I sat down last night to finally go through a stack of magazines and other periodicals that had accumulated. I looked forward to flipping leisurely through the pages, stopping when a title caught my eye.
So why was I fuming within thirty seconds? All that infernal marketing done with post card-type inserts stuck inside. I hate them! Instead of the pages fluttering nicely, they jerk by in clumps unless you take the time first to go through and yank the ads out. I ripped out NINE such inserts in one magazine alone. The stack of worthless garbage littered the floor. It makes me want to boycott their products–not buy them.
Viral Marketing?
Hawking wares–telling people about your product repeatedly–never works on me. I’m affected the same way by email campaigns from people I don’t know in newsletters I didn’t sign up for.
I know that when a new book comes out, we’re supposed to blitz people with “see my new book!” and “watch my new trailer!” and “join me for a free teleseminar!” and “view my podcast!” and “meet the author!” and “read my guest blog tour!” and “read my starred (Amazon) review!” Maybe it works for other people, but I just end up feeling nagged and put off by this after a while.
Where’s the Balance?
I know you need to market, and I like to hear good publishing news as much as the next author. It’s important to be willing to help with marketing your books in this publishing day and age. But there’s a big difference between a couple of announcements and ten blasts. You don’t want to cross over from intriguing a buyer into annoying him.
How do you decide where to draw the line? I very much suspect it’s a personal–and personality–thing. How do YOU feel about it?
The title of your blog is the main reason why I rarely go on Twitter any more. I used to follow a lot of writers to show my support, but then ended up getting hourly “buy my book”, computer-generated tweets that had nothing to do with being a fellow writer. I was just another piece in the marketing plan. If someone follows me, and I don’t follow them back, they very quickly unfollow me. They didn’t decide to follow me because my posts were interesting or because they liked the kind of things I wrote, I was just a number to add to their list. Sometimes when I have followed back, they still unfollow me to make sure that their followers list is larger than their follow list. For them, it’s all about the numbers, so no loss. I still post links to articles or blogs on Twitter that I find useful, but it’s becoming a smaller part of my Internet life every day.
Heather, you and I are of the same mind. I didn’t know that about Twitter as I rarely get on there. I post things from BufferApp, but that is my concession. 🙂 I, too, like to post articles that I find helpful.
Kristi,
This type of repeated marketing bothers me, too. It’s hard to know how much marketing to do, especially now that I have started publishing my own books. I like to hear others’ good news about their books, but believe in a limited number of announcements. I have heard that the nagging type of ads works (not on me) but it’s so annoying!
~ Amy
Amy, you and I react the same way. I know we’re told to do this, but I really don’t like it. And no one has yet proved that it sells books anyway unless you’re already famous! 🙂
Good point, Kristi! How do we know if nagging really sells books? I will do some research on the best way to sell books and let you know. Your comment is a relief to me because I felt like a should nag and now I don’t have to.
I’ll be glad to hear anything you find out. I’ve even asked all my editors if there is proof anywhere that it helps sell. They always tell me, “Well, we hope so.” Nearly all the big selling stories you hear are about with big names already.