I’m worn out. Recently, the second book in my Sarah Blair mystery series, Two Bites Too Many, was published. The beautiful cover, binding, editing, and technical “stuff” was handled by my publisher, Kensington, but most PR fell to me. Consequently, for the past month I’ve blogged, liked, posted, tweeted, retweeted, pinned, pushed, and whatever else I could think to do.
I’m tired.
And, I don’t know if it’s done any good. Let’s be honest, I’m not a Janet Evanovich, Diane Mott Davidson, or Carolyn Hart. People who read the light mysteries I write know their names, but what
If you Google me and leave out the “H,” you’ll find there are several Debra Goldsteins. One is a literary agent and author, two are physicians, one is known for her artwork, and a younger, blonder, thinner one has written several books on text flirting. Maybe I should work the latter one’s specialty into one of my future books in order to get her fans to check out my work–it’s something I haven’t tried, yet.
I’ve asked my friends who also are mid-listers or bottom-rungers what works for them, but the reality is we don’t know. Experts say it changes constantly or is different based upon the age of the target market. What do you think? Do the efforts we put into social media help you identify us or make you want to read our books?
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts – but it may be tomorrow before I read them. I’m social media drained tonight.
I've heard it said that your first 10,000 fans come one at a time, through personal contact.
ReplyDeleteI am light years away from that.
I'm with you, Debra. Drained. The only thing I can actually point to that seems to "sell" my books is offering several of the earlier ones on Kindle Unlimited. I heavily advertise those to Facebook groups that have Kindle Unlimited readers. I can "see" people buy them and also see that many are reading hundreds of pages. The bottom line is that I hope if they read these-- and some literally seem to read straight through the series--they will also look for my books that are not on Kindle Unlimited. But again, that is a guess.
ReplyDeleteI feel for you, Debra. I'm in a very similar boat with very similar results (or lack thereof). While a social media presence is a requirement for writers these days, I'm going to be much more choosy about where I put my efforts for my next release. Last time, I felt I was everywhere, nonstop, for weeks. Never again!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Debra. Social media is exhausting. No solutions.
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