Monday, December 01, 2008
Marketing
I've been thinking about marketing romances recently and how various authors go about doing it. Nora Roberts is still actively marketing her novels herself, especially her series books. Suzanne Brockmann does elaborate reader weekends. Most authors do book tours.
How do e-book authors market themselves when they don't have books to sign and sell to their readers if they show up at a bookstore? Here's one way: Angela James' 12 days of Holiday Hell. Should be an interesting twelve days.
And yes, I'm doing this because I want a Kindle and book gift certificates (a very few of the prizes)! Excuse me, I'm off to hunt through 17 author websites, heaven help me. I've got 12 days to do it, right? :) Join me and have some fun, discover new e-book authors, and many win some stuff!
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As I sat with the lap top reading this post on Google Reader, I happened to catch a commercial for Nora Roberts' new release, The Pagan Stone. It was pretty brief, with a tag line something like, Reading takes you places. Nice.
ReplyDeleteCan't find a link on the InterTubes, otherwise I'd link.
Rather than authors doing their own promotion in the sort of ways you mention at the beginning of your post, the Samhain competition seems to me to be an example of a publisher promoting a group of its authors,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if promotions by publishers are likely to give readers a better idea not just of their authors but also of the publisher itself, sometimes in unexpected ways. With regards to the Avon promotion that I mentioned in my last post, I noticed that both Lorraine Heath's novel and one of the other three books available this month (Margo Maguire's The Bride Hunt) used the word "trite" in perplexing ways:
"[...] you expect me to take you at your word that he deserves killing without even telling me what he's done. For all I know perhaps he neglected to ask you for a dance."
"Surely you don't think I'm as trite as all that." (Heath 28)
"I'm sorry, but I'm feeling a bit trite of late. Hearing that a man such as Claybourne, a known scoundrel, is taking time to speak out on behalf of children makes me feel as though I should be doing more." (Heath 104)
"I let my eyes deceive me. I never knew how trite beauty could be. Your face is well loved, Anvrai, but know that I do not measure your worth only by your bold visage." (Maguire 372)
Heath, Lorraine. In Bed with the Devil. New York: Avon, 2008.
Maguire, Margo. The Bride Hunt. New York: Avon, 2006.
Because the promotion was by publisher, rather than by an individual author, it made me wonder if Avon has an editor who isn't aware that "trite" is defined as an "adjective (of a remark or idea) lacking originality or freshness; dull on account of overuse" (Compact Oxford English Dictionary).
I like the video promos for JAK's last two Jayne Castle Harmony novels, SILVER MASTER and DARK LIGHT. You can find them on youtube.
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