Promotion

`Here are some interesting facts from my own perspective. I've been seriously marketing my books (~30 of them) for a couple of years now.

Recently I dropped a book promo on every single facebook site I could find that would allow it. My book, Harvardinates, looks different from most of the books out there, but may have a limited audience: people who like history, religion, or education, or some combination of these. Results were dismal. Mostly what I got was about a dozen women shooting me a dm that said, "Hello, how are you?" Most of these probably were marketers. In fact, when I looked into their profiles (often they were pretty), they were marketers. Apparently marketers no longer present themselves as marketers, at least not right away.

There was an unusual proliferation of sites, which led me to believe that I hadn't even found them all. Last time, I'd found about 30; this time, more than 70. Often I had to join them and wait for admins to check me out. These sites, I think, are experiencing a lot of spam these days. I think there are bots out there that simply drop a shoe ad on every single site that opens. But the point is, no shortage of places to advertise. Still, results were dismal.

What's up with that? My conclusion is that book readers are not looking at these sites for new things to read. I don't know where they are looking, but some "Readers and Writers" is not the place. As far as I can tell, I was virtually wasting my effort.

I am similarly prolific on Twitter - and it's similarly pointless. I've bombarded Twitter with ads, and every possible hashtag - #harvard, #harvardalumni, #history, #biography, etc. Nothing. I've dropped them on sometimes four or five writers lifts in a night - nothing.

Some people say Amazon ads work, or that Facebook ads work. Maybe so. The kinds of free places I go don't work, and it makes me wonder what a "promoter" does that does any good. Do they know something I don't? Would they lead me and my money toward one of these places where the readers do hang out? I doubt it. I think they're just like me, out there flailing around, kicking up piles of dust, all for virtually nothing.

I don't want to sound too discouraged. I have a good book - it's not my fault if nobody knows that yet, or if people who care about Harvard/Puritans/Colonial times are just not out there scrolling through promo sites. It's already, by the way, very late in the season. Most of the book sales were back in late November, and I actually got a few. My peppering all these sites was probably too little too late, in terms of the real money that's out there for books sitting there waiting for people to buy them. The best thing I can do is learn my lesson, and do better next time!