The Luck in Self Promotion

[James Marinero]

I just read an interesting piece by an 'unknown' author who got lucky with self promotion, working hard at setting up a book launch and announcing it with press releases https://plus.google.com/+JeffersonSmithAuthor/posts/hwTvwkuES3J

If you're not on G+ then the gist is that he was ignored by all and sundry, except one newsroom which picked up his press release on a quiet day. A camera crew turned up at his book launch. He got a whole minute on prime dinner-time news.

I served some time in marketing (not books) and the old story about 50% of the budget being wasted but you don't know which 50% holds water here. You really don't know what marketing tactics will work, so you have to include a very wide range in your strategy - if you do self promotion.

 

[James Marinero]

Here's another interestmg approach by Paolo Coelho, author of The Alchemist. He gave away many free digital copies of his book online, and that generated huge sales of print copies.
'Coelho has sold more than 175 million books in over 170 countries, and his works have been translated into 80 languages. “Once we did the Pirate Coelho there was a significant boost,” Paolo confirmed and added: “Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age. Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book. But this should make them rethink their entire business model.”' - quoted from godchild.buzz/selfpublishing/holy-grail-self-publishing/

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Interesting, especially that it was G+; I rate that weakest in the arsenal.

 

[Richard Sutton]

Love that 50% quote! As a former Marketing wonk myself, I can vouch for it and the lifetime spent chasing the knowledge of which one.

 

[David Steele]

I've been looking at 'how to promote your e-book' sites lately, and stumbled across "Pay with a Tweet". I imagine it's a good way to generate publicity in exchange for free downloads of short stories / novels. What do you think?