Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Welcome my guest today.....Stephanie Queen!

SUPERMARKET LADY
                 by:  Stephanie Queen

By marketing, I do not mean making a trip to the supermarket. Although I could
always bring along fliers and post them on the supermarket bulletin board…
But no, that’s merely another digression in a long line of dizzying marketing ideas
that have come and gone through my head from too many sources—good, bad and ugly.

Indie Info Overload
I never thought there’d be such a thing as too much helpful support, but I’m
beginning to reconsider my theory on that. Or maybe I need a better filter for what
info is relevant and what’s not. I’m in a fabulously boisterous and knowledgeable
group. Some of what they discuss might be beyond my sapling status—like how to get a review from Romantic Times (But it's a seductively exciting prospect...)

Back to Overload
I’ve heard it all. Get a professional service to set up a blog tour and reviews for you.
Do it all yourself, it’s easy. Twitter. Facebook. (Everyone says you must, but is it
helpful? And if so, how?” Write a blog. Don’t bother with a blog because only writers
will read it. Give away your books for free. Discount your book price. Don’t bother
with the discount because it doesn’t work—you’ll lose money. Release as many
books at once as you can. Stagger the release two weeks apart—no, a month apart—
no three months apart. Join readers’ forums and participate, but be careful because
they hate when writers infiltrate to promote their books so you can’t tell them
you’re a writer (?)

These are some of the suggestions I’ve heard—all within a one week period. Hold on
while I pause to let my head stop spinning.

Does Anything Out There Make Sense?
I don’t know if there is any such thing as tried & true marketing strategies for us,
because let’s face it, this is a new marketing world. Indie books are amebas, with
digital publishing and social media not far ahead in the developmental scheme. It’s
the perfect storm—if you’re idea of perfect is chaotically rapid change from every
direction.
So I’m dragging out my old marketing plan (from 3 weeks ago), crossing off
Facebook (because I don’t like it—a tame version of what I think), keeping twitter
(because it’s short and sometimes fun), doing the blog thing (because I like to hear
myself talk, but I’m a writer so a blog is a good substitute), attempting to get reviews
(actually twitter is helpful for this) and …

I think I may go for the Romantic Times book review—you never know.
                                                               ****

 Stephanie's Bio:    
Stephanie Queen lives in bucolic New Hampshire where her two sons visit when they’re not away at college learning how to run the world. Writing happy, snappy romances takes most of her time, however she does force herself to go to the gym on occasion so that she can continue to fit through the door. You can also find her watching UConn football and basketball games whenever they’re on, and sometimes even in person. Right now, she’s busy writing her next book, of course.

To check out her e-books:


Be sure to drop back by on Saturday to check out the SATURDAY BOOK REVIEW when I'll be reviewing Stephanie's book, BETWEEN A ROCK AND A MAD WOMAN.  See you then!

8 comments:

  1. If you have any bright ideas on how to market books, please jump in! I was kidding about being overloaded with ideas. I clearly haven't struck gold yet, and I'm not quitting until I do.

    Stephanie Queen

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  2. Speaking from a reader point of view, I'm not sure there is such a thing as overload. I'm not a big fan of facebook, but it's great seeing authors on Twitter sharing links to their books, reviews of their books and blogs/interviews.

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  3. Hi Bella,
    I agree that...at least for me...there's no need to be concerned about overload. I get tons of notices about books and I check them all out...and buy those in my favorite genres and even a few in areas that I don't normally read if the blurb grabs me.

    Keep 'em coming! lol

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  4. Oh yes, Stephanie. "Indie Info Overload" is right. There's so much good information, I think all our heads are spinning. I think reviews are probably the best things to focus on. And reaching readers who are looking for books, not just other writers whose TBR piles are way too high already.

    Thanks for a terrific post! And thanks to Sandra for having you. :)

    PS: Everyone check out BETWEEN A ROCK AND A MAD WOMAN. 99 cents on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Between-Rock-Mad-Woman-ebook/dp/B005M23KQW

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  5. Hi Linsey,
    Thanks for dropping by and commenting. I love your comment about TBR piles. I know just what you mean. I'm sure it'll be even higher after I open gifts on Christmas. (g)

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  6. I was nodding my head in agreement to a lot of what you said! All of the info everyone shares is wonderful, but one thing I've learned: What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next.

    For me, I like Facebook over twitter...mainly because I'm still a fairly new user on Twitter and I literally get lost over there!

    Thanks for sharing! Personally, I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with a "spinning head"! :)

    May God bless & merry Christmas!
    Trisha Wilson

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  7. Hi Trisha,
    Thanks so much for coming by and commenting. I'm new to Twitter also, but I'm learning and I belong to a group blog and we're going to have a training session where one of our members is going to teach us in January. (Yeah!)

    Hope you enjoyed Stephanie's article and hope you drop back by on Saturday to take a peek at the Book Review......then I hope you pop over and buy her book! (g)

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  8. Hey, guess what?!!

    I just found one of Stephanie's books on Super E-Reads. Throwbacks. Since this isn't the one I'll be reviewing Saturday, hope you pop over and check out her book!


    http://super-e-reads.com/2011/12/the-throwbacks-by-stephanie-queen/

    ReplyDelete