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| I love making these images, but they feel kind of spammy sometimes, and finding quotes never feels very successful. |
So, yeah. Marketing. I find myself totally and completely at a loss for it this summer. I haven't done much of anything lately due to personal reasons and my sales show this. I should find a way to get back in the game, but I've been at a loss. Try a book tour again? Do some giveaways? Post snippets online and hope people don't think I'm spamming them? And of course all of this makes me ponder the balance between doing that and not writing more, which is of course what I'd rather be doing. Marketing at this point is definitely a struggle, especially while I wait for word on submissions by my agent. I'd love it if my sales proved to potential editors that I'm worth the risk, but I also feel massively paralyzed that I'm not going to be making a difference to begin with.
One of the ideas I've had lurking around is placing some of my short stories up on Wattpad in hopes of getting a bit more coverage. I keep getting discouraged by this thought as I don't have any sort of cover for them and am not really up for paying someone with skills to do that kind of thing. Has anyone done this before? Thoughts? Suggestions?
I know there are plenty of ways to get my marketing plan back up and running, but I'll admit each feel a whole lot like screaming into the void. This shouldn't be so discouraging, but it does feel that way. So, here's my thought: Anyone want to do a little blog cross-posting this summer? It's a start and I hope that's better than nothing!
Boy do I hear you about promoting! I'm in exactly the same boat, wanting to get some short stories up, but not wanting to spent the $$ on covers. Explain what blog cross-posting is and I'll let you know if I can help.
ReplyDeleteI just meant hosting one another on our blogs--so it's both marketing as well as blog material :)
DeleteI would be delighted to cross-post, Milady! Marketing is a push, without a doubt! Have you ever considered writing an op-ed article about your work, and then in your byline, reference one or more of your books. It can give you exposure. :)
ReplyDeleteMarketing's a troublesome thought at the best of times, I think. I'm nowhere near that point yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying this summer. I'll see how my marketing plans pan out. It's never easy.
ReplyDeleteI feel ya right now! I'm literally signing thousands of bookmarks to send in packets to every local school and library around the time school starts. I'm also doing a blog tour that will go throughout August, hopefully with lots of guest posts and interviews I can really promote on Twitter. As someone said, though, the best way to market our existing books is to write more great books. New readers will naturally look to find what else we've written once they read a good book from us!
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