Promo...huh?

I am an avid Amazon buyer. I really should get one of their spiffy premium accounts, but it's enough that I have a seller account where I sell high end books to people who have more cash than sense. Not that I can manage but one every once in awhile. The people willing to spend upwards of a hundred on a collectible are rare and far in-between. Reference books are where it's at. Ounce for ounce, a rare reference is like platinum. I paid for my hotel at Nationals with one book and sent that man a thank you card.

But now that I've got something out there, (well...almost out there) I've been thinking about promo. I don't have gobs of money to spend on myself, that's the trouble with a family and I surely like to eat, but like those people who talk about branding, yeah--it's a given. If you're in it for the long haul, you've got to think about making yourself into a name, or at least getting out there where SOMEBODY knows what the hell you're writing. And no--blogging is not on my master plan of world domination. I blog because I enjoy the community, I like the people who drop by, and sometimes there are just things you need to get out of your head onto virtual paper. I don't visit people who can't write anything but buy-my-book.

Promo is one of those stupid things you simply assume someone else is going to do for you, hell--I assumed I'd sell to Bantam and live happily ever after, in a nice Lindel Cedar home somewhere in the mountains, but that's not gonna happen. So a little while ago I signed up for a magazine called Proforma. It's free and you can get it at sucessfulpromotions.com. It's got some great articles in it, lots of the newest product and useful stuff that's easy to digest. Sort of like a catalog crossed with a newsletter, only thick and glossy. I also got a book called Publicize your Book.. The reviews were good. The book isn't. The valuable part is the resource section. Lots of addresses and how-to samples. Ok to rent from a library. Best thing I've read so far is Guerrilla Marketing for Writers.

I should have known I'd found a treasure when I read the list of authors. Michael Larsen and Jay Conrad Levinson. I read management books like other people eat popcorn and Levinson has been publishing Guerrilla attack books for years. Marketing, promo, whatever, this guy is right there. And Larsen has his own agency and did a bunch of books for Writers Digest.

Chapter Ten: Weapons that use technology to help you, is invaluable. It's set up like a Dummies book, crouched in military-speak, and I love the bits that say things like Bonus Weapon. (must be the rs writer in me). I haven't thrown it down yet, but I haven't finished it. After all, it's Christmas and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Which reminds me...gotta run.