Shelley Munro Blog

Promo is something that always weighs heavy on my mind. Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing or am I making prospective readers run in the opposite direction? That’s the difficulty with promo. It’s hard to quantify and decide what actually works.

I have a few promo rules I adhere to:

1. I never spend more than I earn or think I’m going to earn.

2. When I do promo I tend to promote my brand as a whole rather than focusing on a particular book. (there are a few exceptions to this rule but now that I have a backlist I tend to promo me)

3. When it comes to a choice of promo or writing, the writing wins every time. I figure if I don’t have the product then there isn’t any need for promo.

4. I have a rule I call the rule of three where I try to do three things every day to promote my name or books. This makes the whole promo beast seem more manageable because I’m breaking it down. Today I answered the questions for an interview, I posted two excerpts on the Romance Excerpts Only loop and requested a book review.

My promo consists of:

I like to blog hop as much as I can. Some days I have more time than others, but I think this is a way of getting my name out. I tend to steer clear of contentious blogs because I don’t believe anyone wins in an online war. When I blog hop I also find books to add to my to-read list and it helps me keep up on market info.

I like forums. I belong to the Romance Divas forum and the Coffee Time forum. I don’t manage to get there every day but I enjoy the contact with other writers and readers. Both places are extremely friendly and make newbies welcome.

I take advantage of guest blogging and interviews whenever possible. I join my publisher loops and post as often as I can.

I joined The Romance Studio when I was first published and have kept up my membership. It’s very reasonable and offers many opportunities for advertising and promotion.

I’m not sure that print advertising is good value for money. It can be very expensive and it’s difficult to quantify the results. If I have a print book I always consider print advertising since this makes sense, but once again I think it’s very expensive.

Take advantage of free offers. Manic Readers (see the button in my sidebar) has free author pages. It doesn’t take long to set up a page. Author’s Den also has free author pages. (A fee is charged for the Featured Author pages)

Bookmarks - I don’t believe it’s necessary to have bookmarks. Yes, it’s nice to have them. Yes, I have bookmarks at the moment, but I don’t think you’ll lose sales because you don’t have them.

Online Banner advertising - I’m not convinced banner ads work as a method of advertising. Others might disagree, but they haven’t worked for me.

A good website, kept up-to-date, is the best thing you can do to promote yourself. Look at other authors’ websites. Features and designs that attract your eye will probably attract the attention of readers as well.

Bottom Line: I think any promotion you do should be enjoyable. It shouldn’t stress you out or make you crabby because it’s taking you away from family or your writing. If you get to this stage, concentrate on your writing because that’s the most important thing.

If you’re a writer, how do you approach promotion? What do you do? What are your favorite methods of promotion? What things do you enjoy? If you’re a reader, what sort of things make you pay attention to a writer? What makes you pick up a book or order a book online from a new author or an author unfamiliar to you?

My guest-blogger today is Marcia James, an author of “hot, humorous romances”. Her debut comic romantic suspense, AT HER COMMAND, was released in trade paperback and e-book last year from Cerridwen Press. In June 2009, she’ll have a short story in TAILS OF LOVE, a Berkley charity anthology, with nine other authors. After a career in marketing and advertising, she enjoys PR almost as much as “researching” and writing love scenes. Marcia offers her 150+ file of author promotion information to any author who requests it. Just email her through the “Contact Me” page on her Website.

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Author Marcia James is visiting me tomorrow. She’s a promo guru and is willing to answer your questions about online promo and the other, more scarier, face-to-face promo. She’s also giving away a download of her romantic comedy At Her Command. The winner of this download is in for a treat. I LOVED this book.

So, don’t forget. Marcia James - here on my blog tomorrow!

Periodically new ideas with promo potential come along. Twitter is one of the latest things around. So what is Twitter, you ask? Basically it’s a tiny blog that you update throughout the day. When I say tiny I mean a small, since 140 characters is the maximum amount you can write in each post. The idea is to twitter several times a day to let your friends, family and co-workers know what you’re doing.

