Promotion, PROmotion, PROMOTION
If you’re like me, you feel that once you have written a story or novel, your job is done except for telling a few friends about it and perhaps floating a note or two on the Internet. After all, the Process and Result of Creation is the main thing and anything else is boring work that belongs in the prosaic, trivial world of business. Let the PUBLISHER worry about promoting your work. REAL writers exist in a rarefied realm far above such petty concerns and shouldn’t worry about them. Their integrity depends upon not getting contaminated by the practical and vulgar world of the marketplace. Right?
Alas, no. The truth is, that sometimes promotion may be even more important than writing, and the writer ignores it at his or her peril. The need to promote one’s work is an urgent one because of many factors, the main one being that often there seems to be an infinite number of writers competing with you for the reader’s attention and the buyer’s buck.
I was reminded of this fact last week when I visited a local Barnes & Noble. I had tried to arrange a book signing there but without success. However, the CRM (Community Relations Manager) said she’d order some copies of my novel. When I went there, I was pleased to find two copies of Speaker of The Shakk in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section. However, that doesn’t mean that they’ll sell. In fact, judging by the high number of competing titles (it was a little like searching for a needle in a haystack), it probably won’t sell unless I promote it. Mundania Press produces a fine, professional-looking product, a 6 x 9” trade paperback with good stock and a striking cover. But the price of my book, $12.95, is steep. If it came to a choice between my novel and an Orson Scott Card paperback for $6.95 or $7.95, which book would you buy? That is, assuming you noticed my novel’s hiding space on the fourth shelf in row two in the first place?
Yes, folks, you’ve got to promote.
As I implied in my very first sentence, I don’t like to promote much. Also, to be frank, I don’t know much about it. However, for the benefit of beginning and developing writers (and aren’t we all developing?), I thought I’d mention a few of the things that I am doing to sell Speaker of the Shakk. This essay will therefore be sketchy and incomplete, the work of an apprentice promoter. Feel free to add other promotional techniques and methods in your comments after reading this. While my suggestions concern mainly books, they can be applied with lesser force to shorter works such as short stories (I once had a book signing at a Barnes & Noble for an erotic horror story that appeared in Hot Blood.)
One more point before I post my brief list: The publisher should promote your work too, make it possible for you to sell. Let’s assume you find a publisher that among other things, (1) gives you a good cover that grabs and interests the reader, (2) provides an astute, sensitive editor that helps you to polish your writing and avoid problems such as plot inconsistencies, (3) has your work posted on Amazon, Fictionwise, and other sales venues, and (4) advertises your book and sends it to various reviewers.
And if your publisher doesn’t do some of these things? Well, that means you have to work harder and be even more resourceful in promoting it yourself, doesn’t it?
Okay, here are some of the things I’ve done to promote Speaker of the Shakk.
1. First, I arranged for book signings at a local Borders and Barnes & Noble on two different days later this month. Both CRM’s have ordered 25 copies, and the stores promote a little by listing you on a calendar or announcement of events. However, whoever looks at them? At least one of the stores designs a sign.
2. At the signings, I will have a free 8½ by 11 inch promotional sheet listing two of my novels plus purchase info. Yes, I know a postcard or perhaps a bookmark would be better, but as I said, I’m a beginner. I have also taken this sheet to some local libraries, where I’ve arranged for it to be available.
3. I teach at a university as large as a small city. I arranged for a friend there, a tech
specialist, to post a “Message of the Day” announcement of my signings in Campus Announcements, our daily online newsletter. It will run repeatedly between now and the signings, and will be seen by every faculty member and staffer at the school who logs on. In this case, multiple postings can be crucial. If you see something once or twice, you may forget it. Three or four times, and it’s more likely to catch your attention.
4. I called the individual who handles events for the local paper and asked him if he could put in an announcement for the Compass. I then e-mailed him requested materials and information. (It didn’t hurt that several years before, the newspaper had done a great story about me sparked by the publication of a book of short stories by Dark Regions Press.)
5. I’ve promoted the novel on various Yahoo groups I belong to. To mention just one, An_Alternative_Read encourages writers to post excerpts of their novels and to provide blurbs and the like. I’m not sure how effective all these groups are, but you can also use them to invite members to your web site and urge them to post comments to your blogs. Some writers run contests and give away prizes and free electronic copies online.
Okay, that’s my “starter” list. Feel free to add other suggestions, such as networking at cons, public readings, trailers, RSS feeds, a writer fanzine sent to a subscription list, and so on. Perhaps in an ideal world, the unaided word would be mightier than any sword, capable single-handedly of selling itself to the masses. But in this world, the difference between an unread book and a commercially successful one, is often the writer who has a well-thought-out marketing plan and is willing to spend the time, money, and sweat to promote the book even before it’s gone to press.
