We interrupt the regularly scheduled Beach Bling blog post with this late-breaking and totally rockin' announcement...
Cover art for The Blond Leading the Blond arrived in my inbasket yesterday. And <<<drum roll please…>>> here it is!
The scheduled release date is October, 2011. Only 9 weeks away. Yikes!
So now I have to muster up my inner-cheerleader and start promoting myself. I could use a little advice here. In the comments section, please tell me what makes you check out the details of a book to see if you’d like to risk your hard earned dollars on a new author. Do you judge a book by it's cover? Do you pay attention to tweets? Blog posts? Listserve BSPs? Recommendations from friends? Or does a tchotchke from a meeting, conference or book signing give you the impetus to Goggle the book? If so, what tchotchkes work best? Bookmarks? Pens? Trading cards? Something else? I welcome any and all ideas. And if I sound desperate for a knock-your-socks-off promotional gimmick, it’s because I am!
10 comments:
Congrats, Jayne! What a great cover! I've done all kinds of promo items from lip balm to bookmarks to sunscreen but nothing beats word of mouth, IMHO. Best of luck and many sales!
GREAT cover. Avalon does the best covers in the world.
I love it! Very well done.
Promotional stuff: The physical promotional items would be lost on me because I don't go to book signings or otherwise meet authors in the flesh.
I usually check out books from twitter, facebook, and blogs. I also get a lot of recommendations from Amazon.com.
Are you a member of any professional orgs? See if they have people willing to let you guest blog. You can also set up Facebook "events," but I don't know much about this.
Have you heard of John Locke? He sold something like 1 million ebooks in five months. I've heard a lot of recommendations for his book on self-promoting.
Best of luck!
Best of luck on your release. Nice cover. I have to go along with Catie Rhodes comments. Talk to everyone! Do a blog tour and critique books on Amazon so people can find you when they Google your name.
Kristen lamb does a great job teaching self promotion. She has a book out on social media for writers, "We Are Not Alone". Check it out if you get the chance.
Hope this helps.
What brings me to a book initially is the title. Your title is kick-ass good. Such a GREAT word play on the blind leading the blind. SUPERB. Then, for me, it's the cover art. It has to draw me in and make me wonder. I loved the pair of heals on a beach! If I read about you because you're a guest on someone's blog and there's a short blurb about the book, that will also prompt me to immediately purchase it.
Patti
Great cover! I hope my next one is as nice as that. You have a right to be excited about it.
Recommendation from a friend, title, book cover, blurb on book with a great hook, exposure to the author. Bookmarks, flyers, etc. only help me remember an author or book name if I'm away from home when I receive it; I don't know if that's worth the money. Appear EVERYWHERE you can to get people to see you and hear you talk about your book. Best wishes! Congrats!!!
Love the title - and the cover!
Tchotchkes have never made me buy a book - I pick them up at cons because they're there. What has made me buy - mentions on blogs, reading the author's blog and seeing it there, and yes, I've bought books because of tweets - but usually when I've seen them mentioned elsewhere first. Free books used to be a good way to find new-to-me authors too, especially the publisher booksignings at RWA, but not so much any more that I mostly read e-books. And free isn't such a big deal there either, since there are so many.
Good luck with the new release!
Thanks for sharing my excitement and double thanks for all the promo advice. I am a "babe in the woods" when it comes to social networking but it sounds like that is the best way to sell books. But there's still a chance I win the Powerball lottery at which point I will buy up all the books in print and hand them out free to whoever wants one! :)
Congrats and good luck! Since I'm not published yet I can't give you any personal advice, but the things Catie said makes a lot of sense.
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