QUESTION:
Carolyn, I can't remember my password for Author's Den. Shucks. I have been a member of IFOGO but never use it. My question--what is the point of marketing myself to other authors?
~Michael D. "Moon" Mullins, award winning author. "Vietnam in Verse, poetry for beer drinkers" is available on line from Amazon & B&N. and B-a-M book stores & available as an audio-book exclusively from the author. Co-author of Kings of the Green Jelly Moon, the book. Please contact me at this e-mail address; mullins.m.1@ comcast.net or via land mail at POB 456 Windfall, In. 46076.Vietnam Veteran, Delta 3/7, 199th Light Infantry, '68-'69. Vice President of MWSA. Supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project.
ANSWER:
I guess the short answer to that is, “other authors read.” The trick is to show every different niche group what they can get from what you do. It's also about career building rather than book sales. It's about showing people benefits of reading your work.
You're more than a one-book guy. I know. Several books of poetry and now a novel. Re-read your copy of The Frugal Book Promoter. (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). Better yet, get the new edition. It makes some very strong points about this very thing--career building. Branding, name recognition, etc.
Having said that, authors and poets need to buy more of one another’s books. We’re so busy writing…but we still need to pitch in and support the industry. We also need to better examine just who our target audience is. There are places in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) that tell you how to examine your own work to determine just who these folks are so you can target your efforts in their directions. The main point to those sections is that you need to reread your book. Take a new, fresh look at it. What are the themes? Who are the characters? What about the settings? Those are clues about the kinds of blogs, Web sites, magazines, etc. you direct your publicity efforts to. Even the location of libraries that will be most likely to stock your books
----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:
We should support one another. But it starts with us. My question to Mike - are YOU supporting other authors? Are you featuring and promoting other authors? If not, then don't expect others to do so for you.
ReplyDeleteIt also comes down to networking and visibility - and making friends online.
Writers should buy and read books, but not all do. I won't go to a writer's conference because as I've found, most don't buy books, especially the newbies. (Different if you have a book aimed at them of course.)