Getting the Promo eBuzz Going
Panel members: Kate Douglas, Dusty Rhodes, Lynne Hansen
Moderator: Jeff Strand
For those of you unable to attend the panel on promotion at EPICon2002, I'm posting my list of suggestions for ebook promotion below. Feel free to copy any of the information you might want to use.
Kate Douglas,
Jeff Strand &
Conference Chair
Sue Charnley
Lynne Hansen and Dusty Rhodes
Kate's Promo on a Budget
Making the most of your Internet promotion potential
1. Join Epic www.epicauthors.org. If you aren't a member yet, join now. You'll make fantastic contacts and learn a lot about epubbing and online promotion of your work. It's the cheapest $30 you'll ever spend. Once you join, volunteer and get involved. You'll be amazed by the contacts you make. Networking WORKS.
2. Have a website, preferably one you control so you can update regularly and keep information on your writing and works in progress posted. Also put in a "visitor counter." It's instant gratification and tells you if your promotion is bringing someone to your site...you can find counters free at sites like www.bravenet.com.
3. Come up with reasons to bring people to your website. Post excerpts of your books and announce them on the lists, hold contests...I'm a photographer so I link my books page through my photography pages where I do Civil War re-enactment photos and bicycle races. Draws an entirely different crowd to my site of potential readers. Many authors set up really good "links" pages or post free short stories...anything to get readers, not necessarily other writers, to your site. You have to target as wide an audience as possible to get your name out.
4. Have a printable order form on your website. There are still people afraid to buy on-line, but they'll print out the form and send a check for your book. Print up extras and take them with you wherever you go-if someone says they would love to read your book...hand them a form.
5. Get on a lot of lists, as many as you can handle, especially those geared to READERS of your genre more than writers. I'm currently on over thirty. I spend about three hours a day with email, which is excessive, but has successfully gotten my name out--it's also given me the chance to "meet" a lot of people and find other venues to advertise my books. Keep your signature line current and brief-and USE IT!
6. ADVERTISE! I buy at least three ads a year in Romantic Times Magazine. They're group ads and cost about $120 each, but they're well worth it as they get my name and the titles of my books out to folks who aren't necessarily on the lists I frequent. They also insure that my books will be reviewed by RT, which appears to lend validity to the stories even if the review is bad. (HONEYSUCKLE ROSE, for instance, only got 2 stars and a HORRIBLE review, but went on to win an EPPIE and made HSWF's bestseller list)
7. Take advantage of other authors who offer to distribute stuff for you at goody tables at conferences around the globe. I've sent bookmarks as far away as New Zealand...I print up refrigerator magnets, bookmarks, flyers, etc. I'm currently working on a two sided flyer because I have a number of titles to promote. I do all these items on my own printer.
8. Check with your publisher to see if they will include your promotional material (flyers, etc.) with shipped orders of disks or print books. That takes your advertising directly to the reader who is already buying from your publisher.
9. Enter contests. I'm proud of my EPPIEs, but I'm just as proud of the contests where my books finaled in competition against print books, even though I didn't win. It gets my title, name and website URL in front of many potential new readers.
10. HOLD contests. Use your website and the guest book, advertise your contest on all those lists you've joined <grin> and with the various websites that are always looking for content-www.myshelf.com is one example I can think of. Su Kopil's site: www.earthlycharms.com is another.
11. Donate books for contests. The review magazine, Affaire de Coeur, occasionally gives away books from their website. Many of the review sites also appreciate copies of your book for prizes. Send them to RWA conferences as door prizes...there's nothing quite so satisfying as donating diskettes to RWA conferences-I have never had my donation refused!
12. Get reviews. Most publishers will send your books out for some reviews, but it's up to you to get more. That way you can pick and choose from the very best comments to post on your website. Don't worry about getting reviews the moment your book is released-remember, as an ebook, your "shelf life" is indefinite-as long as the book is selling, I doubt there's an epublisher anywhere who would consider pulling it. There are no "remaindered" ebooks.
13. Do interviews, author spotlights-any on-line activity that gets your name in front of readers. Award winning author Patricia White's excellent advice for finding interview sites? When an author announces an interview, go to the site, read it, then contact the site and see if they'd like to interview you! This is NOT the time to be shy or self-deprecating. Strut your stuff-and make sure you don't say anything you'll regret later...those interviews stay up for a LONG time!