You KNOW I love you ALL to PIECES and I try to help you any way I can – BUT…I’m not an ape who beats around the bush (except to find food of course) so I’ll say it straight…

You’re driving me spare with frustration…

How?

By your apparent lack of imagination!

I DO NOT mean when it comes to your storytelling talents.

I mean, when it comes to Promoting / Marketing yourself and your book(s).

Take the following common methods for example:

BOOK BLOG TOURS

The same promotional wording, layout and general pitch on several host blogs, sometimes interlinked with schedules of where and when (often up to a three week period) the beleaguered follower of many of these blogs is forced to either, click on the Like Button to show the blog host that they support them, or, stay away rather than to read the same promo post for the umpteenth time…

It’s akin to blanket bombing using cluster bombs to disperse as much shrapnel as possible over as wide an area as possible – WITH THE MINIMUM OF THOUGHT, STRATEGY OR EFFORT…

GUEST AUTHOR POSTS

The same wording, layout and general pitch on several host blogs, forcing the beleaguered follower of many of these blog to either, click on the Like Button to show the blog host that they support them, or, stay away rather than to read the same Guest Author post for the umpteenth time…

See the blanket bombing analogy above…

MARKETING / PROMOTING ON TWITTER

Seems to be mainly restricted to waiting for the unwary to come along and click the Follow Button, thus unleashing the (barely) chained hounds of ‘BUY MY BOOK AT, LIKE MY FACEBOOK PAGE AT, SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG / WEBSITE SO YOU NEVER MISS ONE WORD OF MY INCESSANT PLEAS FOR BUY MY BOOK AT’ messages that suddenly greet the hapless victim, when all they wanted to do was follow you and maybe say “Hello” to an author sometime…

MARKETING / PROMOTING ON FACEBOOK

Seems to be mainly restricted to a very familiar sounding BUY MY BOOK(S), GET THEM AT, HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT MY LATEST BLAH, BLAH, BLAH…..BOOK?

There are exceptions to this of course – thankfully – where authors greet people by name, introduce them to everyone else and make serious efforts to get to know their fans and followers.

Making the whole experience feel like a chance meeting in a Cafe, Garden Party or similar pleasant event.

But sadly – they are in the minority…

MARKETING / PROMOTING ON THE AUTHORS OWN BLOG / WEBSITE

Seems to be mainly restricted to:

Yep, you’ve guessed it…

BUY MY BOOK(S), GET THEM AT, HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT MY LATEST BLAH, BLAH, BLAH…..BOOK? SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG / WEBSITE SO YOU NEVER MISS ONE WORD OF MY INCESSANT PLEAS FOR BUY MY BOOK AT posts.

CAN YOU SPOT ANY DIFFERENCES?

WELL MR. SMARTYPANTS APE – If YOU’RE so CLEVER – Tell us what we SHOULD be doing – Nyuh, Nyuh, Nyuh…

I’ll do BETTER than offer you MY limited knowledge.

I’ll let PROFESSIONALS tell you in a short series of articles I’ll be linking to, but I have to advise that it’s NOT ENOUGH to JUST READ them.

YOU NEED TO TRY THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS.

Meanwhile, for anyone who may have missed Susan Toy’s excellent series Authors Marketing Yourself and Your Work, click HERE