Writers’ roles in book promotion have changed a lot in the last twenty years. Instead of being expected merely to write and edit, they’re looked at as partners in the publicity process. If you’re not promoting your book in some way (signings, interviews, blog tours, website giveaways), then you’re really not doing your fair share. This doesn’t come as a surprise to any writers who are plugged into the writing community. After all, with Yahoo Groups like Murder Must Advertise, and writing forums that share tips on promoting, writers would have to have their heads under rocks to not realize the current climate for book marketing.
But when are you too committed to promoting a book instead of writing the next one? Is there an alarm bell that goes off when you’ve spent too much time away from your manuscript?
In an interview with Galley Cat, Sue Grafton confessed that it used to take her nine months to complete a book. “It used to take me nine months to write a book, then ten, then thirteen, and so on,” she explained. “Over the years, the publicity has begun to encroach on the writing process. Around the time of K Is for Killer, I began to realize that every time I had to do a phone interview, I was getting annoyed—’leave me alone, I’ve got work to do!” She said that she went to her publisher to ask for more time to write and less time for interviews, and was able to work out an arrangement with them.
I’ll admit that I’m learning how to juggle promotion with my writing goals. I’ve just enrolled in a very informative online course, Blog Book Tours, which will help me organize and arrange blog publicity for my upcoming mystery, Pretty is as Pretty Dies (August 1, 2009). I’m also trying to stay active in my promotional group, The Carolina Conspiracy.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far. If you’ve got some tips to share, please chime in with comments.
Write First—Your writing is the reason you’ve got something to promote. Make sure you satisfy your writing goal for the day first.
Get Ahead With Your Blogging—Feeling pinched for time? Try penning several blogs in a row. That way, if you have a day when you’re pressed, you’ll have something thoughtful to post on your blog.
Multitask—Okay, I know this is a difficult one. But it can be done (this is coming from a mom who frequently writes at stoplights, mind you.) But you can read and post comments on blogs while a pot of water is coming to a boil. You can write your answers to a blog interview while monitoring your kids as they do their homework.
Know When to Say No—Are you getting too stressed out? Is your stress level pouring out into your interactions with family and friends? You should scale back. Nothing is more important than people who are close to us.
I enjoy promoting, especially making videos promoting my books–but the bottom line is writing the best book you can. Your post gives some excellent tips on balancing both. Thankz!
Great advice. I’m not there yet, but I will be eventually.
Lynnette Labelle
http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com
And we’re here to learn all about it! Nice post.
I think most of us writers like to throw ourselves whole-heartedly into something…maybe to the detriment of everything else! :)
I agree totally! Since I published my first book In Quest of Theta Magic in January this year, I sometimes spent 10 hours a week to publicise the book and only about 6 hours a week writing my next story.
After three months, I said enough is enough. I do not want to lose my readers with no new stories upcoming. Now I have a system, I write first each day, then I use the gap time in the day to do publicity.
Enid
http://steamyfantasy.blogspot.com
After reading everyone’s comments, I’m feeling totally unbalanced. But that may be a state of mind…
My problem is that I love every part of this writing gig and don’t want to give any of it up. And now I’m digging into social networking and like that too. Writing? Oh, yeah. A few weeks ago I was working on this standalone mystery… http://www.patriciastoltey.blogspot.com
You have to balance. It doesn’t come easy, but if you can figure it out, you’ll be more productive and happier.
Helen
http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com
I self published my book with iUniverse since traditional publishers are not lined up at my door for my unsolicitaed manuscript. I knew I would have to promote the book myself. iUniverse wanted to charge me $10,000 to promote Breakthrough and I would have little control. No thanks. I can do the promoting cheaper and more effectively myself.
Yep yep. I’m third book into my series and STILL trying to find the balance. Some folks are better at saying that N-O word than others. I think it’s an important one to learn and practice saying (nicely, of course, with many regrets…).
I have a tip on my blog today about shortening blog posts. ;)
Another tip is using the kitchen timer for lots of jobs. Things I deem important get one-hour settings, and things like kitchen duty gets 15-minutes before the dinger goes off. Then I quit. My kitchen is actually pretty picked up with 15 minutes of concentrated effort on a regular basis. You can accomplish a lot of you’re time conscious for at least part of the day.
What a great post! It is so hard sometimes to find balance with it all – promoting and keeping a presence, but like you said, you have to move forward with the writing or there is nothing to promote. Great advice!
NA Sharpe
http://nancysharpe.blogspot.com
NICE tips… and that comes from the quintessential multi-tasker who has been struggling with the promotion-creation dilemma for a DECADE or longer!
Thank you for that informative post.
All success
Dr.Mani
Author: “Think, Write & RETIRE!”
http://ThinkWriteRetire.com