I’m going to just throw a lot of marketing possibilities at you today and we can talk about them.I’m trying to think of all the things I do to market my book.
I’m on a lot of social networks.
The usual ones:
Facebook (three identities)
Myspace
Shoutlife
Shelfari
Then there are less usual ones:
YouTube
Tangle (formerly GodTube)Slide
MyCCM
OakTreeIdea
I haven’t done much with these last few lately, although I did have a nightmarish experience with a movie trailer that dragged me into YouTube and
Tangle for a while.I’ve got of course ---
SEEKERVILLE (YAY!)
Plus I’ve got:
My website
My personal blog
Petticoats & Pistols with other western romance authors
I belong to professional organizations, to learn to network and yes, I admit it, to promote my books.
ACFWRWA
HWG
FHL
SinC
I'm also a member of the Nebraska Women's Press Writers
National Press Women
The Nebraska Writer's Guild
I’m on (good heaven’s, I went and counted) 46 Yahoo groups, many of them to market my books, but also a lot of them are author’s newsletters, which are more for fun.
I have recently retired from a weekly newspaper column I’ve written for about five years.
I do guest spots on many, many blogs. And I did a blog tour for Gingham Mountain just a week or so ago.I try to update my personal blog daily and probably manage 4 days a week.
I also contact a lot of area publications when I have a book releasing, small town area newspapers(bigger ones too, but I don't neglect the small towns, they've been really good to me). I ask if they’d be interested in receiving a book for review, doing an interview, I offer to write a story myself, do an interview, in person, online or on the phone. Whatever works best for them. They've all got email addresses and those addresses are usually easy to track down.
I do book signings. I also stop into book stores if I’m in the area. I go get my
books off their shelves, take them to the customer service counter and say, “Hi, this is my book. Some book stores let me autograph any of my books they have in stock. Would you be interested in letting me sign these?” They very often do, but not always. I don’t take it personally. I do stay and visit IF they seem interested in me doing that. I try not to make a pest of myself. Some bookstore people love talking to an author, others are busy and I don't take up their valuable time.I'm forgetting stuff. I just want you to know this is all out there. And I don't do it all well, many of these places I've got what amounts to a business card online. I don't apologize for that. There are only so many hours in the day and writing the best book I know how to write is my top priority.
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Any questions?
Good grief...how you keep up with all that plus travel to all the booksignings you do blows my mind.
ReplyDeleteI must say though that my two favorites are Facebook and Twitter. I am looking forward to the day Shoutlife lets us feed our blogs through there because I don't have time to paste to all the social network blogs.
Mary it's cool to see all of your books up there like that! COOL!
I just finished Gingham...and loved it as much as the Petticoat and Calico. Will post reviews SOON.
Hugs
Cheryl
I'm with Cheryl. How in the world do you have the time to devote to all those groups and sites AND write books and have a life?
ReplyDeleteI don't have anything to promote and have gotten sucked in by FB and Twitter. It is very time consuming. I will have to check out some of the other sites you recommended and see if I can fritter away more of my time. ;)
Excuse me..she also apparently has a full time job outside of writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd who irons your cape and little outfit, SuperMary?
Mary, I'm always impressed with all you do to promote your books!
ReplyDeleteI have a presence on several social networks. Guess I need to post something. Who knew! Seriously I don't know how you manage to work, write, and keep up with all this.
But one thing I do know...your fabulous sense of humor not only makes your books great fun to read, but it also helps you market them. Please give me a teeny tiny bit of that humor. You'll never miss it.
Janet
Wow, Mary, all your marketing avenues blow my mind! And to actually keep up with them too ... oh my.
ReplyDeleteI joined FB a couple of weeks ago and am tickled at how many people I've reconnected with. I don't know how to use it as a way to promote my books and such though. Guess that's something else to add to the 'need to learn someday' list.
Happy new week, everyone!
Good Morning, Mary,
ReplyDeleteYou are one busy lady!
My question is what about libraries? Do you contact any of them?
Rose
Okay, I'm going back to bed now...
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
I am lucky to get the blasted -- (sorry for using a Daughters of Boston cussword) book written, much less promote the sucker. Must be an age difference.
How much younger are you than me again? Please tell me it's more than ten years ...
Good-night. :)
Morning ladies. I want to repeat here, that I'm not ACTIVE on all these sites.
ReplyDeleteA few, but not all by any means.
Ive been trying to do Twitter latesly, I seriously, now that I've fed my personal blog to Facebook, don't do much there but check in and accept new friends and, with the hardest of hearts, Ignore the people who as me to be their TOP GIRL. It just takes that extra 30 seconds to let the application load to accept gifts, flowers, tiaras, ransome demands, whatever is the application that's been invented today, so I hti IGNORE and feel like a jerk.
