To Promote or Not

The two historical romance novels and novella I've written have been published and available for five years or so. My quandary is whether I should continue to promote them or not. Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of promotion for them in the last year or so. I let the promotion aspect slide while I was getting acclimated with a new, less stressful job and then while I've been working on the revisions/edits of Honor Bound.

Part of me feels like I shouldn't promote them because they've been out for quite awhile and because they're historical romance novels. Honor Bound and the subsequent books in the series I'm working on are set in the present and are contemporary romance novels.

Another part of me feels like I should keep promoting them because I do plan on writing more historical romance novels so I want to keep interest in the books already released. However I'm thinking it will be at least this time next year before I'll have time to start writing a historically set novel.

 Decisions. Decisions.

What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My current WIP (work in progress):  Managed 10 pages of new material last week. Not as much as I wanted, but I'm still moving forward. I hope to do better this week.

News from the publishing world: This article is geared more toward self-published authors, but I felt it had information anyone who is trying to promote their work could use. Link: Advanced Marking Tactics For Indie Authors

Quote of the week:  "If you don't make the time to work on creating the life you want, you're eventually going to be forced to spend a LOT of time dealing with a life you don't want." ~ Kevin Ngo. I'm not saying I don't like my life now, there's just some things I'd really like to change or have change.

Health news: According to research in Physiology & Behavior: Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience yawning helps your brain. When you yawn, you inhale deeper than normal exchanging warmer air with cooler air. This is good because the brain operates more efficiently when its cool.

Random things:  There's nothing like the soft purr of a cat cuddling up next to you after a hard day at work. 

Random photo of the week:

This a Halloween wreath my nephew's girlfriend made for us. I can't wait to hang it on the front door.

Etiquette

I apologize for this post beforehand because it's a bit of a rant on etiquette or the lack thereof. Being a writer, I know how hard it is to get the word out about your book, to try and reach an audience that wants to buy and read that book. I host other romance authors on occasion for that reason. Recently, I signed up on a blog that lists bloggers who will host romance authors. We are able to specify what type of sub-genre of romance, if any, that we'd like to have as well as a heat level so authors looking for places to promote know what we're looking for, or not looking for.

The last three times I've been contacted about being a guest here have gone against some of the big no-nos I learned when I first started writing and submitting work for publication. Admittedly contacting a blogger, even a fellow writer, is a lot different than contacting an agent or editor/publishing house. However, it was impressed upon me how important it was to follow certain submission rules so that I would be deemed a professional.

One of those rules was not to send mass emails out to agents and/or editors. It was best to take the time to email each person I wanted to contact individually even if it seemed time consuming. Another rule, probably even more important than the one above, was to send a query letter first before submitting my manuscript unless the publisher's guidelines specifically stated to send a certain number of pages or chapters along with the query letter. One other rule was to make sure I did my research and contacted those agents and/or editors that represented the type of writing I did.

Those last three emails I received about guesting on my blog I mentioned above...well they broke all those rules. The first was a mass email to just about everyone on the list, the second was an erotica author looking for a place to promote. (I specifically have no erotica listed under my restrictions and the reason why.) And finally, the last person didn't even ask if I could host him/her but sent me a Sign Up Genius link where I could download an interview, guest post, etc and sign up for a date without even an introduction email as to who she/he was or asking if I would consider signing up for the promotion tour.

All three of these emails left a bad taste in my mouth so I can just imagine how an agent and/or editor might feel when they get these types of emails. I realize we all only have a limited amount of time to write new material and promote our books and that I'm just another writer out there with a blog, but the lack of professionalism in this area just grates on my nerves.

Blatant Promo

Hi Everyone --
My debut novel, Impetuous, is being featured on Sunday April 13, 2014 at eBookSoda, a new readers' site where they'll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your taste. The link to their site is www.ebooksoda.com. I realize this is a day late, but you can still get a copy of the book at the sale price of $2.99 for a limited time at any of the links below:
The Wild Rose Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Thanks.

This I know for sure...

I try to keep these posts to more random topics and not writing related as those are usually my Monday posts. That being said, today I want to write a bit about promoting a book.

