More thoughts on promotional outreach

Frankie's Friday post about promotional outreach touched close to home because my latest Amanda Doucette book, WRECK BAY was just released last week and I have been wrestling with how to promote it. Frankie was hoping to initiate a discussion about what works and what doesn't in this evolving world of book promotion. Evolving is a key word here. Social media is changing rapidly, as is software for presenting promotional material, and the nature of book selling itself. It's really difficult to keep up, let alone guess the next trend.

I was sorry no authors put forward their thoughts in the comments section, but the problems are complex and the answers perhaps too lengthy for a quick comment. I hope the post initiated some discussion and reflection beyond the blog. I decided my thoughts merited a whole blog, so here we go.

It's been twenty-three since my first novel was published, so I have been in the promotional game for a while. Wow, has it changed! When I started, I held in-person launches with food and wine in the gorgeous, marble-columned lobby of National Archives Canada, which hosted many author events for free (you just had to supply the food and drink). In 2000, the online world was very limited; no social media and only the beginnings of email and websites. Many potential readers didn't use the internet for communication, so I designed and printed out rudimentary post cards. I had a d-base file of readers which printed sticky little address labels on my dot-matrix printer. I bought reams of stamps. One by one, I mailed them to friends, family, and anyone I thought might be interested. 

My second promotional activity was throwing a box of books into the trunk of my car and driving around to every bookstore within a day's drive. I introduced myself as a local author, gave them a sample copy, and said I'd be happy to do a signing. This netted me a personal connection with most of the bookstores that remains helpful to this day, even though a great many of those bookstores have closed or changed owners.

About a year later, my friend Mary Jane Maffini and I (both at similar points in our book careers) decided we needed that new innovation called a website and I enlisted my then-teenage son to set one up for us, using html. It was clunky and impossible for us to edit, but at least we had a presence! A couple of years later, we decided we each needed our own website, and a techie friend volunteered to design them. 

My third promotional activity was probably the most valuable yet in my nascent mystery career - attending literary festivals, particularly mystery conferences. So many benefits! The most obvious being networking and sharing writing and publicity tips with other writers. Making connections with book industry people like librarians, booksellers, and reviewers not just in my own backyard but around the the world. Forming friendships that continue to be nourished through social media, notably Facebook. I started with Bloody Words before my first book was even published, and have attended Malice Domestic, Bouchercon, and Left Coast Crime, as well as smaller regional festivals. If it weren't for finances and the pandemic, I would go every year. My list of contacts grew as my books got out there.

The mailed launch invitations continued for several books, and the d-base grew with each book. Sometimes I held joint book launches with local crime writer friends like Mary Jane, which increased both our reaches as well. But at some point we decided to ditch the paper in favour of email. I admit to being haphazard about collecting reader contact information. As people emailed me about my books or invited me to speak at bookclubs, I collected their emails in a dedicated folder in my email program, which gave me a record of sorts. I would painstakingly go through these to invite people to my launches or to inform them of a new release. Inefficient and old-school, but it did work. 

The next big leap forward was the arrival of Social Media. I created a personal Facebook page in 2009, and my editor created an author page and urged me to use it. I kept forgetting to, and instead used my personal page for a combination of friendly chat and book information. Facebook was, and still is, an interactive platform, and readers often became Facebook friends who enjoyed stories about my cottage, my travels, and my dogs as much as the book information. But social media platforms kept multiplying, and we authors were urged to keep up. I joined Twitter a few years later, but found it of limited use except to make very specific announcements about a new release, a signing, or good review. Posts seemed to disappear into the void within a few minutes of being posted, and I made no effort to cultivate connections there. Amid the recent controversy and the increasing toxicity of the platform, I have cancelled my account there. Meanwhile my plugged-in daughter urged me to join Instagram. Facebook is a medium for people you already know, she said, but Instagram will allow you to reach new readers, particularly a younger audience. She made a valid point, so I did join and I do post upcoming news there (and occasional photos of dogs) but it's no place to cultivate connections unless you're a celebrity. It takes little extra time and effort, however, and maybe it increases my visibility. 

