Your (Planned) Marketing Strategies

[Philip Overby]

So I'm admittedly poor at marketing and need to get under the learning tree so to speak from people who have experience doing it. What are some ways you've marketed your work in the past or some services that you recommend? I'm not adverse to paying for a service to run ads or whatever, although I'll probably wait until I have a longer work ready for that (The Unicorn-Eater was kind of my "soft launch" title just to see what interest I could gather; I obviously want it to do well, but I'm not sure I want to pay to promote it just yet).

So any suggestions/good sites/services, etc.? What have you found works and doesn't work for you? (For example, Goodreads worked well for you, but Twitter was a bust)

If you haven't marketed anything as of yet, what would your plan be once you do plan to market something?

 

[Devor]

What would I do . . . . what would I do . . . . . let's see:

Well there's the obvious. I'd set up my pages on Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads. I'd want to hit my Gravatar page to make sure my bio is right on my MS articles. And I'd want to create some kind of a blog, probably on Wordpress but maybe starting with the free version, to serve as a platform.

Doing all that would require:

- Author Photo
- Awesome Avatar (because the photo is too formal)
- Profession Bio
- Banner art for the blog
- Email list sign up

As a member of the Mythic Scribes article team, my top priority would be to write a how-I-came-up-with-this-and-why-it's-awesome article. And I'd want to publish something to my own blog, ideally once a week, but I wouldn't swear by that. Anything posted to there would simply be reposted on all of the above networks.

More important than how often I post would be figuring out who would be retweeting and reposting my content and getting an idea of what they would be interested in. I want content people care about, not a bunch of filler fluff.

I have a specific plan for putting out some sample writing. I won't go into details, but I hope to put out a series of nine super short 1,000 word stories that go together and build up to a finale. There would even be supplementary announcement-type materials in between entries. They're not part of any setting or story I'd have content for sale in - that stuff always feels somehow "lesser" to me - but instead a complete stand alone event.

 

[MineOwnKing]

If you would like to try an affordable publicist, Word Slinger Publicity can do a full press release for about $150.00

I have tried a site called Author Marketing Club. It too runs about $150.

The Marketing Club is more of a do it yourself website to seek reviews. I gave up on it and they refunded my money.

Reviews can seem like a tangible way to get more eyes on a novel, but I remain dubious.

There is a formula for getting reviews for best selling books on Amazon. One of the latest top-sellers received over 900 reviews in about 7 weeks.

Those are special cases carefully orchestrated by pro marketers.

I gave up trying to fish for reviews. It's nice to have a few but certainly nothing to lose sleep over.

Word of mouth and time are your best publicists and they both come free.

 

[Philip Overby]

@Devor: I have most of those things set up, but I could probably tinker with some of them a bit more. I like your idea about doing a serial. I've thought about doing something like that myself.

@MineOwnKing: Thanks! I'll have to check some of those things out. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not adverse to spending money on marketing. I question my wisdom in doing so with only one short story, as I think I'd save something like that for a bigger work. My second story is looking to be at least novella length, so that might be a better one to try. Actually with each release I have, I'm kind of experimenting. I want to try different lengths, characters, etc.

I got one review so far and after I shared it with some people, suddenly they wanted to read my story even after I'd been talking about it for a little while. So I do think reviews are valuable in some way because it lets people know that other people besides me liked (or didn't like) what I wrote. I don't necessarily think someone needs 900 reviews (although I'm sure that is awesome) but having a solid number certainly helps. I have noticed somewhat of a trend with fantasy books though. They seem to rarely get above 1,000 reviews, even for big authors. Yet when I was reading some thrillers they had upwards of 10,000 reviews. I write thrillers, too, so I'm curious how that would do.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Have you guys tried BlurbTrade? From what I can tell, it's not exactly bustling but it sounds like a good concept. You trade books with someone (or release it to them for free) and they're supposed to either write a blurb for you or a review. Of course reviews might seem a little more meaningful when it's from "John Doe, author of The Best Fantasy Series" rather than your family (or someone suspected of being a friend).

As you've mentioned earlier in the week, blog guest posts might be another good way to hit outside of your usual readers.

 

[MineOwnKing]

@Devor: I have most of those things set up, but I could probably tinker with some of them a bit more. I like your idea about doing a serial. I've thought about doing something like that myself.

@MineOwnKing: Thanks!

I got one review so far and after I shared it with some people, suddenly they wanted to read my story even after I'd been talking about it for a little while.

Congrats on your first review.

Your Splatter Elf style, might be a candidate to try something a little different for marketing.

Since you already know how to craft a short story, you could use your skills for a little idea I just had.

Pick a famous person that you think would come across as really strange as a main character for the Splatter Elf world.

For instance, if you wrote a short story about Howard Stern fighting a unicorn eating monster and then got it published in either a fantasy magazine or highlighted in a blog, Howard might find out about it and mention it on his radio show.

30 seconds of air time on Howard Stern, could catapult you into fame and fortune.

Since Howard is always going on and on about how small his penis is, you could write a short about his arrival on a planet where all the men had taken too many penis enlargement spells and the women could no longer make love to them. Howard comes, fights and kills the sorceress casting all the spells, declares himself emperor of the world and names all his children BaBaBooey.

 

[Philip Overby]

I have thought about doing stuff with my Splatter Elf world called non-non-fiction. It's basically portrayed as non-fiction, but it's fiction. I guess like a mockumentary. So I am open to doing multiple things with my world and not making it only a traditional fantasy story-telling world. I could try something with a real person. I know you're allowed to do something like that as long as it's done for parody reasons. Maybe One Direction would be a good choice.

One thing is that I'm very open on how I portray my Splatter Elf fiction, which I hope allows me to try lots of different things.

 

[Russ]

I have thought about doing stuff with my Splatter Elf world called non-non-fiction. It's basically portrayed as non-fiction, but it's fiction. I guess like a mockumentary. So I am open to doing multiple things with my world and not making it only a traditional fantasy story-telling world. I could try something with a real person. I know you're allowed to do something like that as long as it's done for parody reasons. Maybe One Direction would be a good choice.

One thing is that I'm very open on how I portray my Splatter Elf fiction, which I hope allows me to try lots of different things.

Without offering legal advice let me say the the parody approach that is being discussed can be very tricky for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the law on those issues varies widely in different jurisdictions.

Economic and dignitary interests in the value of name or recognition is an evolving area of law. It is no longer just slander and libel you have to worry about.

Just tread carefully on those ones.

 

[Philip Overby]

Yes, it's just something I'd considered, but mostly I'm looking at doing things within my own world with fictional characters. I think that's the safest bet.