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Post by Jocelynn Drake on Mar 16, 2009 15:01:16 GMT -5
Okay, if you haven't figured it out already, I'm partially using the message board as my own personal brain trust. You guys are my sounding board, my pulse of the world, my guiding light. I bow to your combined wisdom.
So, I've got a growing concern that it's going to be harder to sell copies of Dayhunter because of the poor economy. I'm trying to think of new ways to get the word and drum up some excitement about the book.
I'm planning:
a pre-release contest
interviews
reviewers are being sent copies of the book
I'm contemplating doing more mugs, and I've already order some magnets with the Dayhunter cover on them.
Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to get people excited about the book? Any way to get the word out? Anything in particular that you've seen other authors do that you thought was brilliant?
Thanks for all your help!
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Post by carnagsehls on Mar 16, 2009 17:31:58 GMT -5
don't know if this will really help in the selling, but some authors will have cute little freebies that they'll give you if you send them SASE to send it back in (like Kim's tomato seeds). or you could see if (not sure who would need to talk to who to get it in motion) but, sometimes at my bookstore, we'll get in disposable displays that are of a couple different authors books, one more well known author, one not as well known author, where the customer will get a discount on the more well known author's book if they also buy the lesser known author's book.
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Post by lilgumba on Mar 16, 2009 18:31:15 GMT -5
You can always tap into more of the convention circuits, not just limited to book ones but maybe some sci-fi ones as well. Who knows, maybe you can have parts of the novel adapted into a mini web comic kind of thing, to get the attention of some of those people who like visuals with their novels.
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Post by liezel77 on Mar 17, 2009 2:21:55 GMT -5
The way I find new writers/books is through the Monthly Features in the [glow=red,2,300]Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Book Club[/glow] over at www.bn.com. It makes is even better if the author stops by during that month. I don't know how they come up with who is featured though. I was hoping Dayhunter would be featured in May myself. Another thing is posting an excerpt and maybe a book trailer? on your website. I for one would like to see how Mira = Danaus are illustrated ;D |
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Post by Jocelynn Drake on Mar 17, 2009 7:15:46 GMT -5
I was lucky enough to be on the BN bookclub back in October for Nightwalker and it was a great experience. I'm not sure how you get picked.
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Post by Candace on Mar 27, 2009 21:24:36 GMT -5
What about a mailing list? It's a great way to keep in contact with people! A mailing list is an easy way for people to receive info about when the next book is coming out, a reminder that the release date is approaching, etc. And if you have some author friends who have high traffic blogs, it might be worthwhile pinging them and asking if they would mind adding a line or two telling their readers that your second book comes out soon.
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daeonica
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Post by daeonica on Jun 16, 2009 17:09:37 GMT -5
I think doing interviews on review blogs, or just getting the upcoming book reviewed online are really good ways to promote. I started reading My Favourite Books about a year ago, and I've come to so many great books through there. I'm not sure if Nightwalker was one of them - I think I originally heard about it through Kim Harrison's blog. But yeah, the woman who does MFB gets lots of new books sent to her by publishers to review on her site - lucky thing!  So that's a good way for people to hear about books before they are released. |
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Post by junklekennedy on Jun 17, 2009 19:05:33 GMT -5
One thing I see more and more of now are book trailers. If you get someone who is technically advanced they can whip a generic one right up! I've seen some pretty bad ones though so you have to be creative and keep the viewers intrigued. |
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Post by alicia0605 on Jun 27, 2009 2:15:07 GMT -5
CONTESTS! People love Contests. If your going to do contests, do several, dont just do one or two. Spread them out during the course of a couple of weeks.
Jeaniene Frost just did a bunch of contests. She gave away music CDs, like twenty coverflats, a bunch of published novels, and ARC's. In the last contest alone she had over 700 entries. I myself won a signed coverflat through a instant winner contest. It was one of those the first 20 people to leave a comment on her blog wins. It was a lot of fun.
Also if your going to do contests try to set up at least one or two that to enter you have to post about the contest and the upcoming book on myspace, facebook, livejournal, etc.
Dont do anything to expensive with contests. Do lots of little things so that people have more chances to win. You want people to win. The more people who win the more people they will tell about how they won whatever thru a contest that Jocelynn Drake was having. Then they will go on to tell everyone about how great your books are and why they should buy them.
I learn about a lot of new authors from Bitten By Books. They seem to really get people involved in things. Maybe you could do an interview with them.
Jessica Andersen just did a contest where she had people send in their email addresses to sign up for her newsletter. You got one entry for signing up and one entry for every additional friends email address you gave. She gave away two ARC's to the two winners.
I guess Contests and Freebies are the best way to get heard about. People love getting things for free. We dont care if all it is is a bookmark or a sticker. We love free stuff!!
I hope this helps. I've always found that one of the best ways is word of mouth. I have told everyone I know about your books. Good luck.
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Post by Jocelynn Drake on Jun 28, 2009 19:33:50 GMT -5
Thanks for your suggestion. I will try to do contests more frequently than I do. Right now, they are typically around the release of a book. With two coming out in August and September, I imagine that I'll have some more contests soon!
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Post by pattepoilue on Jul 17, 2009 6:25:55 GMT -5
I wanted to have a countdown for the release of Dawnbreaker on my blogs, but it was hard to find a website to make one that was free. I wanted to know if it was ok for me to put the countdown i made on my blogs? if not i'll take it off =) I don't know how to show it on the boards so i'll give you the link to see it on my blog : pattepoilue.livejournal.com/5325.html |
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Post by carnagsehls on Jul 17, 2009 9:51:40 GMT -5
heheh ... that is totally cool. should probably have something like that here on the forum too.
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Post by pattepoilue on Jul 17, 2009 9:57:19 GMT -5
=) thanks I can't figure how to put it in my post here though.... i am tempted to make one for Unbound too...i like this new toy ;D EDIT: ok you can see the Unbound Anthology countdown on my profile on blogger here pattepoilue.blogspot.com/2009/07/unbound-anthology_17.htmlAND on my sidebar =) |
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Post by Jocelynn Drake on Jul 17, 2009 19:15:03 GMT -5
Thanks! The countdown widget is awesome. I placed the Dawnbreaker widget on my blogger account.
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Post by pattepoilue on Jul 18, 2009 0:58:58 GMT -5
thank you...i put it everywhere i could myself ! =)
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So that's a good way for people to hear about books before they are released.
