It takes a village

Everyone knows that it takes an entire community of people interacting with children, supporting and encouraging them, in order for them to thrive. Well, the same principle applies to books. It takes a village to effectively promote a book. But what exactly does that mean?

There are over two million books published every year. Over 300,000 in the U.S. alone. Stop to think about that for a minute. Of course, that includes fiction and non-fiction and I don’t have the statistics by genre. Still, imagine how many mystery novels are released in a twelve month period. Now, picture one book lost in that sea of books. The bottom line: an author can’t successfully promote his or her book alone. We need your help.

So, as a reader, what can you do? Here are a few suggestions: 

1. If you read a book and love it, spread the word. Tell everyone you know about it. Because the most effective means of promotion is word of mouth.
2. Write a positive review on amazon and Goodreads. I know this sounds like a lot of work but, believe me, once you do it, you’ll see how easy it is. A lot of readers have the mistaken impression that writing a review is similar to writing a book report. It isn’t. One or two sentences telling what you enjoyed most about the book can make all the difference in the world.
3. Purchase a paper copy of the book you enjoyed and give it to a reader on your shopping list. An avid reader will love nothing more than receiving a book for Christmas or their birthday.
4. Follow your favorite authors on amazon and Goodreads. That way, you’ll get a notification whenever they publish a new book.
5. Take a chance on a new (to you) author. It’s fine to read the novels by Big Name authors but you’re missing out if you don’t give small press and self-published authors a chance. Not all writers can be a Mary Higgins Clark or a James Patterson but we all have stories to tell that you just might love.

Book Bashing

We authors are constantly asking our readers to spread the word about our books. To tell their friends, to review them on Amazon and Goodreads and to recommend them on Bookbub. 

There are so many books out there and we want our books to “stand out in the crowd,” to be read by as many people as possible. After all, that’s why we write. We have something to say that we believe will benefit others.

Word of mouth, reviews and recommendations are crucial to the success or failure of a book. Words have power! The more positive reviews a book gets, the better its chances. By the same token, too many negative reviews can result in fewer readers.

One of my favorite quotes, “One man’s garbage is another man’s gold” says it all, which is why my personal policy is to NEVER write a review unless I believe a book deserves at least 4 stars. 

Because reviewing a book is not the same thing as reviewing a toaster.

The toaster either performs as it’s supposed to or it doesn’t. If you review the toaster, you’re helping others to make a decision as to whether or not they should buy it. That’s a good thing.

But a book review is subjective, based solely on the reviewer’s opinion. Not on fact. Because the fact is we all have different tastes. I might not like a book you would love and vice versa.

So, if you're ever tempted to write a negative review for a book, please think twice. Ask yourself this question: Do I want to be a book promoter or a book basher?

Word of Mouth

Everyone knows the best promotion is word of mouth. One person tells another person who tells another person who tells someone else and the word is out. 

Although I’m sure the BIG NAME authors rely on word of mouth too, it’s crucial to those of us who are lesser known authors. You see, we don’t have a staff of promoters and an unlimited advertising budget. For many of us, it’s just us. We do what we can to get the word out about our books but without readers to help us do that, we’re not going to sell many books. 

And, let’s face it, that’s why we write. We spend long hours at our computers telling our stories in order to get our books in the hands of as many readers as possible. Because we believe that what we write will help other people. That, through our books, they can escape into another world where they'll be entertained and possibly enlightened.

In addition to being a mystery writer, I’m an avid mystery reader and many of my friends are too. They’re very supportive of my books, which I greatly appreciate, and they frequently ask me for suggestions on other books to read. I love to pass along the names of authors whose books I’ve enjoyed and I encourage my friends to spread the word to their friends.

I hope you’ll do the same.

Saddle up with the promotion Posse

I've been a proud member of Sunny Frazier's Posse for the past five years and I'm very grateful to her for teaching me about promotion and for guiding me along the way. I've asked her to tell us about how and why she formed the Posse.

   It was a simple idea, really. I began learning (and loving) promotion early on in the Internet age. As I watched others struggle, I wondered why should they beat their head against the wall trying to navigate all the information out there? I mean, I’d already done that and had it under my belt. I was linked to lots of sites that fed information to me without any work on my part.

   Perhaps it was hubris that had me announce “I can take 5 years off your writing path if you just blindly follow my instructions.” I didn’t know if that statistic was right, I made it up off the top of my head. The message was, even if you don’t understand everything you read right now, trust me—it will all fall into place.

   Understand, these weren’t my ideas, they were culled from all the sites coming into my computer. I eliminated blogs that didn’t really add anything to our collective knowledge or were a time-waste. I sought information that could boost a person’s career.

   There was a secondary requirement: members had to go over to sites where fellow Posse members were blogging and add their two cents. It was a subversive move. Suddenly, that site had dozens of comments. Posse members were a valuable commodity for site owners. We identified ourselves as Posse and people realized we were a force to be reckoned with. I was even getting requests to “send the Posse over.”

   About a month ago, I developed a FB page for the Posse. I invited the 87 members and then opened it up to everyone. There’s no charge, everyone contributes and we still support wherever one of us is posting. However, I started doing a Round-Up every Friday listing all the topics discussed that week. It gets posted all over the Internet. I also found fun Western photos to illustrate the posts.

   Why the “Posse?” It’s a tip of my cowboy hat to the fact that I worked for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and yes, we have a Posse. They ride horses and go into the rugged foothills to locate lost hikers. While the San Joaquin Valley of California isn’t exactly the “Wild West,” we do have rodeos and cowboys. It’s an image that works as we “ride together” to promote.  

  

Sunny Frazier

 

Sunny Frazier writes the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries, set in the Central Valley of California where Sunny lives. A military veteran (Navy, Vietnam Era), she worked for 17 years with the Fresno County Sheriff's Dept., 11 of those years as Girl Friday for an undercover narcotics team. Her books are based on real cases and real places from those days--as well as a bit of astrology, which she's been doing for 45 years. Her character, Christy, has her own Face Book page where she doles out astrological tidbits and Sunny is the head honcho of the Posse, an intra-promotional Face Book group for writers.  

Books 2 & 3 of the series can be purchased on Amazon or at Black Opal Books. Book 1, "Fools Rush In" will be reprinted later this year.