Promoting your work

My e-mail inbox is full of opportunities to promote my work. There are calls for blog tours, calls for giving on-line classes, calls for contests, and calls to work with promoters. There are don't miss opportunities. Don't forget your Amazon page and twitter and facebook and tumblr. There are libraries to be contacted and booksellers. Newsletter e-mail lists to keep plus newsletters to write. Hand written notes to others who bought your book or sold your book. Thank yous to people who helped you with quotes, etc. There are contests and book blogs and Ning. It is the giant elephant in the corner of my office. One I've been ignoring, while others tackle it head on and spend literally 40 hours a week at work on their promotion.

I'm still the kind of writer who wants to spend those forty hours in my stories and let someone else take care of the rest. But that is not possible in today's market. You have to tell people who you are. You have to build a brand. You want to create a community. How do you do that and not turn it into a full time job?

Step one is to sort through the opportunities. Toss those you know you'll never do no matter how great they are. Toss those that didn't show you a significant bump in sales last time. (If this is your first book-toss those that "feel" to large.) Sort into a will do, can do and won't do pile. Throw away the won't do and don't waste a moment of regret. Trust me even if you did everything there is no guarantee that you will see significant sales. Too much is out of your hands. Next- ask your agent and editor what they expect you to do. Put those things at the top of the pile. Do them first and if that's all you get done-bravo!!

Do not try to compete with Marketing Sally who seems to be everywhere doing everything. No matter how she gushes you will never have a true idea of how her campaign relates to her sales. She is a salesman- she will never let her slip show. (Her exclamations of success might be accurate but are not necessarily true.)

It comes down to moderation. Your real efforts need to go into your creative work- your books. The key is to tailor your promotion efforts to your time and money constraints and your ability to be comfortable with what you do. And let the rest go~ really, truly there is no one way to be successful. What works for Sally might not work the same for you. Relax, do what you can and let the rest go. If you start to get worried again, come back and read this blog. You have my promise that doing what you are comfortable doing and letting go of the rest is really the best road to success.

This blog was brought to you by my latest release. THE COUNTERFEIT BRIDE, Avalon books will be released next month. It is available for pre-order now. click on the title to pre-order.

Cheers~

To Market, To Market a five year plan

As I wrote before the burn, I hope to blog once a week using a proper editorial calendar. I'll post said calendar as soon as I create it.

My goal is to blog every Sunday on Author Marketing, Writing Tips, Book/movie Reviews and Just for fun.

Let's begin with author marketing. I sat down with a couple of marketing friends who bemoaned the fact that authors don't know how to properly market themselves. I agreed, nodding my head wisely. But knowing all along that I, too, do the things they were complaining about. Missed opportunities and inconsistent marketing abound in a writer's life.

Let me tell you why...

With brands such as Pepsi and Coke, you have long term consistent products. All colas are not alike and consistent branding is essential. You brand by getting the product name OUT THERE-and keeping it in the forefront of people's minds.

But in today's current market, an author, writer, novelist needs to stay flexible in order to work. A writer may start out writing sweet historical romance-see my seven Morgan family novels by Avalon Books. (Saving Samantha, A Wanted Man, Lovin' Lana, Wyoming Wedding, The Marryin' Kind, The Bettin' Kind and The Lovin' Kind. All titles can be found on BN.com, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and avalonbooks.com) Even if their work is critically acclaimed, (A Wanted Man, the Marryin' Kind, The Bettin' Kind and the Lovin' Kind were all given starred reviews by Booklist Magazine.) the particular kind of story may no longer be in vogue with publisher's marketing departments.

So, in order to keep selling an author has to switch to say romantic suspense,(as in my up-coming novel, Mr. Charming) or paranormal or even contemporary romantic comedy. These switches are done usually without publisher sponsorship. So books are written in advance of selling and the author can have complete novels done with years between publish dates.

In other words, unlike Pepsi or Coke, the product is off the shelf for years at a time.

Facing this sort of market, it's difficult to keep your so called "brand" going. Why should readers care if it takes three years for a new publisher to discover you? You've lost your audience. You have to start your marketing plan all over again. It can be disheartening.

It was suggested that you combat this with a five year plan- a plan to sell certain flavors of books over five years...(Example-plan a series of five paranormal books.)Great-except your books were written at the tail end of a trend and the publisher only bought one...now no one in the book biz wants to publish any more of those kinds of books...suddenly you need a new five year plan...and all that marketing goes to waste.

The solution is to base your brand on something that won't go away for three years...YOU- be active in groups, blogs, contests. Give talks. Write newsletter and magazine articles. Put out a twice yearly or quarterly newsletter. Keep your face and name OUT THERE.

If you think of your brand as a pyramid-the foundation should be your family, friends and loyal readers. Give them something to read like a daily blog (See mine on my website www.nancyjparra.com) The next level should be writers groups and local librarians, booksellers and community work. Followed by national groups, conferences and speaking engagements. Leave the bookmarks and pens for the very tip.

Staying involved is a good way to keep your marketing base during periods of drought. It's a five year plan that works.

Finally, don't give up. The key to good marketing as an author is to write consistently good books. (I know, I know, you always write good books, it's why you're published...) It's still the key. No matter what you write or when, people will know you always deliver.