The last ten years have seen an explosion in online promotional options. Mail chimp and other software to organize your contact lists, newsletters, blogs, Goodreads and Amazon pages, youtube channels, book trailers, TikTok, and probably others I've yet to hear about.  More and more of this online engagement falls on the author's shoulders, with only the bestsellers and those rich enough to hire PAs and other publicity machines getting outside help. It's become overwhelming. Many of these new avenues required time and some tech expertise to master and maintain. There are authors who love this kind of thing or have handy family members to help, but not me. I have little patience for spending hours tearing my hair out online. It ranks above housekeeping (another necessary evil) but below dog walking, skiing, kayaking, and seeing friends. Plus I usually have a book to write.

I did create an Amazon and Goodreads author page, but I don't do anything with them and don't know if they're any use. I created a Youtube channel but have not put anything on it, and I have dreamed about a book trailer but once again - no technical expertise to turn the dreams into reality. I have run like a madwoman away from the supremely narcissistic TikTok. Because I can't figure out Mail Chimp, I do not have a newsletter, and although I now have a website that I designed and can edit on my own, it is frequently neglected. The one other online presence I maintain is this blog. I no longer use my onerous and often out-of-date email lists to promote events, but instead rely on Facebook invites, Instagram, and my website.

The pandemic accelerated a seismic shift in book promotion. The shift to virtual appearances had begun earlier, with some book clubs hosting virtual talks with authors. Video chats allowed authors to attend events and connect with others much farther afield. When March 2020 shut down the world, however, all book signings, tours, festivals, and other events came to a crashing halt. All my events through the next two years were cancelled, and many since then have been doubtful. It was a very isolating and lonely time, but virtual technology had its up sides. I held virtual launches for my last two books, and invited friends on both my email lists and Facebook from all across the world. More people attended those than could possibly attend my in-person events. In that sense the reach is far greater. 

But I have always loved meeting with readers, friends, and fans in person. I love seeing old friends, sharing laughter, hugs, and love of books.Virtual appearances - staring at thumbnails or, worse, that little green camera light - lack that sense of human connection. And without knowing that our stories touch people, what is the point of writing them? So I am planning two in-person launches, in Ottawa and Toronto, to introduce this latest book over the next week. And I am planning a number of bookstore signings and library readings over the next few months. It's probably not the most efficient way to reach a bigger audience, but it feeds my soul.

What works and what doesn't? I'm not sure, but part of the question is what are you willing to put work into? No writer can do everything and still have a life and write the next book. No writer is comfortable with all the platforms and online possibilities either. For myself, I will continue to use Facebook and Instagram for ongoing book news, as well as this blog and my website for a more detailed background. I will do virtual events as the opportunity arises, and I will be open to learning new things that seem exciting. But I will also continue to seek out in-person connections through book signings, readings, conferences, and tours. 

Publication Day

My twelfth novel, Valentino Will Die, dropped on February 2, Groundhog Day, but it was hardly a deja vu launch. Instead of being able to interact with a warm and friendly live audience, the launch was a ZOOM event with Barbara Peters through Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. As our own Barbara Fradkin noted in yesterday's entry, a virtual book launch has its good points, mainly that no one has to travel in order to attend. You can watch the event in your jammies. But it isn't quite the same experience for the author, anyway. I appreciate being able to read the audience and soak up the good vibes in person. I read our Barbara's entry with great interest, since she set up her entire launch ON HER OWN like some sort of superhero, whereas I only had to remember how to put on makeup and sign into Poisoned Pen's zoom invitation. (If you'd like to see how it went, the entire chat is archived here.) I'd better get used to this brave new world, because I feel this is the way its going to be for awhile. Since there will be no traveling for appearances or conferences for the foreseeable future, I'm in the midst of planning lots of hardcopy giveaways of earlier titles, as well as as many online events - guest blogs, articles, zoom appearances, classes - that I can talk people into hosting me for. If any of you Dear Readers have great ideas for authors on the best way to connect with you during this strange time, be a pal and let us know!

The good old days - personal contact!

In the meantime, I'm podcasting today, February 4, 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, with PatZi Gil at Joy on Paper, a syndicated radio show for writers and those who dream of writing! I hope you’ll have a listen. 

In other news, this morning I was finally was able to sign up for my first COVID vaccination on February 12, which I always considered a lucky day, since it's the birthday of both Lincoln and my uncle Paul. My husband has already had his first shot, and is scheduled for his second shot on February 13, in a different location. The entire sign-up procedure here in Arizona is convoluted in the extreme, so I consider myself lucky to have any appointment at all! Good luck to all, and stay safe until we meet again in person.

