9 :)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Ta!