Lynn Viehl has an interesting post over on her blog about author self-promotion and the plethora of tools that exist for authors now. Lynn is an interesting writer in terms of self-promotion: she blogs almost every day, and really interacts with her readers, especially for someone with her level of publishing success, but she doesn't do a lot of other self-promotion.*
I don't have anything to promote at the moment**, but Lynn's post made me think about what I will do when I'm published.*** I think that's probably the key to successful self-promotion, thinking about what you like to do and making that a tool for promotion.
So these are the things that I will do when I get a book published:
1. blog. I've had a blog in some form or another for a long time now (not just this one). I like a blog/website, because it provides a central place for readers to go, and the longer form gives me a chance to expound at great length one stuff that I want to expound on.****
2. attend conferences. I used to be a teacher***** and I love meeting people and talking to them and getting up and sharing stuff with them. Other authors are some of the nicest friendliest people I've ever met, and they're usually a pretty good audience.
3. school visits. One of the things I'm looking forward to most of all is the opportunity to do school visits (fingers crossed) because I love students, and would love the change to talk to them about writing.******
4. hand selling. This makes me a little nervous, actually, because I'm not a salesperson by trade or nature, but...I'm not shy. I will go up to anyone and talk to them, so this is a skill I think I could learn, and one that would be good to have in life in general.
5. internet in general. I don't know that I'll ever be a good twitterer--I suspect it takes practice to be really funny/insightful in that format, and I haven't put in the time--but I'll certainly have an author Facebook page or other social networking thingy.
6. book trailers. This is more of a publishing company thing, I think, but I would love to have a book trailer. I just think they're awesome.
For now, that's all I can think of--I suppose it depends on what else is out there when my stuff goes public. What am I missing?
~~~
* Judging by what she says on her blog, there are two big reasons for this: (1) Lynn has some health issues, and (2) she doesn't really like certain forms of promotion, like conferences.
** Besides my own general awesomeness, of course. You're welcome. :)
*** World Domination, 2010!
**** I'm sure it's just as fun for you, yes?
***** Actually, I'm currently a teacher, now that I think about it.
****** Right now, when I teach teenagers, it's about ACT strategies, which...is not as much fun as talking about writing. Important, of course, and still fun. But not as fun as talking about writing.
I don't have anything to promote at the moment**, but Lynn's post made me think about what I will do when I'm published.*** I think that's probably the key to successful self-promotion, thinking about what you like to do and making that a tool for promotion.
So these are the things that I will do when I get a book published:
1. blog. I've had a blog in some form or another for a long time now (not just this one). I like a blog/website, because it provides a central place for readers to go, and the longer form gives me a chance to expound at great length one stuff that I want to expound on.****
2. attend conferences. I used to be a teacher***** and I love meeting people and talking to them and getting up and sharing stuff with them. Other authors are some of the nicest friendliest people I've ever met, and they're usually a pretty good audience.
3. school visits. One of the things I'm looking forward to most of all is the opportunity to do school visits (fingers crossed) because I love students, and would love the change to talk to them about writing.******
4. hand selling. This makes me a little nervous, actually, because I'm not a salesperson by trade or nature, but...I'm not shy. I will go up to anyone and talk to them, so this is a skill I think I could learn, and one that would be good to have in life in general.
5. internet in general. I don't know that I'll ever be a good twitterer--I suspect it takes practice to be really funny/insightful in that format, and I haven't put in the time--but I'll certainly have an author Facebook page or other social networking thingy.
6. book trailers. This is more of a publishing company thing, I think, but I would love to have a book trailer. I just think they're awesome.
For now, that's all I can think of--I suppose it depends on what else is out there when my stuff goes public. What am I missing?
~~~
* Judging by what she says on her blog, there are two big reasons for this: (1) Lynn has some health issues, and (2) she doesn't really like certain forms of promotion, like conferences.
** Besides my own general awesomeness, of course. You're welcome. :)
*** World Domination, 2010!
**** I'm sure it's just as fun for you, yes?
***** Actually, I'm currently a teacher, now that I think about it.
****** Right now, when I teach teenagers, it's about ACT strategies, which...is not as much fun as talking about writing. Important, of course, and still fun. But not as fun as talking about writing.
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