Comments on: Guest Post: Why Writers Suck at Marketing

By: Motivation Monday-plus-One | Solelyfictional

Motivation Monday-plus-One | Solelyfictional — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:12:01 +0000

[...] Monica Valentinelli talks about why authors suck at marketing. She makes some good points, but personally I’m getting a little tired of seeing ‘all [...]

By: Marc Vun Kannon

Marc Vun Kannon — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:29:49 +0000

My blog http://authorguy.wordpress.com is where I try to market myself as an author. I try to write posts that will give the reader some idea of what I’m like as a writer, so that hopefully they will want to move on to my stories wand read them as well.

By: Dustan

Dustan — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Great post. Thank you very much.

By: Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:56:20 +0000

For me, the real issue is that marketing and writing take up the same brainspace (not to mention the same time). After a certain point, I want to get back to that quiet uncluttered place that the stories come from.

That does get in the way of blogging, for me. Blogging is semi-serious writing, and that energy should be spent on the next scene. I’m happier on Facebook and Twitter.

That said, marketing yourself as a brand, and marketing several books at the same time, works well, especially if you are writing for different audiences. I was recently at a meeting of English high school teachers, plugging my new YA, and the bookseller who brought it in also brought in a couple of cases of an earlier mystery about the Shakespeare authorship. The two books cross-sold each other and both ended up on the bookseller’s bestseller list for the year!

So I would say cultivate your old readers, go out and search for new readers, and keep in mind what they might have in common.

[Moment of blatant promo: The new YA is THE OTHER SIDE OF DARK, currently shortlisted for an Agatha award. The mystery about the Shakespeare authorship is CHASING SHAKESPEARES. And the prescient bookseller is Scott Meyer of Merritt Books, whom you should go out of your way to do good things for, because he does good things for so many writers.]

By: Monica

Monica — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:03:08 +0000

Well, that is one way to market, but there’s also a lot of other ways to do it as well. For example, if your stories are not within the same genre, you could market by genre and segment to different types of audiences. Also, you could market yourself instead of an individual story to promote all your works. Then you have the question between reaching “new” readers versus “old” readers, too.

For authors with lots of publications, strategic marketing comes into play. I highly recommend crafting a plan to ensure sustainability over the long haul.

By: Marc Vun Kannon

Marc Vun Kannon — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:23:24 +0000

Actually I find it harder to market all my stories than I do just one. I have three novels and 7-8 shorts out there, but the only way to get real traction is to focus on just one and keep mentioning it. If I spread the wealth and mention different books none of them seem to get any real play.

Marc Vun Kannon
http://www.authorguy.com