Writing « Robin Writes

Some book promo sites want you to have X number of reviews or stars in order to list your book. It’s a chicken-egg thing: how do you get the sales and the reviews so you can promote your book?

Places to sell books:

Bookstores
Other retailers
Restaurants
Professional offices
Grocery stores
Toy stores
Kids’ event venues
Teens event venues
Any event venues
Your place of work
Fairs
Festivals
Farmers’ markets
Museums
Gift shops
Mall kiosks
Bowling alleys
Roller rinks
Ice rinks
Your front yard

Yes, the list is a bit redundant, but the idea is to get you thinking. I knew an author who carried a table, chair, and a box of books around in her trunk and could set up a booth in two minutes flat. And it worked.

The next step, of course, is getting permission to sell books at any or all of these places. You have to actually talk to someone—I know it’s hard, but it’s the only way.

Many of them, you can simply call; they’ll have a policy about these kinds of things and they can tell you right away if it’s allowed.

For most of them, it’s better if you just go there. In person. Come out of your home or office or shell, put on pants, and go. Make a list first and map out your locations and do them all in one or two or seven days. Keep a calendar with you so you can write down the bookings you get. Yes, you’ll get some. Be optimistic!

Sure, it’s a lot of work. You have to call and visit and talk and plan and carry a box of heavy books. And you have to have change and, preferably, a way for book buyers to pay via credit card. Google that.

Is your career worth it? Or is it enough to have written and published the book? If it’s the former, get busy! If it’s the latter, please speak to your publisher and ask if he or she is okay with you sitting on your butt. Go ahead. I dare you.

Another way to sell books is to blog regularly—at least once a week, but not constantly. Pick what works for you and just do it already. However, you also must have topics that are pertinent to your writing career or to your books. Don’t just slap down posts, willy-nilly. And make sure they’re all around 500 words, minimum. Okay, 400. Just don’t do three sentences and call it a day. That’s not a blog post, that’s a status update.

And as long as we’re mentioning status updates, puh-lease—a few a day is fine. Constant posting is annoying. I’ve un-followed established authors for this. Their so-called pearls of wisdom are more yawn-inducing than anything, and they keep me from seeing more interesting stuff.

Also, don’t link all your social media accounts. That accomplishes exactly the same thing—an overflow of stuff from you. First, we get something on Instagram; then LinkedIn; then Twitter; then Facebook; then Pinterest. All coming down one newsfeed. Over and over.

For Pete’s sake, who wants to read your book after they’ve heard you yacking all day already?

And finally, make yourself an expert. In what? I don’t care—pick something. Pick several somethings, just be sure you can back that up. Did you write historical fiction? You’re a history buff. Romance? Whisper sweet nothings. YA? You know about teens.

Add a page to your website or blog and advertise your speaking services. Yes, people will pay for that. Yes, you can almost always sell books wherever you’re speaking, such as schools, business meetings, clubs, and so forth.

Note: I really wish I could find some substantiated statistics on how many sales it takes to garner one book review. If anyone has a link, I’d appreciate it!

Yeah, kind of in a galaxy far, far away. It sure seems like it!

So a long, long time ago—three years this month, actually—I’d just come off a long-time writing gig for non-fiction, Internet only (okay, mostly) and had started writing my first novel, REDUCED. I had author friends, thanks to the bookstore, and writer friends from way back, and I was up to my eyeballs in the book business.

But now it seems like I’ve always been an author. Make me blink whenever I realize that REDUCED has been out for only two and a half years. Seems a lot longer!

Sure, I made mistakes. I still make some, although honestly, I won’t take the blame for some of them. It’s technology that will occasionally throw me for a loop—as in it’s not working the way it’s supposed to . . . but by and large, I’ve got this.

Blows me away sometimes how new authors think and make decisions; even some experienced authors who should know better, but don’t. I try really hard to be kind and to teach, not lecture. Certainly I don’t make fun of them, although I’ll confess to frequent head-shaking.

Here is the short list of how to be an author:

Don’t pay someone to publish your book. Ever.

Check references and quality before handing over money to editors and cover designers.

You need to know or learn punctuation, spelling, and grammar before you start.

You must have a story, a good story, that will be interesting to a lot of people.

Your book must be as long as it takes to tell that story, but it should also be a book and not a novella or a short story or just something you threw together.

You need to learn a lot of things. It will seem overwhelming. It’s not.

I don’t care who publishes your book, you will have to sell it.

There are a lot of ways to do this.

You have to keep doing them, consistently, forever.

The overwhelming bit was what got to me. I was inundated with blogs, articles, posts, etc., all telling me to do this or that. Fortunately, I’m able to mostly cut through all the bull, and so I found some things quite useful. Others, however, are things that need to be tried and tested, like promo sites. Not everything will work for every book.

Likewise, not everything will work for every author. Read, study, bookmark the good stuff, and go back and look at your leisure. Don’t be afraid to try things.

And don’t think you have to do it all, or even do things a certain way. Just do it.