Comments on: The Bottom Line on Online Promo

By: Linda Banche

Linda Banche — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:36:27 +0000

Ah, well, all pretty daunting for a newbie author.

I have a website, still under construction, and a blog that I’ve written to only twice. From what I read above, I should keep the website and dump the blog. Well, maybe.

I’ve been trying to promote for only 2 months now, and I agree, online promoting takes up an incredible amount of my time. What with the day job and still trying to write, the whole thing is daunting.

Maybe several posters above were right–write a good book, and the readers will find out. I certainly hope my first effort is good enough.

By: Heather

Heather — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:39:57 +0000

>What does it take for an author to really get your attention?

I discover many new books from reviews on reader blogs.

Finding a niche and exploiting it works, too. I enjoy a lot of books that are off the beaten path.

By: ciar cullen

ciar cullen — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:10:41 +0000

After watching publisher/author Yahoo groups die a slow death (a few may have a little life in them yet), being told Myspace was essential, and then figuring out pretty quickly it’s not, I’ve settled on doing what I like. I blog when I like (most recently on this very topic), about what I like, and try not to fret over the rest. I haven’t seen book sales affected much at all by contests, loop promotions, etc. I think it’s the cover, the publisher, the title, and whatever small group of readers I have that pick up anything I write. There’s a glut online of romance writers, and I don’t think it’s possible to capture the attention of readers in a way you could, say, three years ago even. I’m trying to write a better book instead.

By: Marian

Marian — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:11:13 +0000

Argh! It took me until this year to start a blog. At that rate it’ll take me until, I dunno, 2015 to become involved in virtual communites, by which time people will have started meeting in hyperspace or through telepathy or something.

I have to admit, though, one reason I started a blog was so that when I did become published, I could tell people about my books without feeling as though I’d created the blog for the express purpose of advertising. I’ve seen one or two blogs like that – they were all about the books, where to buy the books, what readers had said about the books, and even conversations between the books’ characters about how the author had created them. Not much fun. I like blogs with advice or funny stories or warnings or reviews – in other words, something besides promotion.

By: Liz Fielding

Liz Fielding — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:46:09 +0000

I think an awful lot of authors are beginning to find the blog/PR thing is eating up precious writing time. My blog consumed the same amount of words as a book last year and I’m beginning to ask myself if it’s really worth the time involved or whether this comes under the “no one but a fool ever wrote for anything but money” heading.

If people want to find me I have a website that’s updated every month and a newsletter with a monthly draw.

Time and words are the author’s most precious commodities. It maybe time to husband them both a little more carefully.

By: LaConnie

LaConnie — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:33:08 +0000

Hi Vibeke:
I usually lurk, but had to come out to say great post!!

Promotion, period, whether on-line or otherwise, is a daunting task!! As a new author with a zillion other things on her plate, on-line promotion has been a God- send and has worked fairly well for me coupled with a few other marketing techniques.

And youâ€™re right on target with your statement about the amount of time readers can or are willing to dedicate to surfing websites, blogs, or anything else an author can come up with to bring notice to their book.

However, your assessment about good old-fashioned word of mouth recommendations says it all.

It might take longer than weâ€™d like, but readers will eventually gravitate to authors who consistently produce quality reads.

By: Shreela

Shreela — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:56:09 +0000

Although I’ve been online 10+ years, I’ve only recently found authors and reader blogs/forums. I went nuts at first, and subbed to all sorts of newsfeeds — I hate newsletters, but understand why they’re still necessary, but why not have BOTH?

I even tried the contest thing, but quickly lost interest because so many of them are for a series LATEST release.

Why on earth would a new reader want to read the latest release?

Those contests are nice for established readers for sure, but it seems not many authors think about using contests to draw in new readers

Like with newsfeeds and newsletters, how about having a newest-release contest, AND a
first-in-a-series-contest?

I’ve unsubscribed from most authors’ blogs now; it’s too much promo, like non-stop ads on TV.

I use reader sites and social library sites to read book reviews to decide who I’d like to try out.

Then I go to the author’s site, and WHY WHY WHY don’t most authors put their book series in a clearly numbered list so new readers will know which is the first book

One last thing on contests: Please make the book available in Lit, PDF, or some other kind of downloadable format. Those online viewers are just AWFUL

As far as trailers, I’ve seen a few that were OK, and even though they’re basically a back-cover blurb done with movie-filter text-effects with some special effects between scenes, and photos done with panning effects, they’re still interesting to watch.

I’ve read that authors are paying to have trailers made. I guess it’s time consuming to write, but many of the trailers I’ve seen aren’t that difficult to learn to make using freeware software. I hope they’re not paying a lot for those movie trailers.

By: Gail Dayton

Gail Dayton — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:35:24 +0000

I agree that if an author has a blog, they still need a website if only for those “booklists” and organizational tips. I ought to have enough books out before too long that I’ll need to do a “list” separate from my “books” page. And excerpts and stuff like that. I have a few (like two) authors whose websites I check out a couple times a year to see if they have any new excerpts up. The other authors, I just buy their books when I see them at the bookstore.

I am actually reading more blogs now than I used to–mostly because sometimes I have a little downtime at the p-t dayjob and browsing blogs is a good thing to do then. I visit this one, the SBTB blog, teach me tonight, the 2 be read group blog (http://toberead.wordpress.com ) of the published authors RWA chapter (since I’m one of the bloggers), and a few others. I’m going to have to start catching E. James’s stuff too, sounds like. I really like that academic stuff…

By: kim h

kim h — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:29:01 +0000

as mucha s i can, espicaly here, i come here alomst everyday. in enter them.

By: Vibeke Courtney

Vibeke Courtney — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:08:05 +0000

This is a great discussion! I agree with those that say an author’s web site is crucial. There’s tons of content an author can add to her site that it would be hard for readers to find elsewhere, stuff that could actually result in additional sales, particularly back list and upcoming book info.

A blog alone won’t be as well organized as a regular website. I’ve visited the blog of a few authors that have only that and no web site, and trying to find information was so frustrating that I just gave up.