Bad Book Publicity

[jimhines]

I’ll probably be talking about book-release stuff next week when Mermaid’s Madness comes out, which got me thinking about some of the really bad publicity strategies for authors.

I’m not claiming to be perfect.  In the past five years, I’ve tried any number of things to promote my work that make me wince to think about ‘em now.  Bad home-printed

Comments

[cuddlycthulhu]

The Piggy-Back - I've seen this in one of two ways:
1. Going to an author's listing for their books but, instead of reviewing it, insert a solicitation for your own work (i.e. "If you loved The Graveyard Book then you'll absolutely love my Little Boy Grows Up In A Graveyard book!").

2. A person goes to a writer's blog/forum and writes about how if people like said author's work then their fans will absolutely love their work.

Also, the people who sign up for author's blogs, forums, websites, etc. only to pimp their work and offer up no other content, views, comments, whatever just get under my skin.

[jimhines]

Yes. I'd classify most of that as spam of one variety or another, and it drives me crazy. That sort of butting-in with your own self-promo is one of the reasons I stopped paying attention to the discussion forums over on Amazon, though I'm told it's gotten a little bit better.

[cathschaffstump]

I think my husband owns the Cthullu in your icon, much to my chagrin.

Um...carry on.

Catherine

[txtriffidranch]

I've seen a ridiculous amount of that gibberish, and it's spreading to other fields, too. You wouldn't believe the number of idiots out there right now that figure that they're welcomed with open arms by spamming every venue and every discussion that shows up in a Google search. (I'm currently flooded with one for a particularly nasty horticultural company, selling mimosas as a new kid-friendly plant. Each and every one of these claims to come from a satisfied customer who bought it "for my kids", and I'd almost believe it if they weren't all cut-and-paste notices with the same misspellings and tortured syntax.)

[txtriffidranch]

I once worked with a reasonably big writer in the genre: if you read military SF, you'd probably recognize his name. Nice guy, and very easy to work with, but he spent all of his time at work promoting his novels. We're talking wearing T-shirts and bearing tote bags with the cover to the latest novel on them...at work.

The only reason why he got away with this was because this was a government position, and he'd been there so long and had done his job so well that everyone figured "Ennh, let him play." Try that at most places of employ, or even idly mention "Hey, I have a book coming out" in the lunch room, and that's automatically one big checkmark in the "People To Jettison When The Layoffs Come" list. (I made that mistake back in 1991, and was promptly laid off because "Oh, he has something to fall back on." Two years later, when my first book did come out, not only was I laid off from a new job the day it came out, but my old department manager heard about this and said "See? I knew Paul was going to do well." Bastard.

[jjschwabach]

Actually, that makes it odder that he got away with it, since in my own (government) position, we have to sign an annual agreement to do no such thing. No using work time to promote self, outside work, etc.

[txtriffidranch]

Well, that's a funny thing. He didn't actually use work time to promote himself or to do any work on his novels. Again, he did a really good job, and he kept going until he retired a few years back. (When I was working with him, he was already talking about leaving, collecting his pension, and spending the rest of his life writing novels.) However, he was still a walking billboard for his latest novel, and he made a point of always wearing that T-shirt and carrying that tote bag at all times, so sooner or later someone would ask.

[mroctober]

Ironically, I had just read something about this when I saw your post. Thoughts?

[jimhines]

Interesting. I think he vastly overestimates the significance of making it onto one of those Amazon lists. It's nice, and I'm happy for him that he sold so well on 9/1, but I don't see it translating to many additional sales. And I'm really hoping he doesn't start appending "Bestselling Author" to things now, as I've seen some folks do.

Still, if he sold 40 self-pubbed books in one day, good for him! That's impressive right there.

Happy to chime in

[gregjupiter]

"he" is happy to chime in here (I noticed a number of hits on my website from your post so had to come out here and see what was going on

[jtglover]

Friend requests on Facebook followed immediately by promotional material or suggestions that you become a fan of the author or author's work. Boo!

[jtglover]

Noooo kidding. Buying presupposes interest, not annoyance. "Annoy them until they buy your book!" is not an effective strategy.

[txtriffidranch]

It's worse when the fan page reads "Author (author's name)". That's automatically a sign of someone who's going to spend his/her time defecating into your Facebook Wall all day.

[margaret_y]

I don't think homemade bookmarks are so bad. Bookmarks in general are pretty low-key publicity--people can take them or not. Me, I can always use more bookmarks! If you can have them professionally done, that is great, but I've never looked down my nose at an author for making his own bookmarks. Help a newbie out: why are they so awful? If they are a huge no-no then I will know never to do that.

[jimhines]

I don't know that I'd call homemade bookmarks a huge no-no, and some people are skilled enough to make them look good.

I was not one of these people.

I don't think the bookmarks were as bad as Mr. Photoshop up there, but they looked cheap. The ones I pay $200 or so to have professionally done look a lot nicer, and I think that makes a difference.

Does that make sense? Not a career-ending faux pas or anything like that, but it's something I wouldn't do again.

[margaret_y]

I get it. Thanks! I learn a lot here.

[bearhand]

I agree with you. A bookmark hand-done and signed by one of my favorite authors? I'd keep it and brag about it. Jim, if you ask, I'll send you my address so you can send me one for when I get the Mermaid Madness. Nothing too extravegant, just some gold leaf on Egyptian papyrus should be okay.