4 August 2011

How does a writer make marketing their stories easier on themselves?

This week's blog-hop question has been set by L. P. Robinson this week.  "How does a writer make marketing their stories easier on themselves?"

'By the seat of their pants,' would be the facetious answer, but the reality is, with a great deal of hard work.

Yes Facebook, twitter and other networking sites are essential to get your message across.  But stop for a moment and ask yourself, 'who is your target market?  Are you connecting with the 'right' people, the right targets?

The people you are looking for are readers.  And not just readers, but those who enjoy your genre.  You can have ten thousand followers, but if none of them are interested in what you write, then you are not focussing in on your target market. Consider, for a minute.  Where do you go when you want to buy a pair of shoes?   And if you are looking for a specific brand and style of shoes, yes, your choices narrow down, but you are more likely to find what you are looking for.  And if they enjoy your book they will spread your fame by the strongest promotional tool out there -- word of mouth.

And yet... you still need to think outside the box, find sites that have connections, however slight.  If, as I have in my current novel, Duty Calls, you have a character who has had cancer, then look around similar sites and see if you can blog for them, or give a talk.  This is not everyone's idea of a good day out.  I happen to be one of those. But if you have the savvy to target potential readers who may otherwise be 'outside' your normal marketing box, then give it a go.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's info on linking FB to Twitter: http://support.twitter.com/articles/31113-how-to-use-twitter-with-facebook
I like your idea about finding sites that connect to your characters. I'll have to try that.

Sherry Gloag said...

Dianne, thanks for coming by and for the info.

Unknown said...

I'm trying to reach my target audience for each book I'm promoting and marketing. Using Hashtags on Twitter is supposed to be a big help, but I'm too stupid to figure it out. :) I keep trying, though.

Sherry Gloag said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sherry Gloag said...

:-) Oh Ginger! You and me both! Everyone keeps telling how easy it is to do, which, when I just don' 'get it' hacks me off completely, because I've tried to suss it out for months without success.
The theory is fine, but getting it to work, is something else again! LOL.