The Marketing Degree Came From a Crackerjack Box

New writer, just starting out? Word is, by the time you’re old enough to know everything, you’ll be senile but until then, you should just keep your mouth shut.

Where’s this coming from? NOT me. But it is an opinion amalgamated from several sources. There’s no one right way to market yourself or a book, but it seems that if you have three, two, one or zero books out and have any opinion at all, you get accused of standing on your soap box, saying that you’ve cornered the market on the best approach.

Anyone that’s read my blog certainly knows I don’t maintain I have all the answers. If you’re looking for the voice of reason, I don’t know how you wound up here!

But I find it…baffling to be slapped down by people, some of whom assert themselves with the credential of having published numerous books*, the inference being that since my first one isn’t out yet, uppity youngster still wet behind the ears that I am, I should just shush and sit in the corner.

There’s a long list of people who’ve attempted to put me in place, especially since I got my book deal. First thing, right off, people telling me I got lucky, that lots of better writers didn’t have deals, that I shouldn’t take the deal…

The old ego-insecurity thing goes into overdrive when a new girl starts working the corner, all the other working girls letting her know she’s the bottom bitch.^

This week JA Konrath posted in his comments section (near the bottom) about talking to an author who didn’t understand how to market - (Him is the other author – ‘ME’ is JA Konrath)

”Me: Do you do a lot of promotion?

Him: No. My publisher doesn't tour me. They rarely even buy ads. They don't do anything.

Me: My publisher didn't tour me for my last book, but I visited a hundred bookstores, a dozen conferences, and many libraries.

Him: That's insane. That's not your job. It's your publishers job to sell your books.

Me: (have to pause the conversation to sign books for three fans) But don't you think that you have a responsibility to help your publisher sell books?

Him: I'm here, aren't I? I could be home writing.

(Then someone came up to him with a hardcover of one of his early novels. This person was obviously excited to meet him. This is what Mr. Sci-Fi said, no joke)

Him: No personalization. I don't do that. You're lucky I'm signing this at all, because I hate autographing books.

(The fan looked like he'd been shot in the stomach...)”

As Joe said in the comment, this writer had been in the business for 30 years and had published a dozen books. Clearly, just because you’ve published a lot of books it doesn’t mean you know jack shit about marketing.

What have I been told is foolish? To name a few things:
- being published in an ezine
- critiquing
- blogging
- having a website
- replying to emails from people asking about my book
- working for an ezine
- writing for free
- not reading reviews

I don’t believe there is one right formula for self promotion. Having said that, I also don’t believe that the number of books you have out makes you any more or less qualified to offer opinions on marketing. Plenty of people write popular advertisements who've never written a book. Think about whoever marketed Pokemon...I hate them, but they're good.

Using the logic that if you don’t have 10+ books out you don’t know about marketing is simplistic, at best. Mark Billingham only has four books out in the US, and he’s an international bestseller. Maybe next we should qualify the experienced with a right to an opinion to those who sell six figures worth of a single book.

My aim here isn’t to attack, it’s actually to defend. New writers, new authors looking at having their first book come out, they’re trying to find their own way. Some won’t be doing a lot of book signings because they live in Timbuktu. Some won’t be able to make it to conferences because they have to keep the day job to pay the bills.

Some of us choose blogging, websites, as one way of communicating with people.

For me, it’s part of the package. I get frustrated if an author doesn’t have a website and I can’t find out the order of books (why oh why can’t lists all be oldest to newest so I have a clue when I’m looking at a new author?) or when they’re supposed to be coming on tour and I can’t find any information about the dates. So, I have a website.

Someone writes me and asks when the book will be out, you better believe I take the time to answer them personally. Writing for free? Maybe, but worth it. I’d move heaven and earth for the authors who wrote to me before I got my book deal if I could.

Nobody would be emailing me about the book at this point if it wasn’t for the website and blog. And I’ve gotten emails from people for the ezine publications as well, people who say they want to read my book now.

A waste of time? Again, I think not. As far as I'm concerned, every time people see my name out there, that's one more exposure. "She's a writer." I know how it is for me - I keep hearing about somebody, sooner or later I'm going to check out their stuff.

I plan to do signings. I’m self-funding my trips to Harrogate and Bouchercon. I’m invested in promoting my book, in person and on the internet, and however else I can. That’s part of my job. A year from now, I might have some opinions about what worked best in the first year, but for now, I know I’m getting email off the blog. And potential interest from people who’ve asked about the book. A year from now, maybe I’ll say the blog generates the fewest sales.

But I don’t care, because it’s a helluva lot of fun, and you all make it worthwhile.

My harshest criticism has been for my involvement with Spinetingler. I can only shake my head in amazement. I get emails from authors of international best-sellers, referencing the magazine. Simon Kernick, Mark Billingham, Cornelia Read, Laura Lippman, Duane Swierczynski– not one of these authors blew off an interview request. Every author whose work I’ve reviewed has commented to me on it.

These are people who seem, like me, to think that every avenue of promotion you get helps. That nothing should be dismissed out of hand.

Nothing.

I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on promotion. Not just writers. What works for you? What turns you off? Clever marketing strategies you think really worked well?

I’m a bit frustrated by all of this, honestly, because my husband and I have devoted so much of our free time and money to Spinetingler. We do it to promote emerging and established authors. We’ve published a 17-year-old Canadian girl, and we’re publishing short stories by authors. The line-up so far for Summer, Canadian Issue and Fall is amazing.

And more than that, we do author interviews and profiles. Reviews. We’re amassing a huge review site that people contribute to. We’ve offered to put up links for any author who wants them – our free time invested, as well as the editors who invest so much energy in helping us with each issue.

So many great people have encouraged us and applauded our efforts.

And others have called us idiots.

Are we fools? Should we chuck it in and kick ourselves for wasting our time?

No. We generate thousands of downloads each issue. We have more submissions than we could hope to take. People are sending me arc’s and review copies of books and asking if I’ll consider doing an interview. I used to just be really picky and muster courage to ask whoever I was reading at the time or knew.

And a year ago, nobody had heard of me. Not like I’m anybody special or anything. Just a booklover who will shamelessly promote her favourite authors as long as anyone’s around to listen, who also happens to be about to put her first book out there for the vultures to shred.

So, what do you think? Is online marketing pointless?

I’m still pretty firmly of the belief that this is a wonderful way to communicate with other authors, with readers, and for me, it’s been great.

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark: you know what you are doing, but nobody else does. - Edgar Watson Howe, American writer

*What I find particularly incredible is when I’ve never heard of the author saying this or their books. I’m not saying that to be rude. It’s simply a point – obviously something in the current marketing strategy isn’t working or I’d know who they are…right? I mean, I spend into the thousands each year on books. I love to buy books. Just got Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories and Duane’s The Wheelman, to name a few. I've added FIVE new novels, plus a research book, to my shelves in the past week. If a person makes a good impression on me, they get bumped up the reading and purchasing lists. I’m going to be ordering David Terrenoire’s book in so I can read it. My only regret is I won’t be at Thrillerfest this year to meet him.
^ This is a term for new prostitutes – they’re the bottom bitch.

Used Car Dealer
It was a small town and the patrolman was making his evening rounds. As he was checking a used car lot, he came upon two little old ladies sitting in a used car. He stopped and asked them if they were stealing the car.

They said "Heavens no, we bought it."

He said, "Then why don't you drive it away".

They said, "We can't drive.”
He said "Then why did you buy it?"

They answered, "We were told if we bought a car here, we'd get screwed, so we are just waiting.