Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

I have a friend who is being pushed hard right now by her agent to promote her books. But does promotion work?

Personally, I think 99% of it doesn’t. I majored in advertising and worked in newspaper sales and marketing for most of my professional life. When advertising the expectation is that 1% of people who see your ad will react. Now, this percentage can go up astronomically if you are using a targeted media, but unless it is a newsletter targeted to people who asked for more information about your books, it will fall far short of 100%.

Consider a market like Romantic Times. Some of those readers only read romantic suspense or erotica or whatever you don’t write. So, you are going for the ones who might consider what you write. From there you have to consider the cost vs. benefit equation. Are there enough of those people to justify the cost? There may be and there may not. And then, if you decide the cost is justified, you have to develop an ad that will actually draw those people in. There are a lot of ifs there.

Other cheaper methods–running contests on your web site, having a blog, commenting on other blogs, visiting booksellers, doing signings, etc.. May be better from the cost equation thing…but there is still a cost and it’s a big one. TIME. Time equals books you aren’t writing. So again you have to weigh this.

As just one example–the vast majority of people who enter contests online just want to win a prize. Many of them come from blogs and sites that conveniently list contests and the answers. Realize this and again weigh. I’ve decided I like having a contest and the cost is low enough the exposure itself pays for my efforts. And I like having something for people who actually do read my books.

Booksignings I’m not big on. Although, I do group ones. And some are great–like my local RWA chapter ’s signing at our annual conference. However, I make a point to go into book stores and sign stock. And I am hoping to get a group of local romance authors together to do a signing at a nearby Waldenbooks store this year. But me sitting at a table all by my lonesome? Not something at this point in my career, I’ve done.

This all said, I do choose to do some promotion. But I always consider the cost/benefit equation before doing anything. And the very best thing you can do to sell more books? Write more books. Write better books. Get more books out there so readers know your name and (assuming you did the better part) want more from you.

Aside from that a lot of what makes the biggest difference lays in the hands of the publisher–book cover, store placement (which is paid for by publishers), etc. And which books do they give that extra push? The ones they think are the most marketable, by authors who have readers who want to read them…back to writing better books and getting more books out there. Really, you can’t get away from the fact that the number one thing you can do to advance your career is to write and to write to the best of your ability.

For what some readers say has influenced them to buy a book, here’s a great poll going on at Virtual Cocktails.