By Caroline Clemmons
Some author friends and I recently had an amazing
experience. We launched a boxed set of nine book in a month long Facebook
party. Yes, the event was time consuming and expensive, but also rewarding. Online, we met
and made (we hope!) incredible reader friends.
What is indispensable to authors? READERS! And these readers
let us pick their brains about what they like and don’t like. Fantastic, right?
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| The kind of reader we love! |
Authors spend hour after hour alone at the computer with only the company of a dog or a cat and maybe some music. We do leave our writing caves occasionally in search of chocolate and a beverage. And to shower, eat, and go to writers meetings. Most of the day and a lot of the night, though, each of us spends time only with the people in his or her head. These characters are real to us, and we hope our writing makes brings them to life for our readers. Is that sane? Probably not, but it makes for nice books.
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| Me in my writing cave -- anyone have chocolate? |
Promotion is usually a dirty word to authors. We resent the
time away from our writing. So many times we have no idea if what we’re
spending time and money on is what makes a difference in our sales. In the first place, growing up we were told bragging on ourselves, beating our own drum or tooting our horn was impolite. As authors, we have to pound the heck out of the drum and toot our horn as loud as we can to call attention to our books. Is anyone listening to us?
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| Hey, readers, please buy my book! |
That’s why this launch party helped us. Readers told us what
they wanted and what they didn’t want. We learned about book cover appeal.
About plots and heroes and heroines. This was a treasure load of information.
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| One of the logos from our promotion event |
From sales spikes, we saw what paid publicity affected sales and
what didn’t. A lot didn’t, by the way. So, in the future, look for better books
directed toward the readers who partied hearty with us in September.
♥WE LOVE YOU, READERS! ♥
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| Mmwahhh. |
It was definitely a breakthrough in social media for authors and readers to connect. Well done, ladies!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Caroline, on a job well done.
ReplyDeleteAnna Jeffrey
An amazing feat, Caroline. Thanks for all your hard work, and thanks to all the ladies for pitching in with enthusiasm. It's been educational and more fun that I ever thought it could be. :)
ReplyDeletePromotion is always hard for an artist. Great job. Enjoyed your comments.
ReplyDeleteCaroline, I wish I'd been able to participate, but I spent all of September dealing with problems from armadillos digging under the foundation of our weekend home to rounds of doctor appointments for my daughter. A month long party celebrating writing and reading would have been SO much more fun!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on keeping the sales going.