I’m touching on something I brought up at my blog yesterday. I apologize for those who are bored by the rehashing of topics, but I think there’s merit in this one.
I realized over the weekend that I have become afraid of doing my own publicity. We all know the authors who “overpromote”. They’re on mailing lists all the time, but they don’t participate in discussions or celebrate anyone else’s good news. All they want to do is tell you about their latest sale or their latest review or the new contest they’re running to get you to buy their stuff.
I look at those people and I roll my eyes. Once a month, once every couple of weeks, I don’t mind seeing promotions, but once a week or every other day? That gets old and it does more to convince me -not- to buy a book than it encourages me to go get the new release.
I therefore live in fear of overdoing it for myself. And yet, without promoting myself, how do I get people to read my stuff? It’s a catch-22 and the balance is hard to find. How many reviews can I show you before you just don’t care anymore? How many contests can one person hold before she’s giving away more than she’s selling, and when does it become irritating to see the next contest announcement roll through?
Am I alone in this fear that promo can somehow hurt my career rather than help it? Should I sign up for Chicken Authors Anonymous?
I don’t think I’m alone as promotion has been a hot topic in the last few weeks. Cheyenne McCray posted on her blog about it not so long ago, so I’ll leave you with a link to her words of wisdom and go back to biting my nails.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:30 am
I hate promo….but I love Cheyenne’s tips! I rarely see discussion on writer/reader lists anymore. It’s 90% promo
December 7th, 2006 at 1:35 am
yeah i hate the hit and run promo’ing, and I try and shy away from it. I do, though, do a contest for every book i release. Just to keep my name out there and generate some excitement.
December 7th, 2006 at 2:51 am
Do contests make that much difference?
Alice
December 7th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
I think contests are a nice way to reward readers, and get books you want to promote in their hands. I still think word of mouth is the best advertisement.
December 7th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I too get tired of seeing the same person only doing promo. It’s like the only thing they say is ‘Buy my Book.’ You have to add personality to your post or you start getting ignored. I hope I never turn into that.