Planning a virtual book launch, Part 2; no hair left but was it worth it?

Barbara here, still alive to tell the tale. This post is the sequel to my Part 1 post two weeks ago, which you can find by scrolling through past posts. Today I talk about the invitation process, because that's where I lost most of my hair, and the actual event itself. So there I was; two weeks before the launch, I had designed a spiffy Eventbrite invitation, with the graphic courtesy of my publisher, I had bought a 100-participant  Zoom webinar package on top of the Zoom Pro Plan (for one month), and I had designed and scheduled the Zoom Webinar.

Eventbrite claimed it could generate an email campaign to send invitations to all my email contacts, and it could also interface with Facebook and Twitter to allow me to invite friends on social media sites. Having invitations delivered by both email and Facebook was important because I have friends and readers in both places. Email first. It turns out I needed to design an exciting email to catch their attention, which contained a link to the main Eventbrite invitation. More work! Fortunately they had a template which I could customize. So far so good. Then I had to send it out via my "subscriber lists", of which I had none. If I had Mail Chimp or Excel or other email list, I could import it, but it didn't like my jumbled mess of contacts. So one by one, I went through my contacts and entered their emails in my newly created subscriber list. Hours later, I had created three subscriber lists. One for local contacts, another for the rest of Canada, and a third for international friends. I figured splitting them up might save me time in the future. The good news is that Eventbrite saves these lists, so if I ever need them again, there they are! But this is not the time to ask if I'll ever use them again.

So I sent the emails out to the lists and turned my attention to social media. Twitter was a piece of cake. Eventbrite supplied a Twitter URL which I simply included in a tweet and off it went into the twittersphere. Facebook was where I lost most of my hair. Eventbrite said it had a seamless interface with Facebook, but they need to look "seamless" up in the dictionary. First, it wouldn't post it to my personal page, where most of my friends and readers hang out, but only to my author page. So it created an Eventbrite announcement that went on my author page, which almost no one looks at and which is almost impossible to navigate. I knew no one would see it there. I hunted around on the site and in the invitation, and finally found a way to "invite friends". So I went through my friend list and selected all those I thought might be interested. When I got through that task, Facebook gave me an error message so I had to do it all over again, breaking it into smaller groups.

Pressed share, and waited to see what happened. Nothing. By this time I had discovered that on my Eventbrite page, I could see each ticket "sold". Quite a few emailed invitations had been viewed and tickets "purchased." Facebook? Nada. I emailed a few friends whom I'd been using as guinea pigs, and one said there was nothing on her FB page and no alert, but she had found the invitation hiding in her Facebook notifications. Who checks their notifications? Not me. So then I posted notices (several over time) on my personal and author pages for friends to check notifications for their Eventbrite invite. An even sillier complication? The Facebook post on my author page gave people the option of clicking "going" "interested", etc. Numerous people had clicked "going", but that did absolutely nothing to get them a ticket. They needed to click on the "find ticket" button buried further down. So I posted more notices on my personal page to clarify the distinction. Bottom line? Eventbrite needs to improve their Facebook interface.

Was I ready for the event now? All running smoothly? Not quite. In the first twenty-four hours, I had "sold" half of the 100 tickets I could fit in my Webinar. And that was even before I invited on Facebook. I knew not everyone wold actually show up, but I didn't want people turned away, so I decided I had to buy a bigger Webinar package. The next size up was 500 participants, which was overkill, but given that I wasn't paying for a room, for food, or other launch costs, I went for it. I won't bore you with the details of trying to "chat" with the Zoom bots; suffice to say I needed an extra big glass of wine by the time I had made the switchover without destroying the existing webinar I had set up.

Once all that was done, I breathed easier and even designed a PowerPoint slide show to welcome people and entertain them while attendees joined in. In the end, 227 people bought tickets and 135 joined in on the night. Rick, my daughter, a tech savvy friend, and I had several practice sessions to make sure the settings were right, the chat and Q&A were enabled properly, the view was correct, and the lighting good. Even so, I chewed my nails. The event itself was a blast, and the feedback afterwards was gratifying.

