USING SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL AVENUE - with Annette Beecher

When you visit Annette Beecher's website - Jar O' Marbles - you are greeted with this important fact: 

Once upon a time, writers shut themselves in their offices, churned out their manuscripts and turned them in. Then, leaving the business of sales and publicity to their publishing houses, they went on to write their next masterpiece with nothing but the occasional book tour or store signing to pull them away from their creative process.Those times are long gone.

Another fact is that whether you go the traditional publishing route or choose to indie, the promotion sits on your shoulders even BEFORE you publish.

"But fear not. I'm Annette, your personal Virtual Author Assistant! I have a big jar o' marbles to share ­ so you can keep yours, and spend more of your time doing what you do best. Write!"

Annette is here today to share The Top Five Things Authors Should Know about Promo & Social Media


 Don’t be a telemarketer:  I see so many authors that spend all of their time sending out links to their books, newsletters, etc.  No one wants to deal with telemarketers on the phone, so don’t be one online either.  It’s important to be a real person online.  Talk about your day, your writing process, your dog, the song that you can’t get of your head, etc.  Promotional links should be only 30 – 40% of what you post.

 Plan Ahead:  If you know you have a book coming out, start thinking about the best way to promote it.  Giveaways seem to be really popular right now. Blog Tours are also popular; though pick the blogs or the tour company carefully. Once the book is out, post your favorite book lines with links to where readers can purchase.  It’s important to use a variety of lines, not the same one over and over.

 Do Your Research:  This could probably be 2.1.  The internet is an ever-changing environment. Blog hops, blog tours and newsletters are really “hot” right now, but in a month or two, there will be something else to come along.  So get online and do your homework, figure out what is working for other authors and pick promo ideas that work for you.  

 Mysterious does not work for authors: Readers, reviewers and bloggers are going to want to contact you.  Don’t make them hunt for your contact info.  Make sure there is an easy to find way to contact you whether it’s a contact form or email address on your website or blog. 

 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Or, don’t be “That” author.  If you get bad reviews, don’t go all medieval on the reviewer.  It just makes you look bad.  Books like music and art are a subjective medium.  Not everyone is going to love what you do.  If reading bad reviews bothers you that much, hire an assistant to read reviews for you and only send you the good ones.  This should be common sense, but don’t trash other authors, or your agent or anyone online.  The internet is like an elephant, its memory lasts forever.

Great tips!  Annette offers a variety of promotional assistance packages to choose from. Please stop by her website and have a look around. She is very approachable and personable so if you have questions, feel free to contact her. 

Links:

http://www.jaromarbles.com/

https://twitter.com/JarOMarbles

https://www.facebook.com/JarOMarbles

About Annette Beecher: 

Chihuahua minion, gamer, foodie, whovian, anglophile, book obsessed, slightly crazy person who also works as a virtual assistant to authors.