I can't tell you how often I've heard, "You just need to promote your book and the sales will come." Um, no, not necessarily. You can tweet, post on Facebook, post on various loops, do giveaways, have friends help spread the word, but if no one shows up to purchase, all that promotion is wasted. There are hundreds of thousands of books on the market and trying to get your voice heard and attention focused on your book is a time consuming, often thankless task that may generate a few sales but without people reading your book and spreading the word about how great it is, sales won't grow.

Let me qualify that, my sales are okay but what writer wouldn't like them to be better? In my case, I want them to grow to the point where they will allow me to quit the dreaded day job and write full time. I don't need an 8 figure contract like the one Sylvia Day just signed, I'd just like make about the same income I make from the day job so I can quit and write full time.

What I do know for sure is that book reviewers are amazing at getting the word out to their followers on how great a book is or how much they enjoyed a particular book and encourage others to purchase a copy. It's one of the reasons I started posting reviews of the books I've read rather than just listing the book's title, author, and summary.

So to all the blogging book reviewers, I just have one thing to say -- Thank you for reading and posting reviews, good and bad, and helping authors spread the word about their books. It's appreciated more than you know.

This I know for sure...

When we were young adults in those last years of high school (and sometimes when we were in college), we couldn't wait to be done with school so we could do what we wanted when we wanted and not be tied down with homework, term papers, and having to sit through another boring class on a subject we hated.

Then we graduated and got a job and found out how misinformed we were. While there may be no more homework, our time is still not our own to do with what we please, now we answer to managers and supervisors and have even less time off than we did while in school. (And we thought that wasn't enough time.)

The reasoning behind this posting is so many of us who are struggling writers and hold down a job outside the home would love to have more time to write, promote, and perhaps have a little bit of leisure time to just be, to just sit and breathe for a bit without having to worry what or who is being neglected during those few stolen moments.

I would love to write full time and not have to hold down a job outside the home but, right now, that's not feasible. The only income I have is mine so I can't rely on a spouse or partner to pay the bills while I try to earn a living from writing. More than just wanting to devote more than a couple of hours per day to my writing, I want to be able to spend as much time as I want with my mom. She's essentially been my only parent my entire life and though I've seen 40 come and go, I'm still very attached to her.  Thankfully, she's in great health given her age, but I don't want to miss a single minute I could be spending with her by having to sit at a desk in an office for 8 hours a day doing a job I don't hate, but I certainly don't love either.

So my dilemma is much like other struggling writers, other than writing the best books I can, how do I maximize sales so I can write full time?

I'm A Gambler, Are You?

Today I'm visiting Babette James' blog and talking about how I found out I'm a gambler and never realized it.  Stop by and tell me if you're a gambler and in what way.  Link: http://wp.me/pjagl-200

What I know for sure...

As a promotional tool a blog tour takes a lot of time and effort without any way to know if you're reaching new readers.  I'm just finishing my first blog tour and had a great turnout on some of the stops, an okay turn out on some, but I also had a couple where I only had two people comment.   That doesn't mean people aren't stopping by and checking out the posts, they just may not choose to comment but without knowing the page views for that given day, it's hard to know if you're getting the reach you were hoping for.

While I guest blogged at a number of different blogs when my first book came out, it wasn't anything organized like a tour (a set number of stops within a set time frame).  While there was no way of knowing if I was reaching potential readers, I enjoyed this form of promotion more. I didn't feel the pressure to write a large number of blog posts within a short time frame and was able to enjoy the experience more. 

While my current blog tour has been fun,  I have to admit I'm looking forward to when it's over.  I'm not sure I would do another for future books.  I liked being able to spread out my visits to other blogs over a longer time frame.

Blog Tour Stop

I'm visiting Victoria Gray's blog today and talking about that dreaded word, Promotion.  Hope you'll stop by and share a few tips.  Link:  http://www.victoriagrayromance.blogspot.com

My newly released novella, The Muse, is the book spotlight today on Kelly Moran's blog as well.  Link:  http://kellymoranauthor.blogspot.com 

This I know For Sure...

Promoting your work is as time consuming if not more than the actual writing of the book or books. 

I try to write at least an hour and a half every week day and plan on starting to write on the weekend because I want to increase my output.  After I finish my writing for the day, I do promotional related stuff for about two to two and a half hours every day, more on the weekends. 

I enjoy doing promotion for the most part. I like meeting new people through blogs, Facebook, loops, Goodreads but I wish there were more hours in the day so I could do both promotion and writing in equal amounts.