Shaun Meeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-promoting"

Getting published is a great feeling. You spend all these years writing and writing, hoping that one day someone will notice you, and when that day comes, you might think "that's it. I've made it!". That was sort of how I felt, but one part of the dream that's more of a nightmare is the self-promoting.

This is the age of social media, of everyone trying to pimp and sell their wares to anyone and everyone that is their "internet friend". I never liked the idea of it, and at times I feel cheap doing it, but the reality is, I have no real choice.

I didn't sell my book to a big publishing house as I wanted to, instead it was to a small press, who have been great with me. Anyone who knows anything about small presses know that the resources they have are limited, as most of them are writers themselves. They help with the edits, formatting and landing someone to do your cover, but after that, it's in your hands. These places, for the most part, don't have the money or the time to ship of books to reviewers, get your books into stores, or so much of what a big publishing house can do for you. So at that point, you need to grab the bull by the horns and slam you book in the faces of everyone out on the internet.

Yet how do you do it without annoying people?

No matter what you do, someone is bound to be irritated by it. Some will say one post a year is too much, so ignore them because they were born with a stick firmly in their rears. You just can't make certain people happy.

Now, if you're posting the same link three times a day, yelling to the world "BUY ME!" over and over again, you will really piss people off. There is a difference between promoting and being that person. Everything is fine in small doses.

So instead of just sharing that day in an day out, make sure you share reviews of the book, people showing your book off and any other little thing you can think of to get people to see it. Send that book, even a digital version, to reviewers that will help get your name out there. Sure, they might not work for Fangoria or Rue Morgue, but they still have a lot of people that read them.

So how many times can you post about your book? Just don't over do it. Do what feels right, but remember to sprinkle your feeds with other things too, not just "PLEASE BUY MY BOOK". You can get more sales when people like who you are. I personally will only post once or twice a month, but I also use other sources than just my own feeds. Join groups and pages on places like Facebook that are filled with other writers and readers like yourself.

In the end, self-promotion is like anything else. Less can be more.

Now, go buy my book.
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