I recently stopped following two authors on Twitter because almost every post was about their own books. They may have been good writers. But I’ll never know. They were too busy publicly flogging their own product for me to care. It got me thinking about other ways that writers turn off potential readers.
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Recommending your own books. You know, someone asks for recommendations for a certain genre, a thread starts, and an author pops in to say, “May I recommend MY novel.” Um, no you may not!
Gimmick giveaways. Giving away your books can be a good thing. But there’s a point at which it smacks of desperation. “Once I reach 5K FB Friends I’ll be giving away a Kindle Fire, a case of Red Bull, and a lifetime subscription to my newsletter!” Or gaining giveaway “points” by having someone do any combination of things to promote you: “Just leave a comment here, re-post to your Facebook page, re-Tweet, and mention me on your own blog for your best chance to win!” ding! ding! ding! Not interested.
Listing your book in your list of favorites and/or must-reads. Even if your book is number 10 out of 10 on your list, don’t do it. Let someone else praise you. Besides, this tactic makes me feel as if the list was posted just to get your book in it!
Complaining about another author’s success to push your own product. “It’s sad that he / she could sell _______ thousand copies of that junk, while MY book — which is just as good — gets buried.” What’s sad is that you think disparaging another author earns you points with readers.
Turning every conversation back to your novels. “Yeah, the economy sucks, mountain gorillas are near extinction, and global unrest threatens millions of lives. Coincidentally, I addressed these issues in my last novel. Here’s the link!”
Make me Like you before we’re Friends. I’m fine with you asking me to Like your page. But asking me to Like you BEFORE we’re Friends just seems backwards. If we become Friends, I may discover I like you enough to actually Like your page. Unless you’re already famous, multi-published, I know you, and I already like your stuff, I probably won’t Like you. Whew!
Ulterior-Friending: When an author Follows / Friends you with the intention that you Friend them back so that they can send an automated reply to thank you for following them back on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or whatever, followed by an endless stream of updates about their novels. Listen, if your request for my Follow / Friendship is a veiled attempt to jam your books down my throat, please don’t ask.
Cheesy, Unprofessional website: If you actually get me to your web home, at least make it look like you got your sh*t together. An author who can’t invest enough time and money to at least make their home page look decent, can’t be trusted to make their novels any better.
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Okay, there’s eight. Any you’d like to add to the list?
Oops, and I just posted a pic of my new books that came in the mail today on FB. lol 🙂
I almost wholly disagree, Mike. It just doesn’t make sense. After spending hours, days, weeks, and in some cases years hammering away at the keys, a writer that’s passive when it comes to marketing (especially for one that takes the self-published/DIY route) would be like working for a company and not showing up for work. If the boss and co-workers don’t see you, then you probably won’t get paid—unless you punch a clock…then possibly.
Likewise, if one puts out their own writing for a living, or to supplement what they make/earn and no one knows, how will that writer get paid (again, especially for those who self-publish)?
Now, if you’re talking about specifically targeting a certain person/people and spamming away, that’s understandable. The Bible is clear when it comes to doing things in moderation.
And since I’ve mentioned it: don’t you think that maybe the Bible is referring to volunteer work when it comes to being praised by others? It also seems that it’s comparable to what the Bible says about fasting and/or grand prayers in public vs. praying in private.
What did writers do years ago when there was no Internet, few options? They journeyed to where people gathered; there weren’t many options to choose from back then. It must have been super-difficult for the self-published ones, too.
I do, however, agree with the following:
(4.) Complaining about another author’s success to push your own product
(7.) Ulterior-Friending
The third one doesn’t bother me as much, as long as the book they’re suggesting really does address said issue. Of course, you did say, “every conversation,” and any one book can’t relate to every conversation one finds themselves in, so making it stretch just to talk about one’s book is of course, crazy. But I’ve mentioned one or two of my books on occasion in a conversation, but only when it really fit the solutions, and then not before giving an answer (I didn’t just say, “Go read my book…”).
I would disagree with some sentiment here, that self-published authors should *never* self-promote. If I don’t promote my own self-published books, then no one will. That said, the type of self-promotion is key, and whether it is all you do, or infrequently interspersed with other material *when* you have real news to report, like, “My book just came out!” As I’ve read in other places, and I think even here, one must add value to the conversation, blog, etc. that give people something they want to hear or discuss, and then they don’t mind you occasionally mentioning something about your books, whether that is blog, FB, or other media.