And here's the thing with marketing books on Facebook, I think I'm actually missing the real coolness of it. I don't find old high school friends hardly ever. I don't et that part of it.
I just have about 1000 friends, all of whom I don't know. :)
And how badly can we abuse the word FRIEND anyway???
MySpace is pretty much DeadSpace, I don't even check that once a week.
I'm still learning to search for people on Facebook. I found a neighbor lady just Friday. I had no idea she was on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI do area libraries. I haven't branched out much from them. (Branched...that's kind of a library joke!)
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness, Mary! Whoa. This makes me want to cry.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, how do you do it all? I keep thinking I need to get on Facebook, but I dread it. I wonder how any pubbed authors get any writing done with all the marketing they have to do.
I will have a review of Gingham Mountain on my blog this week. I LOVED IT! Please don't stop writing! Your books are so much fun.
Mary, there are three of you on Facebook?
ReplyDeleteDD ventured out on FB and was spotted by her church youth sponsor.
I, um, have a blog but have not "come out" yet that I am a writer.
I'm pretty clueless here so I'll read this column with interest
Yowza! How do you budget the time to stay on top of all of these promotional opportunities and still turn out such an amazing amount of high-quality books?
ReplyDeleteAND be available whenever I ask you for an interview?
(Mary was my first ever author interview on my blog and I threw the kitchen sink at her...it is a looooong interview that makes me laugh and thank the Lord that Mary was so gracious.)
I want to repeat that I DON'T do a good job on all of these. I in fact, barely exist on most of them, but I do belong.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Three identities. My thinking on the first two was, I had two books out. I used my book cover instead of a picture of ME (ick) then there was my book cover, except I had TWO book covers so I created an identity, also Mary Connealy, and used the other book cover, then invited myself to be my own friend and TADA had both of my book overs scattered around on people's Facebook pages.
Except that sort of caught up with me once I had TEN book covers. I just wasn't up to that. So, I have one main one, but the less main one has a lot of friends, too. And there's a fan site Barbour created but I don't know much about it. I have no power over it and, in fact, I forget it go even look at it, though I am FRIENDS with it.
Oh, I also have a newsletter.
Oh, and Sherrinda, I've saved a lot of time by NOT having a life. That was Way Too Time Consuming!!! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and Sherrinda, I've saved a lot of time by NOT having a life. That was Way Too Time Consuming!!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought that life of a book blogger was busy. My life = trying to keep up with you authors all over the internet. :)
ReplyDeleteHi, CherryBlossom. The one thing I'll tell you all is do what you can and then forget it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
Your book has to be your priority. No amount of blogging in the world is going to help you if you've written a bad book. So make sure and protect your work FIRST.
Hey Mary, I know I saw you sit still for all of 5 seconds at the conf in Minn. I'm beginning to wonder if that was it for the year. And now you have your grandchild on top of everything else but you're still getting out there and doing it. You, my dear, are an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI'm on FB, too but have about 920 friends less that you. Hmm at least I don't think I'm your friend, yet. I dunno... maybe. I can't even keep my small amt straight.
Wow- I love reading The Seekers blog- there is always something cool on here. Hi Mary! *waves* I believe we are facebook friends. I do pretty much most of what you do, but not all.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen an increase in book sales?
Thanks for your time- and The Seekers for such a cool blog.
In a nutshell, Mary has a split personality. It's as simple as that!
ReplyDeleteShe even has multiple online identities. I'm surprised they haven't shown up HERE today!
Mary, I'm with Jules. I'm going back to bed, pulling a pillow over my head, ordering Starbucks in and thinking of a nice, cold frappuccino, venti... of course... to drown my sorrows that you do all that and still manage to be the humble, loving, sharing, charismatic gal we all know and love.
ReplyDeleteGotta stop, I'm gagging myself...
Okay, so we KNOW you gave up housework for Lent...
And Advent.
And January, come to think of it.
;)
Lest you all think Mary's got a cleaning service, ummm.....
No.
But ya' gotta give somewhere and cute husbands don't mind dust (or learn to wield a dustcloth) if their wives are bringing home regular contracts and checks, so that's a HUGE plus.
Before the contract????
Well, they just have to learn to deal, LOL! Even with no income to date.
Mary, you're a blessing and an inspiration (I mean that sincerely) and I love that you're unafraid to dabble your fingers in fun online presences (is that a word?) and a somewhat shy person who is willing to approach book shop clerks and owners and do what needs to be done.
Wonderful, wonderful.
Ruthy
Dust is my enemy, I know that.
ReplyDeleteAnd he has won the battle.
Okay, the war.
And yes, Dust is a HE!
I don't see how you do it, Mary! And then you work, too.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas. Thanks for sharing!