Promotion

It's time for Debra to start thinking about getting the word out.

I have a new book coming out in August. Yay!

I need to start thinking about promotion. Line up blog appearances. Purchase promotional materials: bookmarks, postcards, etc.

Trouble is, I don't want to do any of those things. Promotion is one of those things you put so much time and effort into and there seems to be no good way to measure whether those efforts were successful or not.

I am sorely tempted this time around to do something different with promotion...translation: do nothing. What would happen if I didn't do a blog tour? What if I don't order bookmarks? My gut feeling is my sales will be exactly the same as they always are. My books do okay sales-wise, but nothing close to anything that will help me retire early to a tropical island when I turn 50.

The question is, am I willing to take the risk? And even if this book doesn't do 'as well' as my previous ones...what are the consequences of that? Am I going to lose readers as an author? I'm sure my mom and the rest of my family and a few friends will still read my stories. Some days it seems like those are the only people who do read my books.

Have you ever done absolutely nothing to promote a book and just let the chips fall where they may?

I'd love to find a new approach to promotion. But that's what everyone else wants, too, right? The blog thing seems to be losing speed. Too many blogs out there with the same people posting and commenting. And those tend to be other authors rather than readers. Not that authors aren't readers, but I know I can't buy every book by every fellow-author out there, so I can't expect everyone to be buying my books. I haven't tackled Twitter yet. For most of the year, there's no way I can keep up with it. Maybe I'll try it as a summer thing this year. We've discussed the merits of Pinterest. So that has possibilities.

I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com