The golden years of publishers doing the leg work of pushing new books has passed. I missed it! The new era, though, has lots more exciting possibilities. E-publishing. Podcasts and other audio publishers. (Not self-publishing, though. There is a reason for editors, believe me.) Resourceful writers (and I wish I were one) can get their work out there in any number of ways.
Someday, I’ll put up an actual author web site, but for now, Facebook and MySpace pages constitute my networking and promotion efforts. And this blog. Web sites have a distinct role, but so does Facebook and MySpace, which allow you to promote directly to your virtual friends, who are also hopefully your readers. Be mindful, though, of the site rules – see my previous blog for more info.
I’m pretty clueless about marketing my work, so I Googled “author promotion” and found a few great web sites. Some seem like scams – always be on the lookout for others wanting to make money from unsuspecting and newbie authors. Others, though, had good advice:
http://www.author-promotion.com/: Author and Book Promotions. Check out the Articles link for lots of good tips from experienced authors on everything from writing a book synopsis to the value of a press release.
http://wordpress.com/tag/author-marketing-tools/: WordPress’ Author Marketing Tools page with lots of great links
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/muzes-musings-book-promo-101/posts/tag/author%20promotion/: Muze’s Musings Book Promo 101 is devoted to author promotions
http://www.bauuinstitute.com/Marketing/FreeWebsiteHostsforAuthors1.html: A list of sites offering free Web pages
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on promotion. Sites like YouTube feature book trailers (yes, another thing to learn!) that can gain global attention. One generous author posted a tutorial on her site on how to make your own book trailer: http://mysite.verizon.net/ljswriter/workshop/trailerworkshop.html
Keep in mind, too, that it’s an ongoing process requiring constant attention to freshen web content or put the latest news out there. It’s one thing to gain a readership, and another entirely to keep it.
