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Friday, July 22, 2016

social media and promoting

 due out end of July, second book in what is now called the Barrio Viejo series
Because I've been wrestling with how to best promote the next book, debating what is a wise use of my time in marketing, these two links were of interest.


To be honest, I felt a sense of relief reading that first one, as social media can suck up a lot of time. How much does it help? For writers who push their books a ton of places at once, I suspect it is more annoying for readers to find their news feed swamped by those blurbs. 

On the other hand, social media is one of the few places writers can let readers get to know them and their work. Most writers don't like doing promotion, but it's also no fun to see a book fall into Amazon's black hole-- and without readers, that's exactly what will happen. The following site then offered hope


It's not enough to get your book seen. It has to be seen by those most likely to read that genre. I would love to hear from those who are wildly successful at it as I have never understood what works. I use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email list signup, and do post new books on GoodReads (but don't do more there than that). Facebook is where I've spent the most time.

Often when I get a jump in sales, I can't tie it to anything I did-- nor have I ever figured out why suddenly there are no sales. I've used only one place to promote my books using $$-- boosting a post at Facebook. I then saw many coming to the site... but sales??? pffft.

In terms of social media, I guess I'll keep my blogs active (even when a lot of times I have to dig for something to say), notify my email list when new books come out, offer tweets every couple of days, and participate in places that I feel I can contribute something in terms of writing process. Also I'll share new books by other authors, when I have enjoyed their books.  I don't want to spend lots of hours in social media

For this week, I have a book to do the final edit after it comes back from the beta readers, creating a book trailer, writing a blurb, and am beginning to plot out the next book in this series. Overall, I think it'll do well... Okay, I don't know about that, but i am excited about the subject matter and mostly that's what it's about. 



These two guys are stray cats and they are also part of what is on tap right now. We are willing to give them both a shot at being house cats if that works out. It's uncertain that it will. The black one was marked as feral by having her ear clipped when she was spayed. The orange one got into a fight with a raccoon and ended up having an abscess treated when he was neutered. It's still iffy though if they want to be part of our home. Kind of like the books and maybe that's the lesson in it all-- do what you can and then sometimes accept it won't always go as you would wish. We haven't named them yet as if they don't come in at night, get along with our two, then we'll have to consider other options. I am not fond of the idea of inside/outside cats because of all the risks from predators and vehicles.

7 comments:

  1. Social media can be extremely helpful, but it's kind of a "feed the meter" thing. You have to keep at it for seemingly no reason.

    My biggest hits come from people talking about me elsewhere, which is not controllable, but what happens is I post something interesting, a reader happens to see it, and then he goes off and discusses it on a forum. If I didn't post to my blog every week, I probably wouldn't have even written it, let alone had the courage to post it (my most popular pieces tend to be the most I'm afraid of). And that first reader wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been a Facebook friend.

    The views on my blog are drastically higher when I share on social media, and even higher than that when I'm active on it, so even though it can feel like a terrible waste of time, it's just not always instantaneous.

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  2. Daveler, that's interesting. I like to hear how others see their work in the media and how it benefits or not. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. You've expressed the universal complaint of writers, Rain. Some things that helped me are a Book Bub ad (hard for me to get), Book Gorilla, Ereader News Today (ENT), Long and Short Reviews, Night Owl Reviews, and others.

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  4. It is a crap shoot for what works. It seems like each book is different. I've had my best sales from Ereader News Today. And then out of the blue I'll have a day of good sales and didn't do anything that I know of. Hang in there and do what you feel comfortable doing.

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  5. I've heard of those sites and thanks for putting them here; so I can find them again when I want to give paying for promo a try. I've heard of those who pay and get zero return; so it's definitely a crap shoot as I see it. I guess BookBub is pretty guaranteed but it's costly if it didn't work. I think the new one's problem is being out of my normal genre and not fitting the other ones like urban fantasies. I have a new word now for what it is-- mashup ;). I'd never even heard that until my husband told me we should use it in tags lol

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  6. Good luck with the new book when it publishes. Social media can be fun--like chatting with people at a cocktail party--but too much drains time and energy. For myself I do what can be scheduled, and I'm always happy to help friends. I've been cutting back on social media because my time is really limited. I need to direct the little available time I have to writing.

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    1. I see it that way too, Joan. I enjoy getting to know authors, see how their lives impact their work, and that's the big advantage to me of social media; but it can be a time drain.

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