I remember an old adage from my days as an outreach coordinator: the best advertising is free, it's called word of mouth. And it's true.
I can't tell you how many times at my monthly book club meetings a book is picked because "I heard that it's a good book." And never ever, in the fourteen years has this news been passed on due to social media. Book reviews, yes, but not tweets of book reviews.
Yes, I hate to tell my other twitter followers who have chosen me becaue they know I will follow them out of politeness. I don't care about your book. Not if I don't care about you. So get to know me. Tell me something I would actually find interesting about you.
There seems to be a belief out there that if one 'tweets' or 'facebooks' or 'instagrams' or links their book to every review, comment, or blog they write, somehow people will flock to their story. Maybe it works. But I'm not convinced.
In fact, I've already dissociated myself with people in social media that insist on sending out mass links to their book every other day.
It's not why I entered the cyber-social world to begin with. I did it for the same reasons so many 40-something mothers did: to stalk my kids. Yes, let's admit it, all of you other mothers out there. Did you really get into Facebook to be social with your friends? I stayed with it because then there was my 30th High School reunion, and after that my family reunion. What better way to reconnect?
But getting back to marketing of my book. If I know my target audience then I am not going to rely on social media. I doubt very many of them are on it. And I doubt anyone will buy my book if I 'tweet' about it ad nauseam. They will buy it for a myriad of other reasons: it's a well-researched, rousing good story set in the dark northern woods where greed and corruption abound and familial loyalties are all challenged; or because they are railroad fans, history buffs, interested in the Adirondacks, interested in Ella Durant and the Dante Society, interested in Thomas Durant, Hell on Wheels fans, interested in William Durant and Adirondack architecture, friends, family, the list goes on.
I will not necessarily rely on them to do the marketing for me. Of course I need to tap into social media, book signings, and well placed ads. But if I have you reading this blog I have already started the word of mouth marketing, haven't I?
I can't tell you how many times at my monthly book club meetings a book is picked because "I heard that it's a good book." And never ever, in the fourteen years has this news been passed on due to social media. Book reviews, yes, but not tweets of book reviews.
Yes, I hate to tell my other twitter followers who have chosen me becaue they know I will follow them out of politeness. I don't care about your book. Not if I don't care about you. So get to know me. Tell me something I would actually find interesting about you.
There seems to be a belief out there that if one 'tweets' or 'facebooks' or 'instagrams' or links their book to every review, comment, or blog they write, somehow people will flock to their story. Maybe it works. But I'm not convinced.
In fact, I've already dissociated myself with people in social media that insist on sending out mass links to their book every other day.
It's not why I entered the cyber-social world to begin with. I did it for the same reasons so many 40-something mothers did: to stalk my kids. Yes, let's admit it, all of you other mothers out there. Did you really get into Facebook to be social with your friends? I stayed with it because then there was my 30th High School reunion, and after that my family reunion. What better way to reconnect?
But getting back to marketing of my book. If I know my target audience then I am not going to rely on social media. I doubt very many of them are on it. And I doubt anyone will buy my book if I 'tweet' about it ad nauseam. They will buy it for a myriad of other reasons: it's a well-researched, rousing good story set in the dark northern woods where greed and corruption abound and familial loyalties are all challenged; or because they are railroad fans, history buffs, interested in the Adirondacks, interested in Ella Durant and the Dante Society, interested in Thomas Durant, Hell on Wheels fans, interested in William Durant and Adirondack architecture, friends, family, the list goes on.
I will not necessarily rely on them to do the marketing for me. Of course I need to tap into social media, book signings, and well placed ads. But if I have you reading this blog I have already started the word of mouth marketing, haven't I?
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