I'm not going to bombard you with a book today, but I would like to talk about promoting. Many self-published and indie-published authors know how important it is to promote their own works. Heck, I'm sure some traditionally published authors know it, too. The publishing model has changed, and authors have to take responsibility for getting their work into the hands of readers. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about different venues for promotion.
Recently, I signed up to do a blog tour with Bewitching Book Tours. It costs, but the prices are incredibly reasonable. My tour doesn't start until October 26, and I'm doing 2 weeks for Life After the Undead. I'm hoping that by the time my tour is done, Death to the Undead will be out, and then I'll start a tour for that.
In addition, I've also signed up to be on the Author's Show. For this, you have to send in a query, then if they like what they see, they'll send you a lengthy application. If you fill the application out correctly and they think your book is worth advertising, they send other information. I guess they have tons of applications, which isn't really surprising, so they have to be selective of who they interview. I kind of wonder about their process, though, since I was selected. :) No, I'm very excited to do the show, I hope it helps. My interview is October 11.
During the application process, you have to listen to a tutorial on their website. In it, they explain the different types of things they do and throw around some statistics. I have to tell you, those statistics depressed me. In a nut shell, for every 1,000 people you show/advertise your work to, five people will end up buying it. FIVE OUT OF A THOUSAND! Those aren't very good odds. Like I said, it depressed me, then got me to thinking about how I could reach more people.
I also became a Goodreads Author, so now I have the ability to do giveaways and other stuff on the site. I'm still trying to figure that out, but thankfully they have tutorials.
We shall see how this stuff goes. As a cynic, I'm not holding my breath, but every little bit has to help, right?