From In Plain Sight….
Marshall: Patience, grasshopper.
Mary: Suck it, sensei.
I read a post earlier today all about marketing (author marketing) on a go-to site. But I could not disagree more with the author’s take on marketing.
I read a post within the past month, dang, can’t even remember any longer where I read it or who wrote it, but the blogger discussed how he’d entirely forgotten that he’d scheduled his KDP Select free promotion, hadn’t done any promo, any marketing, yet his sales skyrocketed after the promotion ended. Thank you, Lord. At last, someone else who’s not obsessed with marketing.
I have cut back on the promo over the past year - I don’t do the like me stuff or the follow me stuff or the buy me stuff or the vote for me stuff. You can like me or dislike me, follow me or not, buy me or not. I’m not going to ask you to vote for a book you probably haven’t read. Free will, baby. It’s up to you. Blog tours, interviews and reviews can be valuable, and I love hosting new-to-me authors and old faves. But I personally haven’t noticed a resulting bump in sales after a blog tour or a review.
I love my readers, and I thank everyone of you for reading my books. It’s that simple.
Judith Brile says this:
“Here’s one of the secrets of a successful author: Five percent of the author’s time goes into the creation of the masterpiece—the remaining 95 percent will go into marketing and support of it over a period of time. Ninety-five percent!
“Your book journey is similar to an iceberg—your completed and published book is just the tip of it … it’s all the marketing effort under the surface that needs to be created, implemented and supported that leads to success. It’s what successful authors know … and what naïve and newbie authors need to know. The 95 percent factor.”
J. W. Manus has this to say in response:
“Call me old fashioned or even lazy, but I do not believe all that mad marketing sells many books. It’s nice to believe that writers/publishers can manipulate readers through marketing campaigns. I DO believe, and know for a fact, the system can be gamed. What I actually think about all this is the same thing that I’ve always thought, write a great story and then write another and don’t freak out about marketing and promotion. I think the key is having one’s name out there. That’s where social media and blogs and websites and all that other stuff is useful. But for selling a single title? I don’t buy it for a moment.
“The trouble with marketing is that no one really knows how it works or why it works when it does, so it’s actually more like the lottery where there just enough big winners to get everybody excited and salivating.
“Personally, I think writers should focus on what they do they best and make honest efforts to connect with readers and keep writing and keep putting books out there. Some books find big audiences and some books find small audiences, and who knows why? Nobody knows. So why drive yourself crazy thinking about it?
“The urge to Do Something, Anything! is as old as the writing profession itself. Slow sales are disheartening, but they aren’t the end of the world. The nice thing about ebooks is, they’re around for forever (whatever that might end up meaning) so if the magic of right place/right time occurs, there the book is, available.
“Funny things happen in publishing. They always have. A book or an author might chug along quietly for years, then SOMETHING happens and suddenly it’s overnight success time and everybody races to emulate whatever it is the book or author had been doing all along.
“I try not to think much about marketing advice. 99% of it is pure hooey and the 1% that actually does anything worthwhile can be done quietly and without much fuss. Mostly it irritates me because it tends to put writers into panic mode, which causes them to act like nitwits or obnoxious spammers, and that’s sad. It makes a lot of money for the “gurus” pushing it, though, so I doubt we’ll see the end of them any time soon. (did you notice how the Book Shepherd blamed the authors for not trying hard enough? Never once entertained the thought that all that marketing bullshit was, um, bullshit?)
“I do suspect (and greatly hope) the Era of the Blockbuster is coming to an end. And none too soon. A book beloved by readers, even if it is only a handful of readers, is a worthy book. I am sick and tired of those books being called “failures” because they don’t hit best seller lists.
“Write your best, keep the books coming, connect with readers honestly, and you’re a success.”
(I don’t know about you, but I sure feel better.)
I’m with you Julia. I don’t like to promote myself and beg for followers. I’ve done blog tours for others, so I’m not sure if sales increase. I don’t think there’s ONE secret for all writers. There’s one secret for each writer. I haven’t found mine yet. LOL
Thank you! I totally believe that I should be writing my next book, not spending all my time promoting it. When I say that to fellow writers, they look at me like I’m nuts. But I really believe that sales are a crap shoot and I much rather spend my time writing a book than talking about the last one. With that said, I do appreciate those who take the time to buy and read my book (and to give me nice reviews!).
