Why Self-Promotion Doesn't Work

[Carol Rose]

Saw this posted on Facebook yesterday and thought it was very interesting and spot on.

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work

 

[Alistair Roberts]

OMG I so heartily agree! To put it in a nutshell and quote >

"Because here's the secret: None of us know what we're doing, but we're all trying our asses off. We are all hungry.

I went to a panel on How to Write a Bestseller at the RWA conference and asked the two speakers what was the number one contributor to their making the jump from midlist to bestseller, and they both looked very uncomfortable and said, "We just kept on writing." They couldn't point to a single marketing-related action. They sure as hell didn't say, "We sent a lot of auto-DMs on Twitter with our book links in them."

The recipe seems to be GREAT BOOK + HARD WORK + TIME + LUCK."

I need say no more, but I better kick my ass and get back to writing, and re-writing! Thanks for the link Tara

 

[Carol Rose]

It's the truth. Writing more books sells books. Word of mouth from readers sells books. At least in the romance genre, anyway. All this crap people do to push their books down others' throats does nothing except piss off people from all the spam, and get the authors blocked on social media. We talk about this all the time on Facebook. Newbie authors are being told from Lord knows who to do these ridiculous self-promo things and in the end they wind up banned from groups for doing nothing but promo, spamming people, and making an annoying spectacle of themselves.

I've been at this for almost five years now under three different pen names and I can tell you without a doubt, at least from own experience, that the less I shout my books to the rooftops and toot my own horn, the MORE I sell. I TALK to people on Facebook and Twitter. I get to know them as human beings first. I share just enough of my personal life to make me "real" to them, but not enough to be an endless source of drama. I'm actually a very private person.

And I just keep writing. This might not hold true for all genres, but in world where I write, our readers want more books, not drama and endless spam. If they like us, they already know how to find our next releases. They don't need links and excerpts and snippets shoved down their throats all day long. Tease them for sure, but don't overwhelm them with constant promotion.

 

[Carol Rose]

And as far as auto DMs on Twitter and related things like that on Facebook, if an author does that to me the second I follow them or friend them, they're gone. I'm serious. That shit pisses me off to no end. I friend people on Facebook or follow them on Twitter as a courtesy, not because I need to know they wrote a book. I'm not an idiot. I know they wrote a freaking book. And I know how to find the book if I want to buy it.

 

[Jennifer Stone]

very interesting, the follow up is just as insightful
http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/14/wait-keep-talking-author-self-promo-that-actually-works

 

[Kitty]

And of course writing interesting articles like these that get everyone talking are an excellent form of promotion

 

[Carol Rose]

very interesting, the follow up is just as insightful
http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/14/wait-keep-talking-author-self-promo-that-actually-works

Yes, excellent follow up article. Thank you!

 

[Meerkat]

I worked retail throughout college, and I hated every minute of it because I had to try to sell items. I'm not a salesperson, and I don't like pushing anything down anyone's throat. I'm too much of an idealist to ever do that with my writing . . . for a long time I wouldn't even write cover letters because my naive opinion was that I should be judged on the content of my writing and not on my salesmanship. Alas, that got me nowhere.

 

[Carol Rose]

Yep. Been there and done that, too. LOL!! And McDonald's in high school… Would you like to try an apple or cherry pie with that? Is that a large fry? Gag me. LOL!!

 

[Richard Sutton]

Don't laugh, but every single package/shipment that went out from our retail business, beginning in 2009 with our online shopping experiment, carried a postcard of my latest release. Cheesy? Absolutely. Did it work? Well, good thing I printed them out myself on our photo printer, as the books sold as a result wouldn't have paid for a print run. But I quack along anyway...

 

[Octopus Messiah]

I want it so badly to be true-- tell me it's true, Tara. Tell my heart of hearts it's got this one right: that the social media hey-over-here methodology is, Bill Clinton would say, "a bunch a hooey."

Please allow me to retw*t my first ever tweet: a haiku:
How is Twitter not
Yodeling down a canyon
Of self-promotion?

 

[Marc Joan]

Nice post, Tara, thanks, obviously hits the spot for many people.

 

[Marc Joan]

[QUOTE="."
Please allow me to retw*t my first ever tweet: a haiku:
How is Twitter not
Yodeling down a canyon
Of self-promotion?[/QUOTE]

Hilarious! But please don't make me laugh at this time in the morning, it's not right.

 

[Carol Rose]

Well, it is called SOCIAL media, not PROMO media…

 

[Octopus Messiah]

My second tweet?

Bullshit bad haiku
For the short attention span
Welcome to twitter.

so no, not all that fond of the medium...

 

[Marc Joan]

My second tweet?

Bullshit bad haiku
For the short attention span
Welcome to twitter.
.

To lower the tone:

This struggling author, all bitter and twisted
Has Facebook and Twitter staunchly resisted;
Better unknown and bitter,
Than handcuffed to Twitter,
With book sales, it seems, immensely assisted.

Actually, maybe it wouldn't be so bad......[tongue firmly in cheek]

 

[Octopus Messiah]

To lower the tone:

This struggling author, all bitter and twisted
Has Facebook and Twitter st

we're sorry, you've run out of characters...

 

[tabby3]

Saw this posted on Facebook yesterday and thought it was very interesting and spot on.

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work

Sounds like good advice to me!

 

[Frances Gow]

Two really fantastic articles! Phew - that's a weight off my mind...

 

[Meerkat]

To lower the tone:

This struggling author, all bitter and twisted
Has Facebook and Twitter staunchly resisted;
Better unknown and bitter,
Than handcuffed to Twitter,
With book sales, it seems, immensely assisted.

Actually, maybe it wouldn't be so bad......[tongue firmly in cheek]

Ha, I resisted it too!