Author, Ava Pennington
Hi, all – Ava Pennington here. Happy New Year, everyone!
New year, new calendar. I love the potential of a brand new calendar, don’t you? All those pristine pages with their empty little boxes…well, they started out pristine when I unwrapped the cellophane. But they’re filling up quickly!
As I look back on the past year, I had so many thoughts about how to market my book. I had planned certain tasks for six months before publication, three months before, the month before, the week of…you get the idea. Unfortunately, the calendar got away from me, and many of those ideas remained unfulfilled. I began to view the dwindling calendar as my enemy.
New calendar, new resolutions. Okay, maybe not new resolutions. It’s probably more accurate to say same resolutions, but new determination. Instead of the calendar being my enemy, I will ensure it becomes my friend. Here’s how I plan to do it…I will commit to do something every day, no matter how small. For example:
Use of Social Media
Very little time or effort is required to tweet or post something on Facebook once a day. The content doesn’t always have to be about my book. Social media is just that – social! I need to also spend time nurturing relationships with friends and readers instead of constantly trumpeting a marketing message.
Update profiles
Those profile boxes on Amazon’s Author Page. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the other social media sites are there for a reason. Others read these profiles to determine whether to follow me. If I don’t keep them updated, I’m overlooking an effective way to market my book.
Effective use of email
Update my email signature to include information about the book that’s out AND the next book that’s in the pipeline. And of course, include links to my website, Facebook Author Page, and Twitter account.
Blog
Commit to a reasonable blog schedule. I know there are bloggers who post five days a week and some who blog three days weekly. If I tried either of those schedules, I’d be setting myself up for failure. But I can blog weekly. That’s a reasonable commitment for my schedule. I’d rather blog consistently on a once-a-week basis than to attempt blogging more frequently and be inconsistent.
Comment on other people’s blogs
I subscribe to several blogs and often read them without commenting. This year I commit to commenting on at least one blog each day. By comments, I don’t mean “great blog.” I mean a comment that adds to the discussion.
Five Alive
I will apply the “Five Alive” rule to:
– pitching magazine articles related to the subject of my book.
– contacting a church or other organization about being a speaker.
– contacting a bookstore about a book-signing.
For each declination I receive, I will send out one request, keeping five requests active at any given time.
Of course, there are other things I will do to market my book, but that’s for another post. Still, if I can faithfully do the little things I’ve just listed, that’s a great start!
What other “little” marketing activities will you commit to doing on a regular basis this new year?