Can Marketing Your Novel be Fun?
Welcome Readers!
Until February 2008 I had never marketed my business. As a professional psychic all of my clients were referral only. As Clinical Hypnotherapist I to relied on refferals to build my client base, the most marketing I ever did was in creating www.lifefirst.com and nurturing it to over 3 million hits a month with little effort on my part. I simple provided a great layout and easy navigation (via a brilliant Web Guru) and give people what they wanted tons for free content and not a lot of sale pushes. Word of mouth, client to client is still the best way to get business by far.
But as a published author I need to learn all the ways I can tell people that my book is out and available, hopefully by not being obnoxious. Because I dislike shameful promotion I try not to go there and am very aware that there is the backlash effect that can occur if you try and ram your stuff at people. And to be honest completely, the here’s what I think about me, what do you think about me thing is boring and seems narcissistic to me.
The thing I want to do is have fun with my writing, publishing and marketing things I do. Here are a few things I have done in the past few months to market my book that were fun for me.
- I started social networking big time on the web.
- I started writing blogs in a very consistent way.
- I have started a contest for the book which kicks off tonight on www.themarkofdruid.com
- I teamed up with other writers who are either podcasting and/or publishing. (the ideas these folks have are amazing)
- I have done and agreed to do several interviews on blogtalkradio and other internet podcasts which can just be a blast.
- I have met and made friends with all kinds of podcasting folks who are more than willing to play a promo read a chapter of my work, add me as a contributor to their site, read a story so far for their podcasts.
The action of trying to make the marketing fun has been very successful. I love getting up in the morning and twittering from the Vortex, there is a new The Mark of a Druid group on facebook and while myspace is not my favorite I am still trying it out. So I invite you to join me in the marketing party. If you have a book, podcast, blogtalkradio show or a Ustream show or other media event send me a promo and a short one line elevator pitch with a picture of cover if you like and let me help you get the word out! Send your email request to info@rhondacarpenter.com.
I am looking forward to sharing a prolific year with all of you. Please keep the comments coming and the reviews and ratings on Amazon, iTunes and podiobooks they really help!
Remember to check out the contest announcement for the first giveaway at http://www.themarkofadruid.com under the contest 2009 page.
Happy 2009 lets have a fabulous year together!
Rhonda R. Carpenter
Tags: fiction, marketing, podcast, rhonda carpenter, Rhonda R Carpenter, the fox, the mark of a druid, weekly blog, writing
