Welcome to the new podcast series: Promotional Secrets for Authors! brought to you by Waxcreative Design and Autographed By The Author stickers.
Hosted by award-winning author and professional publicity coach Elizabeth Yarnell, these podcasts connect author to author about book promotion.
Mia Marlowe
This week, we have Mia Marlowe (one of Waxcreative’s newest launches). Mia Marlowe is a lucky girl and she knows it. Both her real life hero husband and her terrier treat her like a princess. No wonder she writes sensual historical romance with a sparkle of magic.
Listen:
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What kinds of promotional efforts have brought you the most benefit in terms of recognition and book sales?
MIA: If I knew what really worked, I’d be answering this question from a beach house on Maui. However, the best way I’ve found to connect with readers has been through my blog and social networking. I attend the Romantic Times Convention and RWA National each year and so many people have introduced themselves to me by telling me they are my friend on Facebook or Twitter or that they regularly follow my blog. We have an instant connection.
What secrets can you share to help create successful book signing events?
MIA: My most successful signings have been held in conjunction with speaking engagements. If I speak for a writers or readers group and then lead them to the bookstore, I usually sell out. Organizing a signing with other authors also helps because we all benefit from the pre-signing promo we do individually. Staging readings and offering gift baskets helps create a party atmosphere readers enjoy.
Do you have branded promotional items other than paper products?
MIA: No. I’ve never bought a book based on a branded potato chip clip or bit of bling, so I haven’t invested in any.
Is there anything you always carry with you, in case you run into readers of your books?
MIA: I always carry collectible Romance Trading Card of Touch of a Thief. These are fun little cards that display my lovely cover on one side and my hot hero on the other. It can double as a bookmark or for readers who prefer ebooks, it serves as a physical record of my book in their cyber library.
Do you have a final tip to offer on conducting successful author promotions?
MIA: Find a type of promo that you enjoy. You’ll be more likely to do it consistently which is what’s needed for any kind of promo. I love blogging and social networking because it gives me a chance to hear from readers. That’s why I invested in my new website. It’s my cyber-home, my public face on the web and I’m very pleased to offer a place for my readers to learn more about me and my books and connect with me. However much I enjoy chatting with readers online, I have no way to measure the effectiveness of this sort of promo and I need to be sure blogging, FB and tweeting doesn’t cut too deeply into my writing time. The best promotion an author can do is write the best book she possibly can. That’s my main focus.
Great tips and tricks, Mia. Thanks! For all our listeners, check back here regularly to get insider secrets from bestselling authors about what promotional tools YOU can use to support yourself as an author. Or subscribe to the Promotional Secrets for Authors podcast on iTunes!
Thanks for listening, and thanks for showing off your signed books with our gold Autographed By The Author sticker… the signature sticker that makes your signed books that much more valuable on the store shelf and in a reader’s hands.
We know you have promotional secrets to share! We’ll have an easy-to-use online form ready for you soon, but in the meantime, please email us if you want to be interviewed, be featured here, and share your secrets with other authors.
Excellent interview, Mia. Thanks!
Thanks, Emily. It was fun chatting with Elizabeth about this part of the business we writers love to hate. Promo rubs us all the wrong way,but it’s a fact of publishing life we need to find a way to embrace.
I met you last year at a conference in CT and I followed you on facebook and twitter since then. You are so right, social networking and meeting people is important, but there’s no reason for it unless we can get that book written and published. Thanks for the great post.
Thanks, Marleen. You’ve got your priorities right. Writing is our most important job, but I really do enjoy all the friends I’ve made speaking and online.
[...] something that feels comfortable to get your message out. I share what’s worked for me in a podcast put together by Waxcreative, my web designer. You can listen to a conversation between me and promo [...]
Thank you for your post, Mia. Got a few questions for you: What do you think about promotional video clips? Are they worth the effort and expense? Does it depend on the genre and the size of the author’s following? Does a video actually result in more sales of a particular book, or just raise the level of awareness of a title?
As a reader, the promotional activities I enjoy the most are interactive blog posts. An author with a new or upcoming release posts an article on her blog or someone else’s, or a website for readers such as Fresh Fiction. She writes about some interesting subject relevant to the book, and tell us a bit about the book(but preferably not TMI!). She asks a question, again one relevant to the book, and invites us to reply.
Sometimes she also posts an excerpt and endorsements from big-name authors. But though many readers go for these types of promotion, I generally skip them.
This sort of post represents one of the few ways we readers can offer feedback. The fact that it is interactive makes it all the more appealing.
However, I don’t like it if an author uses this opportunity merely to plug her book. She should say something useful, interesting, and/or amusing.
As for how effective these promo blogs are at selling books, you’ll have to ask someone with much more knowledge of the field.
Good luck with the release of “Touch of a Thief”!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Mary Ann. Personally, I’ve never bought a book based on a trailer, so I’m not the best one to ask about their efficacy. They say marketing is all about name/product recognition so to that extent, trailers fulfill their purpose if they are seen. If somehow you hit a nerve and the trailer goes viral, it’s like striking gold.
Awesome job on your website, Mia. I know how much work went into it.
I think you’ve got it right. Most items with the authors name, book title, etc. haven’t sold a book to me. One thing that did work, however, was a signed book plate. Hmmm…I have this signature. Now, where do I put it? I guess I’ll buy the latest book.
Ashlyn–The funniest little gewgaw I ever saw a writer give away was a little plastic cow to go along with her romantic comedy (set on a farm, I presume!) I thought at the time that it wasn’t a workable doodad. I mean it’s not something a person would keep and use for anything.
Signed bookplates make more sense to me.
A cow? That’s funny. It was clearly memorable, but I have to wonder about the cost and honestly how long the recipient hung on to the thing. We like to design bookplates, bookmarks that are keepers, and things people will use, like small mirror compacts, emery boards, and my favorite: PENS! But they have to be good pens and click-ended without caps. The cheap pens look cheap.
People have to remember that whatever they give away is a reflection upon them and their brand. Being the person with the cheap pens or the ugly bookmark is an association that could be a liability. It’s easy to consider that your bookmark is a throwaway and therefore doesn’t need much effort or expense, but then why do it? It will look as if the recipient wasn’t considered worth the effort or expense. Better not to do anything.