Many people commented how much they liked the intimate, in-depth, conversational format and the fact they could tune in from home even if they were thousands of kilometres away. They even said they'd prefer this virtual format even when in-person events are allowed again. I enjoyed the hour but I did miss the personal contact. Launches are usually a chance to see old friends again and share some laughs, and it was very unsatisfying to talk into the green light of the camera instead. But I'm very glad that most people seemed to really enjoy it.

There were some technical glitches. Some people couldn't get it, some couldn't sign into Eventbrite on the night and others couldn't find the Zoom URL. Others just said it didn't work. I'm really sorry for these glitches, and sorry people missed out, but so much is out of our control when it comes to technology. 

The verdict? It was worth it. My hair and finger nails will grow back. Now, if only I'd remembered to record it!

Planning a virtual book launch; Part 1, hair tearing and panic attacks

Today, as you read this, the United States and most of the world are collectively holding our breath, hoping for peace while fearing the worst as one of the most momentous shifts in power takes place. I don't yet know how it will turn out, but my thoughts are with the United States today.

But meanwhile, closer to home and on a much more trivial scale, I have been wrestling with my own drama over the past two weeks. That is when I began planning the virtual launch of my latest book, which has landed with a soundless thud smack in the middle of the pandemic dead zone. How hard can it be? I asked myself. I've done lots of Zoom meetings and chats over the past year, some small and personal, others more formal. I've even hosted the odd friend meeting. 

Hah.

The first challenge was how to invite people. I have a disorganized contact list of emails that includes everything from my plumber to the fan who wrote to me from New Mexico. I have no newsletter, no mail chimp, no quick and easy way to separate out the plumber from the fan. As well, I needed to send out the invitations at least two weeks in advance in order to give people enough time to block it into their calendar, but two weeks is a long time to keep track of that Zoom invite if their inbox is as chaotic as mine. So I consulted Google and Facebook friends, and settled on the Eventbrite solution. Eventbrite keeps track of registrants and sends out reminders, and most importantly, it's FREE if the event is free.

I tackled Eventbrite, bringing my knowledge from about 0% to approximately 25% in a couple of days and designing an invitation. There were step by step instructions, and the chance to preview my efforts along the way. Next I needed to somehow link it to a Zoom event so that registrants would receive the link to access the event. I knew I had to test this invitation and its Zoom link to make sure it all worked right before I launched it out into the world, so I created a dummy event – a Zoom meeting – which I inserted into the invite, and then I sent it out to a few close friends to see whether the whole thing worked. It did, and we had a brief Zoom meeting to discuss problems that were encountered. Not many, other than the tedious business of setting up an Eventbrite account and registering. But as my friends pointed out, almost every online business requires you set up an account nowadays, so that shouldn't deter people.

Next I had to set up the actual real Zoom event. Oy. I had no idea how many people would actually attend, but the beauty of a virtual event is that people can tune in from all around the world. I have friends and family, and hopefully unknown fans, all over. I wanted to invite everyone I could think of who might be interested (although not the plumber). 50 people might come, or 150 people. Who knew? I have been to Zoom meetings with 50 little thumbnail faces all over the screen. It doesn't work. It also wouldn't work to have 50 people trying to talk at once. Reluctantly I realized I would need to mute the attendees and hide their videos, so the audience would only see and hear me. Which would be incredibly boring. So I opted instead for an interview format and asked my friend and thriller writer Rick Mofina to interview me.

Once I decided on a two-person interview plus Q&A, I decided that one hour was the perfect length for the event. Shorter, and you can't say all the fascinating things you want to. Longer, and the audience's eyes begin to glaze over. And the date and time was also important. What hour would be convenient for most people, considering this would go across time zones? I settled on 7 pm. Here in the east, most people would be finishing their supper but not yet asleep in front of the TV. On the west coast, it would be 4 pm, at the end of the major work day but before supper. Cocktail hour. I did get notices from across the pond saying it's 2 am for us here, for which I'm sorry. You can't accommodate everyone, as the Olympics found out.

