Wednesday, June 24, 2009

On-Line Promotion and other Pitfalls

From time to time, fellow Wyrdsmith Kelly McCullough and I get into a heated (or at least intense) discussion about the efficacy of author promotion. Though, really, at the bottom line, I think Kelly and I both agree that an author really can't do all that much to bump sales figures significantly (other than write a good book or just happen to "hit" the right moment), I tend to maintain that I need to do a bit of self-promotion or I feel guilty/responsible/insane.

This article sent to me by fellow SF/F author David Levine via one of the various author lists we're on, totally depressed me.

Apparently, I should be providing a whole lot more "insider" information... things like "sneak peeks" on works-in-progress, contests, etc., and not, well, talking about the weather... and my fish.

Did I mention it's hot here? Although it was raining a bit ago, and I suspect it's going to get muggy.

Hmph.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

*rushes to take down naked Facebook picture* ;)

Margaret Yang said...

You have to be yourself. If you dislike promo and you do it in a fake way, people can tell.

My hero is Lynn Viehl. Her daily blog is the only promo she does. Her blog is wonderful and she clearly enjoys it. My kind of gal.