Promotion: Laying the Foundation

This week, the Wicked Writers are blogging about self-promotion!

….ugh…

I mean… yay…

Well, I can’t tell you what works to sell books because my debut releases on the 19^th of this month. So, until then, I don’t have any numbers or sales success – or sales failures – to share with you.

But, I do have a pretty good web presence. Google my pen name, Danielle Ravencraft. You’ll see. I’m on Facebook… I’m ALL OVER Facebook… even my blog has a Facebook page…

Which brings us to blogging. I blog. A lot. I used to belong to about four group blogs, a blog hop group, and had two personal blogs. I was able to do it only because I had nothing published and, thus, nothing else to promote at the time. A few of those blogs went under and I converted one of my personal blogs into a group blog. So now I blog for two groups and my personal blog, plus I manage a website that promotes urban fantasy authors. That one is new. And not doing so well because I haven’t had time to promote it as vigorously as the others.

I also have a Twitter account. I love Twitter because it’s simple. Enough said. I’m also a member of BookBlogs.com, Linked In, Writing.com, SavvyAuthors.com, Slefari.com, Good Reads, my publisher’s reading group and author loops, my publisher’s blog… eventually I’ll have an Amazon author page…

Point is my name is out there. People know who I am or have at least heard of me. I have a pretty solid group of author friends from all different genres and levels of writing. I’m slowly – and I mean SLOWLY – building a readership of non-writing people, lovingly called “pen muggles”.

So, when my book releases, I won’t be starting from scratch. I have a solid foundation and that’s the first step. I have ways to go, though. Tons more to do. I think it helps to have a plan or rough outline of how you will market each book. For “Dark Heirloom”, for example, I have a list of eight review sites – all urban fantasy or vampire themed – that I want to submit ARC’s too. I plan to have a virtual book tour for it in April or May, just like theone I’m doing at the end of the month for “A Trace of Love”. Then there are bookmarks, business cards, giveaways, etc.

And of course, there are C.J.’s proven tactics which she has generously shared with me and which you can read HERE. She has also recommended a book to me, “HowI Sold 1 Million eBooks In 5 Months” by John Locke, which I now own and have read. I plan to mimic what both C.J. and John have taught me as best I can with my publisher’s permission.

Well, this has been a ramble post. I apologize. In a few months, I’ll have a book or two out and then I’ll have actual figures to share with all of you. Before I go, I want to mention it’s a good idea to keep a record of how much promotion you do each month, what kind, where, and when, and compare it to your monthly sales. Unless you have a PR team, you can’t be everywhere all the time. You have to make your efforts count in the places that pay off the most. So it’s important to keep a record.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll politely bow out, but please come back tomorrow and see what S.M. Blooding has to add.

J.D. Brown
website ~ blog ~ facebook ~ twitter
Ema Marx wasn't bitten and she's not undead, so how did she become a vampire? 

-"Dark Heirloom" look for it March 2012 from Muse It Up Publishing Inc.