Next I started to research how to set up a Zoom meeting for this format. Google, YouTube, tech contacts, and Facebook friends put in their two cents. It was suggested I could hire a tech person, but being an author with all the financial limitations that entails, I thought, how hard can it be? In the end, I realized I needed a Zoom Webinar, not a Zoom Meeting. So I set about learning everything I could about Zoom Webinars in two days. Time was getting short. I watched three live training sessions on Zoom (all free) and read through their guides and step-by step instructions. First of all, I needed to purchase the appropriate Zoom plan (the free basic 40-minute one wasn't going to cut it). I settled on the cheapest Webinar package for 100 participants which, added to the Zoom Pro Plan, brought the cost to about $75 CAD. I bought only one license, because only one person can be a host at a time. But I could assign co-host duties to someone else (my lucky daughter, in Toronto on her own computer) during the event so I didn't have to juggle everything myself while being interviewed.

Then I set about scheduling and configuring the Zoom webinar. Luckily the live Zoom sessions and set-by-step instructions made this a "relatively" easy part. I invited both Rick and my daughter as panelists, enabled the Q&A function, and did a couple of other things that I hope work. I chose "no registration required", because the attendees had already registered through Eventbrite. One of the beauties of Zoom webinars is that they allow practice sessions, so once the event is scheduled, you can do dry runs as often as you like. 

Next up came the process of sending out the invitations, running the practice session, and finally the event itself. All that is a blog post in itself, so stay tuned in two weeks for Part 2; no hair left but was it worth it?Here's the link to the Eventbrite invitation, in case you want to find out for yourself. Meanwhile, if anyone has held a virtual book launch, or attended one, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A Virtual Book Launch - Yea or Nay?

My plan for this entry is to write about virtual book launches. I am writing this on Jan. 6. I am depressed. I lived through the upheaval of the 60s and 70s. I was hoping I'd never have to go through such things again. There are so many things I could say about what is happening in Washington DC as I type. But I won't. I'll save my outrage for a more appropriate venue and continue on as if nothing is happening. Soooo.... Virtual book launching! 

February 2 is the day that my second Bianca Dangereuse novel, Valentino Will Die, will hit the shelves and the e-universe and the airwaves. The official launch during this pandemic year will be a Facebook Live virtual event hosted by Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale Arizona! Which means that you can ALL come without traveling all the way to Arizona! The LIVE event will be on Facebook on January 30 at 4:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (That’s 6:00 Eastern, 5:00 Central, 3:00 Pacific. You’re welcome.) Click here to see all the information. If you can’t make the live event, never fear, the video will be available for viewing ever after at the Poisoned Pen site.

The old days - an in-person appearance!

Ten years ago, here on Type M, I (Donis) asked what you Dear Readers like or dislike about the performance when an author talks to an audience - what annoys you, or what makes you eager to read the author's book? I repeated the question on Facebook and on the DorothyL reader's forum, and I received dozens of interesting answers to my informal survey. My question for today is:

1. Do you as a reader attend virtual author appearances? If you do, what do you like about them and what do you not like?

2. Are you an author? If yes, what are your thoughts on virtual book events? Do you fear being nothing more than a talking head?

When I did the original survey about live author events, the top Dislike, mentioned by 25% of responders, was arrogance/pomposity in the speaker, or as K.B. put it, "if the writer comes across as one who is doing us all a favor by being there, but isn't really 'into' it."

(Personally, I don't mind if an author has a big ego. In fact, I think she probably ought to. Just don't push it in my face.)

Coming in at at a close second is panel-hogging. It annoys some folks no end when one panel member seems to become enamored of his own voice and won't let the others speak. (speaking on behalf of authors, here, I think most of us would second that.)

 Other pet peeves mentioned, in no order, were:

 Being unable to hear the speaker, or unable to hear questions directed to the speaker.

 Reading from the work and not interacting with the crowd.

 Salesmanship (I take this to mean hawking like a carnival barker.) P.B. says, "I don't want to be sold; I want to be befriended."

 An author not making eye-contact/being distant with someone who brings her copy of the author's book to be signed.

The number one Like, mentioned by almost half the respondents, is warmth and humor (though one respondent did say humor is fine but she doesn't come to hear a comedy routine)

 Also mentioned several times: Attendees like to hear about the writing process, the writer's life, where the ideas for the story/characters came from, the author's research experiences.

I, Donis, like wit, if it seems natural and not forced. I like it when the author seems to be enjoying herself. She will keep my interest if she has depth and passion about her work.

