I start to answer questions below. Please add to the list at the original Questions post here. And away we go!
Jessica Burkhart asks:
I’m curious about what level of promotion you did for SSG. With a four-book series, did you hire a publicist or handle everything yourself with the help of your publisher? I’m trying to figure out the best approach for me, so I’d love to hear what worked (or what didn’t) for you.
Level Seven. Sorry, Buffy the Vampire Slayer moment.
It’s worthwhile to keep in mind that SSG was not a four book series until a few months ago, when I sold the second two books. I think it’s great to sell the series (and my publisher has been doing an excellent job of that with the connected covers and the excerpts for each subsequent book in the back of the previous), but when I was promoting my first book, that’s what I was doing. Promoting a book. There was only one. Now that there are two, I promote two. When there are three, well, you get the idea.
I did not hire an independent publicist. I considered it, and I even talked to a couple of them. The (very) few who deigned to return my phone calls quoted me outlandish prices. The kind that would pay my living expenses for a year. That was obviously out. I spoke to a couple of writer friends who had hired (cheaper and not so much cheaper) independent publicists and though I got both good reviews and bad, in the end I decided it wasn’t for me. You’re going to have to talk to others about it.
Luckily, I have one of the best publicists in the business right at my own publisher, and she’s been great in helping me develop and implement my book promotion plan, not to mention arranging lots of great opportunities for me. But there’s not much I can speak to there because not only does every single publishing house handle this differently, but every single publishing house handles this differently with every single book. At some houses or with some books, an editor might handle certain aspects, or a publicist, or a marketing department, or the author herself. It all depends.
What works? It depends what you mean by “work.” You’re more likely to get reviews if you send out ARCs, quotes if you ask for them, etc. But if by “works” you mean “works to bring in readers…” then I don’t have a clue. The only thing I can think of that I know “works” is distribution and co-op. People are more likely to buy a book if they see it. So what all those other things, articles and appearances and etc. are designed to do, in my opinion, is to make the book more visible.
But you can make yourself crazy trying to do everything out there that you can do, or spend all your money on the different ways to promote your book, or spend all your time promoting, and none of it writing. Not good. Pick what you want to do based on what is easiest, cheapest (or at least most reasonable), and appeals to you — because it plays to your strengths, or you think it’s fun, or you like it from the consumer side.
I designed and made secret society pins because they were such an important plot point in the books and I thought they’d be fun. My publisher loved them too, and actually incorporated them into the paperback covers. My friend Marianne Mancusi made pins because the cover of her book already had a pin on it. But that doesn’t mean I think “pins work.” It wa somethign I liked that tied in well with my novel. To compare, Marianne is a big fan of MySpace and its networking potential with her readership. But I don’t like MySpace. I have a hard time using it, and I hardly ever go to MySpace pages. So I’ve never gotten into MySpace, even though I can understand that it works for others.
So those are my current feelings about promotion. I love doing the stuff I do, but I think to prevent driving yourself crazy over it, you need to treat your promotional efforts as ends in themselves. Don’t blog because someone has told you to. Blog because you like blogging. Otherwise, you will be disappointed in your effort/results ratio. Same thing when you are looking at the cost/results ratio. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I have more books out, or when I expand into the YA fantasy field in the coming years, but that’s where I’m at now.
Hope that helps!
Don’t forget to keep asking questions at the original question post.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:50 am
“Don’t blog because someone has told you to. Blog because you like blogging.”
Hmmm…
I’m going to have to talk to Robin about this…
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July 25th, 2007 at 9:21 am
I think MySpace is a great tool for no $, especially for YA authors. Stephenie Meyer has certainly made killer use of MySpace.
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July 25th, 2007 at 9:27 am
That helped tremendously! Thank you! I was struggling to figure out what I was “supposed” to do and what was overkill. It’s definitely not a decision to take lightly, so I’ll be doing lots of research to decide what options work the best.
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July 25th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Stephenie Meyer has a MySpace page? This is the first I’ve ever heard of it. It’s not under her name, or bella, or twilight.
