An Author's Thoughts on Self-Promotion

The following comment from Michele Scott (a response to a comment left by Deb Baker) contained so many good ideas and good suggestions that we thought it deserved to be highlighted for anyone who may have missed it. Read on for some great ways to spread the word about your books. . . .

Hi Deb,

I appreciate the kind words. I actually ran the ad in RT. I set aside a budget specifically for publicity. I have found that with the mysteries I write, placing an ad in RT has had benefit for me, and that's because my mysteries have romantic elements to them. But you have to take a step back and see where your dollar is going to be best spent.

With the contest, I called around and had the various sponsors donate the items. I just wasn't afraid to receive rejection. I figured eventually somoene would say yes. (Kind of sound familiar with the writing world?).

There are things you can do that won't cost money, just time, and that in itself can be costly because we all need to be writing. One thing I try and do is log on to various chat rooms dealing with wines and other ones with horses. It's a good way to do a subtle intro to what you're writing and typically I see spikes on my site when I log on to chats.

I also volunteer to do workshops, talk to writers, attend local book clubs, and I even go so far as to call up or walk into my local radio or TV stations and pitch them. Last week I Googled wine + radio and several wine-related radio shows popped up. I e-mailed them, and have already done one of the shows and am scheduled to do two more.

It takes time, commitment, and drive, plus I love writing. The marketing ideas are fun to come up with, but I can't wait for the day when I don't have to come up with them, and can focus most of my time on my writing.

Thank you again for the kind words. I enjoyed meeting you at Malice!

Michele