Topic Tuesday - Self Promoting

"You guys should start a topic about what people do to self promote themselves outside of what their publisher does."

It’s been a while since I was able to participate for Topic Tuesday.  January is shaping up to be a hectic month for me but it coincides with this week’s topic about self promoting.  Publishers don’t do jack shit for authors so it’s a constant battle for writers to find ways to promote their work without pissing off other writers.  I don’t know what works for everyone, but this is my month (and what I try to find for promotion).

2013 was a great year for me in publication because I had eight books published.  I was on a writing schedule where I had one coming out every month and I was about four books ahead.  Now that my publisher passed on a trilogy of books I wrote, I’m in a little bit of panic mode because I’m missing out on that instant revenue.  Now I have to promote my ass off (but that’s okay, I have plenty of ass).

In January, I had a blog hop the first weekend, I have a blog hop the third weekend (16^th – 19^th), I have a book tour the 20^th thru the 26^th, I have a final blog hop the 27^th – Feb 1^st with a featured author promotion on the 29^th, and that doesn’t include having guests visit with me throughout the month or me guesting at someone’s site.  Now, that’s a lot of blog hops in one month.

For those of you who don’t know what blog hop is, an author signs up at a linky list to who is hosting.  There’ll be a lot of linked blogs where people will write a post, usually to a specific topic, and then people can enter contests to win prizes.  It’s a great way for people to be exposed to you as a writer and if they win, they’ll get familiar with your work.  Giving away a free ebook is a good way to hook a reader into buying more of your work. 

Now, for my book tour, I actually paid someone to get together a list of new blog sites I can visit in order to reach a broader audience.  I’ll be promoting my Love Story series and one lucky person will win all three ebooks.  (my newest and last in the series releases today!  http://www.bookstrand.com/lights-camera-love-story)

I’ve heard about street teams but I don’t have that kind of following, and I simply don’t know how to maximize my coverage at Goodreads.  I’m on Twitter but I don’t know how much that really helps in people discovering your work.  So I shall be curious to read how other’s promote to learn something new.  Right now I rely heavily on my blog and Facebook because I’m not that social media savvy to get my name out there.