Writers: Marketing your book-traditional or newer methods? (+BQ)?

[Angela P]

1. In my experience, A B and C are pretty useless to new authors. People go to see established personalities, not unknown newbies. It's the same catch-22 you find with publishers. D provides a platform that is more likely to attract a few people for less money, but it's hard to shout over all the Internet noise.

2. Interacting and being genuine makes a HUGE difference. I've purchased books simply because the authors were nice. On my blog (linked in resources), I'm trying several different approaches. I'm paying forward attention by posting art from new artists. I'm posting flash fiction to give people a sample of my writing style (plus it gives me extra writing practice, as a bonus). I plan to incorporate some multimedia elements.

3. I have some ideas. My main approach is to be prolific and publish free/low cost e-books. Lately, it seems that the successful authors have a huge back list.

4. I would definitely market it to build anticipation. Starting after it's published is starting behind the curve, I think.

If you aren't on Twitter, you should look into it. There's a terrific writer/publisher/agent community. We have a weekly discussion of book marketing techniques under the hashtag #bookmarket. Past transcripts are linked in resources.

BQ: Nope.
BQ2: Ew! Big fat hairy no.
BQ3: People still use enveloped and stamps? lmao
BQ4: Hey, that's me you're laughing at!