Deep breath... promo

Started on my New Year's Resolution: promotion. I made a foray back onto some loops to post blurbs about my books. I've decided to focus on 3 different books each month. Lord knows, I have enough of them -- 20 at last count.

So I'll post something daily about one or the other of the books. Today I did If Not For You and Mist. An old book and a new book.

Will it make any difference?

Who knows!

What is promo, really?

I just read a blog post on a friend's blog. Said friend is also a published author, and I checked her 'followers', and HOLY COW, she's got a couple of hundred blog followers.

Well, foo -- that's great promo for her, right?

Hmm. Wait a minute. Have I ever bought someone's book just because I read an interesting blog post? Uh, no. Nor have I explored a web page unless I found it really attractive -- a plain/Jane page: nope.

So what is promo? Authors are always told to "get their name out there" as though that will magically get us some sales. But does it? I don't think so. I think the "get out there" is to get out there and interact with people, build a sense of who you are on the web, and, yes, get out there and promote the book.

So WHEW. I'm not as worried about those blog stats now.

Not much...

A new take on an old problem

Promo, thy name is Satan.

Or something like that. ::sigh:: I've whined about this before, but I really dislike doing promotions. I've tried all kinds of things: lists, blog 'tours,' posting here and there, and just ignoring promotion all together.

I'm trying something new. Every day I'm posting one mention/excerpt/idea to a Yahoo group, a different one every day. That's doable and it's something I rather enjoy. I'm also going to make an effort to find one or two places where I feel comfortable posting & 'hang out' there. I'd like to find one Yahoo group, one Amazon forum, and maybe one other spot on the web, and alternate chatting on those loops.

Why is this different? This time I'm focusing on something that might be kinda fun to do. This isn't a chore. It's something I would like to do. I'm no longer counting the hours that are subtracted from my free time. I'm making time for things I want to do. It's a change of attitude, more than anything. I used to resent having to steal time from my writing to do "Stuff." Well, I've found that if I keep my WIP percolating in the back of my mind, then the time I actually do end up writing is time that isn't wasted -- it's amazingly productive. So much so that I'm on target to finish writing 2 books by Labor Day, which is a goal I set for myself at Memorial Day.

I wasted a lot of time in June trying to wrestle my current manuscript onto a path that just didn't work. Now I'm relaxing, letting it write itself, and letting new plot ideas creep in. Consequently: I'm less stressed, the book is getting done, and I feel like I can spend time on other stuff: like promo.

Yep. It all comes back to getting the word out. I've got a new book coming out on Friday, I had one release in January, one release in April, one in June, and I'll have one in November. You counted right. Five books this year. That's a lot of promo.

So I'd better quit blogging about it and do it...

5 (count them, 5) books to promo

This is like a conjunction of moon and stars. I've got 5 books to promo this month.

Endurance, which just released in download. This is a paranormal time travel reincarnation love story starring a telepathic dog, a skeptical man, and a spunky, funny heroine.

Brilliant Disguise, which came out in download in August and is in print now. This is my "FBI vs. small-town gossips" book, which has gotten a lot of good reviews.

Autographs, Abductions & A-List Authors, which came out in download in June and is now in print. This is a first-person POV mystery starring Bea Emerson, newly published author, who attends a writer's conference and gets embroiled in a mystery.

Candy, Corpses and Classified Ads (the Pig Book), which came out in February this year and in print in August. It's up for an Eppie award, to be presented next March. The PB is about a woman whose ex-husband gets killed off and the woman's ex-lover is the cop invesigating the murder.

If Not For You, a romantic suspense book that came out in download last December. This is also up for an Eppie award. It stars an uptight businessman and an ex-hippy who get caught up in corporate shenanigans.

This is why I'm so glad my publisher, Wild Rose Press, now releases print and download books at the same time. No more of this double promo stuff -- it will make my life SO much easier!