But in general, I agree with the points. But for me, it is in each case about balance. It isn’t an no/yes issue, but most of those things are okay when done in moderation. Some of them I wouldn’t do at all.
But to add to your list, if all I ever hear from an author is negative ranting, whether about publishing, Amazon, other authors, politics, etc., then I’ll lean toward unfriending/unfollowing, or at least blocking. An occasional rant to let off steam or even to address a real problem is okay. And when I say, “rant,” I’m thinking not of people simply saying, “I have a problem with…,” but complaining about stuff all the time. If all I hear is complaining and negative, continued following isn’t appealing.
Well now I feel bad. Self-pubbers are told to do most of the things decried here. It’s hard to get visibility through twitter (which, I have to say I only joined for the marketing angle) when you have nothing “eventful” in your life. I go to work at the same place as an entrepreneur doing the same thing every day. My problems rarely change, and my triumphs amount to “I totally took this turkey bacon that had gone soggy, stuck it in the oven and recovered the crisp so I could sell it to a customer who wouldn’t know the difference! Epic win!”
No, I do see the point, but that balance is hard. I really can’t think of much to say on twitter. Sure I could be controversial, but really, I have enough present conflict without manufacturing more from people who are not even my readers yet.
I guess I’ll go read that post I saw on good self-promoting balance.
” (which, I have to say I only joined for the marketing angle)”
And everyone who follows you can tell that.
I should give seminars on how to self-promote using social media. Because people don’t realise that genuineness is the biggest seller. People want to connect with a PERSON. They get commercials everywhere else–in the sidebars, on TV. If they know YOU and like YOU…or the version of YOU that you play on FB…then they’ll be vastly more inclined to buy what you sell. Especially when it comes to books.
And yes, I’ve spent more than $500 on books that people I follow promote via Social Media. I’ve also “hidden” at least a dozen authors. They have me listed as a friend but they can’t tell I’ve stopped listening to them. Most of the time the direct and disingenuous end up talking to empty air after five weeks.
Katherine, this makes me feel elated that you’ve stopped by my FB author page. Keep me real, my friend. And throw me any marketing tips you’ve got. Also, when I develop a street gang *er* team, I’ll hunt you down.
I see your point, but since the real “sincere” me would not justify the effort of tweeting, the real me would be invisible. So the question is not whether we’re there to market but whether we are marketing effectively. It’s like developing that great jingle. The jingle was created to market, but it doesn’t feel like marketing.
I have to say I agree with Caprice that in some ways authors are pushed to self-market obnoxiously. I self-pubbed so the pressure is self-inflicted, but when I was an entrepreneur and making the rounds of Silicon Valley, I was told to step outside my comfort zone and wave my business plan in front of whoever I could get in front of. I still have nightmares about being at those networking events, and starting to walk towards an angel investor who got the look of a trapped deer and would start to turn in the other direction. Then that same angel investor would get on stage as a panel speaker and tell us entrepreneurs we needed to be aggressive and just get in people’s faces. At first I thought it might be me, doing something wrong, but this was the experience of many of us entrepreneurs.
In terms of the book, I’ve luckily got a career that I love besides writing, so my wish is simply for people to read the book, I don’t care about the money. BUT, I don’t have unlimited funds to spend on the book either, so what was a bit disheartening for me was how people enthusiastically took free copies of my paperback but never read it. I asked them to take a free e-copy instead of paperback if they were not going to read it anytime soon, because I only had a limited number of paperbacks to afford / hand out. Everyone promised to read it and not just shelve the book, but very few have actually carried through on their promise. On the other hand, people on Goodreads and other sites – complete strangers – have been SO generous with their time and reviews, and they’ve mainly had e-copies to read, not even the real book. So I’m sticking with my (new) friends on these types of forums and Goodreads, at least they understand what an author goes through and the limited funds they have, and they genuinely try to support us. I, for my part, try not to be a “drive-by” author participating only for my own benefit.
I’ve rambled into various points here, but my main point is that, as Caprice said, sometimes one doesn’t want to promote aggressively but we are told we should, and sometimes we authors can be treated impolitely by those who are well-intentioned but dont’ realize how hard it is to write and afford the process of creating and marketing a book.