Also, is it something she’s done herself, or something that was done for her? A lot of my YA author friends have their publishers create MySpace pages for them. Robin Brande, for instance. I think to make really good use of MySpace you need to devote an ENORMOUS amount of time to it. I’ve heard of authors spending hours every night trying to find “friends.”
It’s hard to do that when MySpace crashes your browser every five minutes, as it does mine.
And there is a problem of overuse. I’ve heard people say that MySpace has outlived it’s usefulness because it’s turned into nothing but ads. I know whenever I sign on, I have about twenty “this profile no longer exists” messages on my friend request loops, becuase some bot was trying to spam me. And since you have bots that trawl for friends — people aren’t stupid. they know when it’s a machine asking to be their friend.
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July 25th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I’ve read advice that says, plan on spending your advance on a publicist. Assuming, of course, we’re talking about a standard advance. Obviously you’re better off if you can do it yourself and do it WELL.
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July 25th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I think the pins were a great idea! And how neat that they appeared on the paperback covers!
Which is pretty much the point I want to make: if you want something done right, do it yourself. In my experience, the Little Red Hen approach works better than hiring “professionals”, who may (but more likely may not) have more horse sense (or chick sense) than you, but who certainly won’t have your drive and commitment to the cause.
As for MySpace, I put up a page last fall but haven’t gone back, inasmuch as I am being constantly beseiged by would-be friends with cute teenie-bopper names who are most likely trolling vice cops in disguise. Who has time for this sh*t?! Moreover, today’s headlines in CT say that thousands of registered sex offenders are happily ensconced on MySpace, which is (according to CT’s Attorney General) doing nothing to remove them. It’s enough to give a once-good site a bad name.
In the final analysis, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned author signing to generate both interest and sales. Once again, I recommend justbooks.org and its owner Jenny Lawton, who has brought more authors of all stripes to the Fairfield/Westchester area than anyone would have guessed possible.
Likewise, the Borders/Waldenbooks chain has special little “signed by the author” stickers, so that if they carry your book it always pays to sign a few wherever your travels may take you. People *love* signed copies!
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July 25th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Shelley, I heard that advice too, but I don’t believe it.
What are we calling a “standard” advance? Let’s say it’s 10k. I spent less than half that, and I got a professionally designed website and all kinds of frippery, traveled quite a bit, bought clothes for said travels, and etc. And I had money to play around with. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have spent nearly what I did.
You certainly CAN spend all your advance if you want. Some website designers popular with romance authors START at 10 or 12k, and those Book Trailers aren’t cheap either. And those indie publicists are pricey, too. You really need to think about what you expect out of a particular part of promotion before you plunk down your money/time for it.
Bill, I agree with you about MySpace, but I don’t know about the Little Red hen theory. I certainly don’t know how to do a lot of the things that the indie publicists were talking about. But I wasn’t ken on them, either — certainly not enough to pay what they were charging me!
I also don’t know how worthwhile a booksigning is. I do a few, but usually, they are more of an exercise in humiliation for the author. Drop bys I’ll do, since it’s usually no muss no fuss, but even there I’ve had bad experiences. I was even asked for ID once.
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July 25th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
You know, it was Sherrilyn Kenyon (my marketing idol) who suggested I make the Bite Me pins. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak on publicity, run, don’t walk. The woman is a genius and has fought tooth and nail for her success.
Nowadays I mostly use MySpace as a fan club where I can interact with my YA readers. The MySpace address is listed at the back of the books so kids can find me. I no longer troll for new readers because really, who has the time? It did work to make a splash for the first book in the series, though.
I agree, do what works for you, what you have time for, what you feel comfortable with. Think about who you’re targeting – your readers, booksellers, media – and adjust accordingly.
Weirdly enough, my #1 publicity success to date was wearing a miniskirt to this RWA booksigning…
Marianne
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July 26th, 2007 at 8:43 am
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52906350
Her add me Box was blank, (I see that glitch sometimes)so I could not copy her simple address.
Also, she has an faq MySpace moderated by a fan.
http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupID=102028590&Mytoken=DE29DD6F-8551-D836-162585D938C6C63857240655
I trolled for friends when I first signed up, but my recent outgoing requests hav been infrequent. I have not had any major problems as a user and I just decline the spam bots.
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