Ever since my book, “Invasive Thoughts” was accepted by PublishAmerica I’ve tried to give myself a crash course in book promotion. I thought it was more important to learn this going through PublishAmerica than with other publishers as PublishAmerica states that they DO NOT do more than the most minimum promotion.
After reading what other authors have to say on book promotion I found that yes going through PublishAmerica does leave you behind the curve, but not much. A big Publisher will give a first time author a $2,000 advance and spend another $2,000 in promotion themselves. So I am $4,000 in promotion behind the big guys.
That’s not much considering it’s mostly the author getting the word out themselves and the free promotions do more than the stuff you pay for. So I researched free promotions and what authors had to say about them.
Book Signings, Some authors think they are great, some find them a waste of time.
Radio Interviews, Some authors think they are great, some think they actually hurt.
Giving your writing away free, Some authors feel the exposure is worth it, Some feel they are giving away their valuable writing.
One thing all authors agree on is the individual book needs its own website as well as the author’s site. So now I have another site “Invasive Thoughts” where I will talk only about my book. So far I’ve got information about the book, Some of the Easter Eggs I put in the book and Questions and Answers to what interviewers ask. I’ll hopefully expand on all of those.
As far as book signings that is an area where a bigger publisher would be an advantage as I’ve read a lot of times the bookstore “forgets” to order your book and you need to have a few copies on hand.
I’m trying to line up some Radio Interviews but haven’t gotten any responses yet.
Finally, giving away my writing, I earn between $0.05 and $20 for my writing right now so I’m happy to give it away. I’m looking around for sites that want it.
The great and horrible thing I have found about book promotion is that the publishing industry is in complete chaos and nobody knows what works right now. So I have as much chance of hitting the winning formula as anyone else.
So right now is the greatest time to have a new book out and the worst time to have a new book out.
Darrell B Nelson
Author of “Invasive Thoughts”
Posts
4 comments:
I'm writing my first novel now, and I, too, will soon be looking into this self-promotion method. Sad to think this way, but I have to be realistic.
Congratulations on writing your novel.
It's a fun time. The best advice I can give is enjoy the writing process. The marketing and self-promotion can be overwhelming if you let it. I would love to have 10 novels out that make enough money to let me write full time, but even if I don't make a dime from my novels I'll still enjoy writing them. I don't consider the writing part work, just fun. Revisions a little less fun. So the marketing is the only work.
"Project Savior" has been included in this weeks Sites To See. I hope you like the image I featured, and I hope this helps to attract many new visitors here.
http://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2010/04/sites-to-see_16.html
Oh, One of my favorite minions.
Just to update everyone on his status, He seems to have decided to aggressively patrol the very back of the backyard. So I don't see him as much as the other minions.
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