Prep & Promotion
Posted Thu, 12/27/12
What does an author do to prepare for the release of a new book? We certainly don't sit back and expect others to do all the promotional leg work. And contrary to popular myth, the publisher does not take the helm in regards to advertising. Actually, I can safely say authors do most of the promotion for their own books, unless your name happens to be Stephen King or J.K. Rowling.
That's okay with me. Although it takes a great deal of time and focus to promote solo, it also allows the author to control various image aspects of their work. Perhaps not the book cover design, which is more often than not under the direction of the publisher with some author input, but in all other areas of visual and text promotion online.
Aside from the actual book, I also write my own short and long blurbs describing the story. I then carefully select a specific set of excerpts to display online as well as in downloadable format, and then go about creating little extras such as a Facebook page for the novel, story quizzes, flyers, special web sites featuring the specific book, drawings and contests, adding links to the book at various author-related sites (Authonomy, Book Blogs, Good Reads, Google+, Linked-In, Pinterest, Scribd and Twitter to name a few), and finally making time for interviews and posting independent book reviews (both good and bad).
Lucky for me, I don't have to hire out the "little extras." Working with web design as a sideline has been beneficial to me in more ways than one. I cannot even imagine the cost of having someone else do the work for me. The only drawback is the amount of time needed to put it all together, re: assembling all of the promotional goodies to a professional level and then utilizing the appropriate web sites to advertise my books for free.
It's time that could be better spent writing new material, but that's the way of it for now.
Tags: Writing & Editing