We writers, especially those of us with small presses and epubs, know how important promo is. And what a time-sucker it is. Yet, because our books aren’t on shelves, we must do promotion.
Nora Roberts once gave excellent advice about promotion. She said writers should spend only a very small percentage of their advance on promo. I forget the exact percentage she recommended. If you’re with a major publisher and you received a large advance, even one percent of that advance will get you some major promotion. What if you don’t get an advance?
My very first book was with Avalon in 2003. I didn’t even have a website then. Avalon pays $1000 advance. Very few of their authors get royalties because the print run is so small. Avalon books are hardbacks and they are marketed specifically to libraries. I didn’t do promo because I had no idea what book promo entailed. Doing promotion for my Avalon book wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. I still wouldn’t have gotten any more than the $1000. I did, however, use some of the money to take my husband and son to dinner at an upscale restaurant, and I bought myself a pair of designer sunglasses, a real treat. And I hired someone to do a website for me. All good uses of my money.
In 2007 my RS, “Logan’s Redemption,” came out with The Wild Rose Press. I love the story and wanted to promote the book. I made lots of expensive mistakes. I should have followed Nora’s advice and spent nothing on promo as I had no advance. I took out an ad in a community newspaper. The ad ran for two issues and was distributed all over the county. I’m too embarrassed to say what the ad cost. Did it sell books? No, and even if it had, I made so little on royalties, there would be no way I could ever recoup what I’d spent. I also paid a company to make a book trailer. The trailer is very nice and professional, but it didn’t sell books. I had postcards made up with the cover. The postcards look good, and I noticed that right after I gave them out at a conference, I had a small uptick in sales. That seems to be the only promo item that even remotely helped sell books. What was I thinking spending all that money on promo? This was an ebook. I didn’t know at the time that, despite glowing reviews, I’d make very little from a non-erotic ebook.
Lesson learned. Fast forward to the present. I have another ebook, "Murder, Mi Amore," scheduled for release at the end of 2010. This time I’ve scheduled a half dozen free, mark that-FREE-online interviews and blogs. When my last ebook came out, I only scheduled one interview. I’ve learned since then to go for the free promo and schedule the interviews early because the slots get filled quickly. I may have postcards made up again, but if I do, they’ll be my only promo expense.
Another thing I did differently this time is I made my very own book trailer. It’s not as professional as the one I paid someone to do, but I think it’s darn good. And I paid a whopping $3.99 to join the video website for one month. I plan to do some tweaking on my video before my month is up. If you want to look at it as it stands now, below is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CarolynMat2
So is there any promo you did which you felt was helpful?
Nora Roberts once gave excellent advice about promotion. She said writers should spend only a very small percentage of their advance on promo. I forget the exact percentage she recommended. If you’re with a major publisher and you received a large advance, even one percent of that advance will get you some major promotion. What if you don’t get an advance?
My very first book was with Avalon in 2003. I didn’t even have a website then. Avalon pays $1000 advance. Very few of their authors get royalties because the print run is so small. Avalon books are hardbacks and they are marketed specifically to libraries. I didn’t do promo because I had no idea what book promo entailed. Doing promotion for my Avalon book wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. I still wouldn’t have gotten any more than the $1000. I did, however, use some of the money to take my husband and son to dinner at an upscale restaurant, and I bought myself a pair of designer sunglasses, a real treat. And I hired someone to do a website for me. All good uses of my money.
In 2007 my RS, “Logan’s Redemption,” came out with The Wild Rose Press. I love the story and wanted to promote the book. I made lots of expensive mistakes. I should have followed Nora’s advice and spent nothing on promo as I had no advance. I took out an ad in a community newspaper. The ad ran for two issues and was distributed all over the county. I’m too embarrassed to say what the ad cost. Did it sell books? No, and even if it had, I made so little on royalties, there would be no way I could ever recoup what I’d spent. I also paid a company to make a book trailer. The trailer is very nice and professional, but it didn’t sell books. I had postcards made up with the cover. The postcards look good, and I noticed that right after I gave them out at a conference, I had a small uptick in sales. That seems to be the only promo item that even remotely helped sell books. What was I thinking spending all that money on promo? This was an ebook. I didn’t know at the time that, despite glowing reviews, I’d make very little from a non-erotic ebook.