Here’s a video that explains everything:

I haven’t signed up yet but thought I would once I return home from my holiday. I’ve had a brainwave - a way to use Twitter for promo, so it will be interesting to see if it works. You can find Twitter here.

Do you Twitter?

It’s true I’ve concentrated on writing recently, but I have spared the odd moment or two to wonder about what to wear at the upcoming conference. It’s a perplexing problem, since after the conference, I’m traveling for another five weeks, which means I need to pack conservatively. Another major problem is that I need to leave plenty of space for books, both the ones I collect at the conference and the ones I buy during my travels. Do you see my dilemma?

About two weeks ago, I decided to attack the problem in a scientific manner. I’m going to write out my appointments and add details of what I’m wearing for each day. I think I’ve also decided to wear trousers to the Awards function, and this will mean one less pair of shoes. I’m also going to do the trousers/nice tops thing all the way through. All I need to do is decide the order of wearing. Jeesh! Who knew clothes could cause such a huge problem?

If anyone has any suggestions please speak up! And for those who are going to the conference, what are you taking to wear?

I have some wonderful guests visiting me this month. New Zealander, Sara Hantz is here on 9 July. She writes teen fiction. I must admit I’ve been reading quite a few stories from this genre and have really enjoyed them. Don’t miss her visit!

Marcia James is visiting on 16 July, and she’s talking about promo for both print and ebooks. She has wonderful advice for promo, so come armed with your questions. She also has a list of 150 plus promo ideas for authors. (details available on the day) You definitely don’t want to miss her visit!

Author Barrie Abalard is out on the Passionate Ink Cyber Tour this week with her release Hot to Trot. Here’s a teaser about her book:

Exes Patti North and Dylan Decker adore each other. Her problem? He cheated. His problem? Her temper. Fixing things will take more than spankings and hot sex, though that’s a good start.

HOT TO TROT, set in the often funny-weird worlds of Boston high-tech and equestrian hobbyists, tells the story of two exes who still adore each other—and still annoy each other—more than any other twosome on the planet.

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Hubby and I have a new obsession. It’s an animated show called Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep is a character taken from Wallace and Gromitt, who now has his own series. Each program is five minutes. I sit there in front of the TV, absolutely enthralled. I tell you, I’m a big kid at heart. I tape it and hubby and I watch it again later at night, chuckling all the way through. Last night’s involved a baby lamb, a red teddy bear, a farmer, a pesky cat and some Y-front underwear used as a bungee, and of course, Shaun. Fun stuff! Shaun the Sheep has a website here. If you have kids definitely check this out. There are all sorts of fun things for them to do. Hubby and I had fun watching all the clips. I’m going to check for the DVDs next time I go to the mall.

CAN YOU HELP ME?

And finally, I have a new release coming from Ellora’s Cave on March 7 called Fancy Free. It’s a story about a girl who inherits a condom company. I’ve been trying a few different things with promo this year and for Fancy Free I’m going to ask both writers and readers who have blogs or newsletters to help me spread the word.

I have several short posts (supposedly taken from the diary of Fancy Free’s founder) which I’m going to ask people to post on their blogs, at MySpace, in newsletters or wherever else they can. As an incentive, I’m offering a prize to one participant - a NZ beanie, some NZ soaps, an autographed copy of either The Second Seduction or The Shadow, one of my special good luck charms and a couple of other things. The winner will also receive a download of Fancy Free.

All you need to do is email me for the diary entries and the press release and you can choose which you’d like to post and how many you’d like to post. Each time you post one from 25 Feb - 6 Mar you get an entry into the contest. Just email me to let me know where you’ve posted the diary entry and you’re in the draw. I’ll pick a winner on 7 March.

Meantime, if you have any questions or you’d be willing to help me out email me here. Please pass the word around. If any of your friends are interested, just get them to email me as well.