The big problem I am seeing right now with authors on social media is the difference between oily used car salesmen type tactics (Buy Me! Like Me! Write a review for me and post it on Amazon! Linkie, linkie, linkie)……and, genuine social interactions with readers. And there is a HUGE difference. Authors who are reaching out to colleagues, readers, and making new friends via social media are probably gaining fans and interest for their work. Authors shoving their aggressive marketing down everyone’s throats are turning folks off, and hurting their own cause. I agree w/ Jaye. Just write a good book. No one ever said that authors were supposed to turn into a bunch of arseholes hawking their wares on the street corners.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I always feel weird even mentioning that my book (any book) is now available. And now…back to our regularly scheduled programming.
The best first month sales I ever had was from a book I did NO promo for. I was new to publishing and too dumb to promo.
The next book I promoed the hell out of. Guess what? Readers skyrocketed BUT they were pirated readers… I was promoing to people who pirate books. The pirates downloaded thousands of copies of my book the first 14 days and left hundreds of pirate-host thank-yous and comments on one site alone.
Sales on that book dropped.
I promoed the third book more aggressively. The trend got worse. I was on the pirate site a day BEFORE my book was released.
So I have to conclude that at least a portion of the marketing an author does is to their detriment. I concluded it’s better to skip some marketing venues and simply concentrate on the content of the book.
Concentrating on content and allowing word of mouth to slowly spread seems to be working for me. Those readers tend to come back and buy books. Over time, sales on back catalog books slowly climb instead of fall.
XXOO Kat
Thanks for the promo, Julia. Heh.
I’ve been seeing this craziness for as long as I’ve been in publishing. The promo craze really ramped up and geared up in the mid-nineties. The internet just makes it easier to do (raise your hand if you still have plenty leftover from those 10,000 bookmarks you had printed to include in every mailing, up to and including, your utility bill)
Discoverability. Get your name out there. Get people familiar with who you are. First and foremost, write great books. I can’t count how many times I’ve spotted a title while browsing (bookstore, Walmart, the library, internet) and remember having seen the author’s name in some positive context (That guy made me laugh; She wrote a really nice blog article; She talks to me on Twitter; He comments on my blog) and I pick up the book. If I really like it, I tell my friends, tell my blog readers, yak on Twitter, put the author on my Must Buy list.
I can’t tell you how many times a yapping author has made him/herself so obnoxious, I wouldn’t read their books even if they were free.
My ultimate goal? I want readers to make a positive association with my name. So when they are browsing and spot one of my books, they’ll give it a try. I want to write stories worthy of somebody’s Must Buy list. There are several writers I have contacted and asked them to email me as soon as they have a new book available. I will know I’ve succeeded when I start getting those, please put me on a list, emails from readers, too.
It is not easy to market books..What works for one person might not work for another…Getting a book out there is a hard task and a lot of work..People have so much to pick from….
Savannah - totally. I don’t see the rhyme or reason, at least not most of the time. Sometimes a book is just sticky.
Heck yeah, Jaye. Thanks for allowing me to quote you at length! Yes, we want positive associations with our name and our work, not annoying associations. For me, it’s all about telling a story the best I can. For the most part, my work has to speak for me. I’m not a salesperson and I never have been. On the other hand, I’m a damn good waitress!
Interesting, Kat. You are not the only person to say something like this. Sometimes I think it’s better to write the book, get it out there and forget the hype.
You’re welcome, Anny!
I agree, Penny - but we feel so left out of the loop when we aren’t hawking our wares. So we have to get it into our heads that it’s okay. The loop just goes around and around…
Yup, Casey, sales are a crap shoot. No question about it. So just write the best story you can.
Oh, I know, Amber. I hate the begging thing. Makes me cringe.
I don’t have to much of a problem with authors I follow on Twitter self publicising and asking for a RT, as long as they engage with me in the “social” aspect of the medium, cos that’s what it’s there for, right. Like wot u do
Right Tom - cuz that’s what I like to do is just chat. It’s fun!
I love your definition of success.
I think marketing needs to be condensed to a four letter word, since it has about the same impact.
Hmmmm, what four-letter word do you have in mind, Sandra?