Lesson learned. Fast forward to the present. I have another ebook, "Murder, Mi Amore," scheduled for release at the end of 2010. This time I’ve scheduled a half dozen free, mark that-FREE-online interviews and blogs. When my last ebook came out, I only scheduled one interview. I’ve learned since then to go for the free promo and schedule the interviews early because the slots get filled quickly. I may have postcards made up again, but if I do, they’ll be my only promo expense.
Another thing I did differently this time is I made my very own book trailer. It’s not as professional as the one I paid someone to do, but I think it’s darn good. And I paid a whopping $3.99 to join the video website for one month. I plan to do some tweaking on my video before my month is up. If you want to look at it as it stands now, below is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CarolynMat2
So is there any promo you did which you felt was helpful?
5 comments:
It's really, really difficult to know what works and what doesn't. I spent a small fortune to go to RT in 2005 and that included clothes and one costume (which I never wore.)
I sold two books and discovered the true reality of small press sales vs NY print authors' sales. People lined up around the room to buy my MCRW chapter mate Sherrilyn Kenyon's books. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't jealous; it was a wakup call. Sherri is one of the most generous authors around. She has definitely paid her dues. If you've never heard her story about where she was dumped by one of her publishers and couldn't sell anything for four years, then you should. I'm happy for her blazing success because she deserves it.
Sorry, I'm digressing. What has worked for me? Finding the right small press e-publisher for one. Samahain has much better distribution, but print book sales are dropping while e-book sales are rising.
One year I spent over $3000 and I certainly didn't make that much. The next year I spent about half that and made twice what I spent. I definitely take advantage of Vistaprint's free offers (except for s/h).
I don't know what works. I've paid for ads in Romance Sells and my books are in at least a whopping five or six libraries across the US.
I still do a little of everything. I have a video for my upcoming release (August 6)and I took part in a 12 author cover ad from All Romance eBooks. No point in paying a fortune to have my book trashed by RTWell, to be honest sometimes they trash me; sometimes they don't.
I'm running a two month long contest currently to generate interest for my August release. I'm giving away a signed copy a week and then giving the weekly winners a chance at the grand prize of the new release.
I also puchased a book launch package at Author Island; we'll see how that works. I've also done a fan page on FB and at least half of my "fans" aren't "friends" so that's spreading my name a bit.
LOL oh boy do I know what you're talking about. I don't make enough with royalites to pay for online ads. I buy postcards from Vista Print when they're free. If I really want to promo a book, I'll buy low cost "things" from an online wedding favor company which I give away from interview comments.
I don't have enough money to hire promo companies so that's a no go lol
It's hard in the digital age to promo and reach readers.
But, if you want another promo avenue, I'd be happy to host an interview with you on my blog! :-)
I've placed ads in our local paper for my book signing. It did no good. I've done radio spots--with the same results. Just keeping an on-line presense is what seems to work best in my opinion.
Loved the trailer!
Thanks, Marie-Nicole, Sandra and Jerri for stopping by.
Good luck with your contest, Marie Nicole. Let me know how it works out for you. You've done a lot of promo yourself and your advice is helpful.
Sandra, I'd love for you to be interviewed on your blog. You can contact me through this site by linking onto my website. I look forward to hearing from you.
Jerri, I forgot that I also had an interview cover story for the women's supplement of my local paper. That was when my Avalon book came out. Didn't do a darn thing. Some of my co-workers were excited, but that was it. I think an online presence is the way to go. And also free postcards from Vistaprint.
One more thing is to keep writing and writing. The more you have out there, the more chances you have to promote and the more recognizable your name is. (Okay, I need to take this advice since I'm totally stalled with two WIPs.)
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