I've come away from many an author talk with warm feelings and a desire to read everything he ever wrote.

One of the best author events I ever attended years ago when Louise Penny appeared at our local library. She won us over from the first moment she walked in by shaking the hand of and personally introducing herself to everyone who had come out to see her. Her talk was intimate, personal, and joyful. I came away with the impression that this is a woman who is filled with love for her work and her life. Even if her books weren't as good as they are - and they are amazingly good - after seeing her in person I wanted to read everything she ever wrote at least twice.

This is a brave new world for all of us, so tell me, Dear Readers and Writers, what makes a successful virtual author event? Help us virtual book launchers out!

 

Promotion in the Age of Covid

These past two weeks since my last post have been full of drama. First both my dogs got skunked (at 11 pm, pitch dark outside, and I had no makings for skunk shampoo), then one of them ate lawn fertilizer and needed her stomach pumped, and the next night she had a seizure. I pressed "send" on my latest manuscript and sent it on its way to the publisher, exactly on deadline. This year's non-Halloween left me with 80 baby chocolate bars and three pie pumpkins that had to be eaten. I have made four pumpkin breads, two dozen pumpkin muffins, and some soup. I am afraid to climb on the bathroom scale.

Then came the emotional roller coaster of the American election, which we all watched for five days while chewing our nails to the quick and incessantly checking updates online, to the detriment of any intelligent work. And it's not even my country!

In the midst of all this, my publicist informed me it's time to start the promotional gears grinding for my upcoming novel. THE ANCIENT DEAD, the fourth in my Amanda Doucette mystery-thriller series, was originally scheduled for release in October 2020. But factors beyond our control delayed it, namely printers that weren't printing, bookstores that weren't operating, supplies that were backlogged, etc. So the publisher pushed the date back to January 2021. The dead zone. 

And this is the real reason for this post. Promotion in the Age of Covid. Ugh. My book is already available for reviewers on Net Galley, so that reviews can be ready when the book hits the shelves. If you are a blogger or reviewer, feel free to check it out!  It is also available for pre-order, which provides a huge boost in sales ahead of the publication date and increases the number of books ordered. THE ANCIENT DEAD can be pre-ordered on all the usual online platforms, but please consider pre-ordering from your favourite local bookstore. They need our support if bookstores are to survive these difficult times.

But for me, the focal point of a book's release is always my book launch. But this year? It's bad enough my book is coming out in January when bookstores and warehouses are processing returns and trying to pare down their overstock of unsold holiday books, and readers can barely see over their sky-high to-be-read piles and credit card statements. But somehow I have to reach those readers with the news of my exciting new book with nothing but Zoom.

Normally I love launching a new book. I plan a launch party at a local pub, arrange for a bookseller, and invite all my friends and readers to come celebrate with me. It's a festive time. I spend a few minutes talking about the book and doing a brief reading, but otherwise it's a time to connect with old friends and greet new ones. In the weeks and months afterwards, I usually have a number of signings, readings, and book clubs lined up, and perhaps a festival or conference or two. These in-person connections with readers are inspirational for most authors; they nourish our hope and give us a reason to keep at it in our solitary, at times gloomy, doubt-filled world.

Now I will be faced with nothing but thumbnail photos arrayed across the top of my screen as I talk into the void of my living room. I am filled with trepidation and dozens of questions. What if I hold a virtual launch and no one comes? How should people sign up for the event? How will they buy the books? How can I sign the books? How long should the presentation last? An hour of talk and readings is much longer than normal launch talks. Should I get a host/ interviewer, as my publicist advises, and if so, who? I am not a tech wizard, and managing a Zoom call with multiple attendees and Q&A capability terrifies me.

I know there are advantages to the virtual format (besides no food and bar bill). People don't have to be in my own city to attend; friends and readers from all across the continent can tune in. It would be wonderful to see dear friends from as far away as British Columba and California, and to connect with readers from other continents.  

I know writers' festivals and other authors have managed to host virtual events, and I will be watching those in order to get some pointers. I will also talk to my local bookstores to see what their experience has been. If anyone has had experience either as an author or an attendee at a virtual book launch, I'd love to hear from you. Do's and Don'ts, and how to avoid falling on your face. All help gratefully accepted.