Re: promo posts, was addressed to new members

This IS a friendly group. If it were more like most of the groups on  
the web, anyone coming in with a promo would probably be flamed until  
crispy.

So, here's a free lesson from a 20-year+ veteran of book publishing:

Evaluate the density of your target readers and the norms in any  
medium before composing a promotional message.

Using the previous posts as an example, but meaning no insult --
Most of us read, but very few of us read any particular type of book.  
So, if you're selling a genre novel, you're not in a target-rich  
environment. Instead, you should hunt in, say, groups that discuss  
your genre, or in groups that do something else that your genre-reader  
does. (Amateur rocketry for hard science fiction, for example.)

Then, evaluate the way you can promote. Most groups allow signatures,  
and in many, you can post anything there, as long as it's VERY short  
(see my sig). So, post something of value, and let your sig do the  
selling.

Or you can use something that happened when you wrote your book, or  
something you learned when doing research for it, in an example. When  
you do, always work in the name of the book.

There are lots of other subtle ways to do this. Watch the pros who  
work with publishers on this and all of the other really active lists  
to see how its done. (NB: I'm not that good at it, but some of them  
really, really are!)


Marion Gropen
Gropen Associates, Inc.
Consulting By-The-Question,  Tools & Classes for Publishers
www.GropenAssoc.com
Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog

On Jun 24, 2011, at 5:33 AM, [email protected] wrote:

>
> In point of fact, I too had planned to stick around. And Mary is  
> correct; the Global eBook Awards, sponsored by Dan Poynter, had  
> instructed us to do just what we did, because he had found this  
> group friendly and open. We were only following the instructions we  
> were given, in hopes of finding a receptive audience.




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