One of the things writers give a lot of thought to after they've finished writing a great book, is finding readers. Whether you're traditionally published or you're going it on your own, promotion is going to be a concern unless you're already so well-known your name comes up in game quizzes and thousands of people have you on automatic buy.
We all know the benefits of social media - Facebook has helped quite a few readers find me and remains my main platform but I also have a blog, Eugenia Writes!. And on that blog, I often explore a few of my other passions like photography. Almost every Saturday, I'm one of the participants in the Snapshot Saturday blog hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books and, now and again, when I can find an orange photo I join the lively group participating in Orange You Glad It's Friday. I love taking pictures and would participate anyway but a couple people also participating in those memes are now among my Google followers. It doesn't mean they'll buy my books but it does mean that my name recognition rises just a little bit higher every time I'm involved in a meme.
Writers are not one-dimensional people (at least, not usually)! Share your other interests with others. If you love cooking, if you're an avid RVer, if you regularly go spelunking - blog about it, tweet pictures, Pin them. Share articles about your issues and concerns on Facebook. You'll be surprised at how many new readers you might pick up that way but even if you don't pick up a single one, you're blogging and tweeting about what you love. Where's the downside?
6 comments:
Unfortunately, the only other passion I seem to have besides writing these days is video games.
Well, I understand that video games have gone a long way beyond the PacMan I used to play. ;) But there are probably loads of gamer groups you could join, Charles, (if you haven't already). And what about offering reviews of games and posting them various places? Or coming up with a game based on your books? (If you've tried these already, don't mind me.)
Eugenia-- I read the title of this post and couldn't wait to read your thoughts. I just started a new blog which has nothing to do with gasp...writing about writing. I don't have a lot of readers on it right now and am just writing for the love of it and seeing what happens with it. This post was a total confirmation of my decision-- thank you.
I write, play golf, garden, hike-maybe too many hobbies, cuts into my writing time.
Enjoyed the post!
-N-
Great advice as usual Eugenia. Name recognition is the biggest part of increasing sales.
I have a blog but I update it in spurts because I usually post short stories that I don't plan to try to publish elsewhere. It is a good idea to broaden the scope of the blog to discuss non-writing interests. Thanks!
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