Slipping on My Promo Heels

I’ve blogged before about how much I detest promoting my work. Most of my online correspondence is via Facebook and Twitter. I have blogs on my websites, but it’s difficult to blog about something interesting on a regular basis, especially on three different sites; that’s why we do it here on Four Strong Women and leave links. It’s much simpler and less time-consuming.

I hate promotion, and when I post on loops and even take the time to comment on some threads, I still stumble across posts where authors grumble about their peers who they feel are promo whores. Well, the only time Author XYZ appears online is to promote h/her book!

I see their point, but publishing is a business. Sure, we make friends with editors, publishers, and fellow authors, but business is business and friendship is friendship. Over the 25+ years I've been in magazine, e-zine, and indie publishing, few people can truly mix friendship and business. In all that time, I've only been able to do this with two people.

I try to rub elbows with other authors. Yanno, the support-your-fellow-co-workers thing. However, most of my loop posting is on my publishers’ groups, and even then it’s a rare occurrence for me. I just don’t have time to constantly type something thoughtful so that I’m considered a regular poster. I reserve most of my “chatting” with readers (that’s not to say authors don’t read, because they do, but we’ll get to that in a moment). I must write to submit material. I must submit to score contracts. And then once the title is published, I must promote that work to put food on my table.

 An afternoon viewing an apartment
becomes more than Simon expected.
More info HERE

Every writer is forced to do this.

I enjoy talking with other authors, but they’re doing the same thing I am. Again, this is a business.

If you’re an author, have you ever stopped to consider how many writers are on the loops compared to dedicated readers? Sure writers read, yes, but they often have less time to read (which is a conundrum when one of the top tips for writers is read, read, read!). As a result, I feel like I'm mostly promoting my work to other authors if I hang on the loops and forums all the time.

And don’t even get me started about ads! How do you get your ad to stand out from the rest on the sites that are economically feasible? Every other author is looking for more bang for their buck, too, especially in our current economy.

The bigger sites are lovely, but who can afford the astronomical ad prices unless they’re a huge-success author, and those are few and far between, yanno?

Authors imagine, they write, they sell their work, and then they promote while they write the next story. Add a day job and managing a household and family into an author's life and any extra time is precious.

But let me return to the topic of blogging. What to blog about? When to blog? How often to blog? Will readers respond to this post better or that post better? Is my blog topic something that will urge the net surfer to click on it? And how often should I post the link to gain interest?

I blog here at Four Strong Women once a month. Each of us try to blog at least twice during our designated weeks, but I also blog at Decadent's Elatia blog on the first and third Mondays of each month. It's tough promoting a new blog so that readers *follow* it, and again, the touting a new blog is time-consuming, too.

So then I wonder...are readers even paying attention when I post my blog links?

ARGH!

But it all boils down to one ultimate question: does all of this make me a promo whore when I do appear on the loops? If it does, allow me a moment to slip on my bright red stilettos. Here’s a picture, lol. And yes, they really are mine.

Now let me get back to writing those damn promo posts! Bwahaha!