Promotion. It sounds so simple, so innocent, you'd never know that promotion was a fierce battleground where reputations were made and lost.
Authors live and breathe promotion because they want to help get the word out. And someauthors are lucky enough to have a publishing house that is like-minded. But for the rest of us, promotion is something we have to strategize about, to make sure we get the most bang for our buck.
This is my first year with a book and I've tried various marketing approaches. To be honest, I can't say one approach has been more successful than another, because what I hear is that the more well known you become, the more folks will read your backlist.
For ebooks, I believe an active presence online is essential and chats help keep your product fresh in people's minds. For print sales, I have to say, the bookmark has been the tool I've used the most. I've mailed them out and handed them out everywhere. People go away with my material in hand and I consider that a future sale in the making.
When it comes to what the publisher can do for me, then I believe it's the publisher's reputation that comes into play. The publisher can help me most by being known for high quality books. I expect the publisher to do their job, and I'll do mine - which is write the best possible story I can.
As a reader, I will chose a new author if either the title or the cover is intriguing. Then I'll pick the book up and read the blurb. From there, I'll read the first page. If I'm not hooked, the book doesn't get bought.
Gotta love books!
Maggie Toussaint
House of Lies, from The Wild Rose Press
www.maggietoussaint.com
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