Jo here, still without updated CBK pictures. Am I busy? You bet I'm busy. Here's a busy picture.
Not just writing-busy. The trouble with a garden is that it grows things. I've done the scarlet runner beans. We've picked the grapes and trodden them. (Not really, but they are fermenting.) Now it's the tomatoes, given that the weather's turning cool and wet.
But today my MIP (manuscript/mess/monster in progress) came together in a completely magical way, which means all is temporarily right with my world. :)
But the title says promo. That's because something happened on the way to the forum. This forum. I paused to look at my e-mail. Not to read it. To clear some of the backlog from the year of living busily. I found a gentle reminder of the deadline to put an ad in Romance Sells. The deadline was today. So I had to run off there and do it, which diverted much of the coherence and energy I might have brought here.
Coherence and energy? Who am I kidding? Especially as I tend to do my Wednesday as Wednesday creeps up on the clock over here on the west coast. If I leave it until the morning it'll be noon for some of you. And that's only the some of you on this continent.
If I were cool, calm, and organized I'd compose and polish a blog entry in advance, but though I aspire, I rarely achieve.
But the MIP did magically click together today. Did I mention that?
Romance Sells is a nifty promo tool done by RWA. For a modest amount we can put a one-page ad in a magazine that goes out to a gazillion -- well, many thousands -- of booksellers, thus encouraging them to order our books for their stores and also hand sell them to appropriate customers. This is what we all want for our books. Well, I suppose we all want to be Oprah picks, or featured on some similarly popular TV show, or just to have the hand of fortune whap us, like Dan Brown or Jo Rowling.
Maybe. I'm honestly not sure if I'd want that intensity of success. I'll probably never find out.
Back to promo. The publisher, of course, does market and promote the books, but the intensity of their efforts varies, so many authors, especially in romance, have taken some control by doing some themselves. Some buy ads in a variety of media. Some arrange signings in local stories. Most have web pages and mailing lists so they can keep in touch with their readers and really enjoy that. These days, many also have blogs.
We Wenches are enjoying our collaborative adventure and especially the intelligent comments here, but we are mostly doing it to draw interest to our books. When it comes down to it, for authors, it'l all about the book. We sweat over our books. We murture our books. We adore our books. And we want lots and lots and lots of readers by read them and think they're one of the absolute best novels ever written. We are like mothers with their children. We have no moderation on this. :)
Did I tell you my little darling sat, crawled, and took its first steps, all in one day? It's so delightful.
So what I wondered is, what promotional activities have interested you in a book? We all have the books we're going to buy anyway. But why have you picked up a book/author that was new to you?
With me, it's nearly always buzz. If I hear enough people talking about a book, especially from different places on line, I'll check it out. I discovered WARPRIZE that way, and THE SMOKE THIEF, and many others over the years.
I love excerpts. If a book catches my interest for some reason I'll go to the author's website to find an excerpt. If I like her style, I'll buy the book.
I rarely buy by cover, but sometimes a cover will get me to pick up the book for a closer look.
COVER --->
So, what hooks you?
My little darling? I thought you'd never ask. It'll be out next June called LADY BEWARE, but at the moment it's not out of nappies, so definitely not ready to be out on its own. Off to bed so I can get back to it tomorrow.
No, this isn't me, not even on a relaxed day. But as some advertizers think naked women sell products....
Jo :)