Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.
Many of us are frustrated by publicity. It's our least favorite part of writing. But what's your favorite part of publicity?
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Talking about my imaginary friends can be a delight, so I enjoy in-person events more than any other kind of publicity-seeking. Over the years, I have gained a lot of comfort with vending at a table and having one on one conversations with readers, and I really enjoy it when the pace is good (neither overwhelming nor lonely).
I've got two of these events upcoming:
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| Bookmarks Festival and Splatterflix Movie Festival, my next two vending venue |
I also enjoy being on panels with other writers at conventions, bookstores, library events, or the like. That's half networking/socializing with other writers and half engaging with readers. It's a great opportunity to get to know other writers and build community AND, especially when the other panelists are generous with their support, a way for us to help one another reach new audiences. Someone might attend because they know one of the other writers, but stick around to hear about my work, too, just because we were paired on the panel.
I'll be a part of one of these through Horror Writers Associations in November:
Here lately, I've been enjoying doing panels and interview for channels on YouTube or podcasts, too. It's nice that geography doesn't have to be a limiter for a taste of some of that camaraderie.
So far as online publicity, I enjoy blogging or writing articles about some aspect of my writing life (like this blog hop, for example!). I get a kick out of choosing pull quotes and making little images to highlight them.
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| The Menopausal Superheroes, as drawn by Charles C. Dowd |
For me, this doesn't feel as yucky as "buy my book" types of online marketing. It's more about trying to be clever or cute and highlighting what's cool about my story and the people in it.
I have the best time, when I look at publicity opportunities as time to engage with other artists and the public and let go the pressure to sell a lot of books. When I feel too much pressure to sell well, the interactions get tense and weird and I don't enjoy myself (and probably neither do my potential buyers).
What about y'all? When you have to promote something, how do you like to go about it? Or when you're receiving the promotion, what's the least annoying/most engaging? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
It's great that you feel so comfortable doing presentations and being on panels. One of the reasons I'm not sure I want to get published is that I don't want to do all that.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the ways that my teaching career has proven useful--public speaking holds no terrors for me.
DeleteI enjoy doing panels as well, but there are so few of them in my area.
ReplyDeleteGeography does make it hard sometimes…but there are some online opportunities. Check out WriteHive and ConTinual (Facebook). I've had good experiences with them.
DeleteI sold a book at an event, only to have the purchaser come back and (loudly) ask for a refund while I was talking to a group about worldbuilding. It kind of put me off events.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! How rude!
DeleteWell done for overcoming many writers' fears of public speaking. I'd rather sit in the comfort zone of my office rather than do something like that.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was a teacher for 27 years. Public speaking, especially to polite adults who are there voluntarily? Not scary to me.
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