Book Marketing is Making a Shift

Used to be, getting blog reviewers for your book was easy; about as easy as writing a letter to your grandmother and getting a response. But things have changed.

Just since last year, I have noticed many bloggers who also review books shifting gears a bit. Many are now doing author interviews and showing off new releases. There just isn't the time to read an entire book and place a review on Amazon.

What's easy is getting the author to send you all of the material for a terrific question and answer interview. All that's needed then is a bit of copying and pasting of the material.



And the promotion is done.

I am all for promotion, however it looks, but I am finding in more and more difficult to get the reviews that still are the number one (online) way to sell books. What this means to me is that I have to work all that much harder at getting the reviews, and still manage to get the author interviews and other free promotion I need done, and this takes extra time.

The good news is that if a reviewer likes one of my books they may be interested in reviewing another, but if this is your first book, times are hard, and getting those reviews in may cause you to wish things were back to the 'old' days.

Having said that, I think it's important to take a look at all the new great things that people are doing to sell their books. Just last week I was a part of another author's first book release. She took most of the time on Facebook doing contests and talking about her book for her day book party; I was given an hour of her day to promote mine.

It's an interesting idea, one that I may try again. We didn't get loads of responses, but I figure this was partially due to the fact that she was a new author, and I was the only other author a part of the day. Perhaps more authors scheduled would help, especially those with a name for themselves in their particular genre?

I have seen #hashtags take a leap in interest along with doing your own book trailer. Another thing I am enjoying is connecting with readers and authors on Facebook and LinkedIn, who want to swap reviews, or have a group that allows you to post the book you need reviews for.

Still, what I am seeing the most of are author and character interviews, and I can tell you quite honestly that usually these (on my site) get the most views out of everything I post. So that should tell you something.

If you have great way of finding reviewers, please let me know. One of the best things I have learned is that working with other authors brings results, even if it's primarily readers who haven't 'yet' bought your book.

Kathryn

Snarled by Social Media

Sometimes, we get so excited about our writing, we forget to follow the rules about social media Thus was the case for me yesterday.

I have been sharing my new book, Marketing Your Book on a Budget 2013, with my social media friends and one of them didn't like it.

Photo by: carterse, courtesy of Flickr

I got a pretty specific "you are a snarl" type note about being removed from the group if I let it happen again. I went into the site, checked over the rules, and sure enough, I was a "snarl."

But I was still mad.

Didn't writers want to know about writing books? I wasn't promoting just "a book" I'd written, (you know a fictional tale) but something that could actually help another writer with their marketing.

But there it was in black and white.

"No personal promotion."

I had a choice to make. Since I am actively engaged in at least 20 social media groups; (like those on Facebook or Linkedin) who, by the way, have never discouraged me from sharing my work, especially when the book's just been released, I realized I had two choices. Either I could carry on with the group, trying to remember not to post any personal promotion, or I could drop the group.

I decided to drop the group. This wasn't because the group wasn't good, or I didn't like the people in it, or anything like that. I dropped it because it was far easier for me not to worry about the "one" group that didn't like what I was doing.

Since yesterday, I have thought a lot about joining social media groups, and I think it's important, first of all, to check them out before signing up. It's important to respect the rules that have been set up, or you might be apologizing and doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk like I was.
 

Photo by: _dChris, courtesy of Flickr

Two, if you're wanting to do some personal promotion of your own, make sure this isn't all you do. I guess I'd gotten a little, shall we say "excited" about my new book and I wanted everyone and their dog (snarl) to know about it. Make sure you ask questions of others and respond honestly to others' comments that are posted. Make some friends. Learn something new. And have fun!