Publication - Advertising Ideas, more Blogging

15 December 2011, Publication - Advertising Ideas, more Blogging

Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little. I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel. Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, go to my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

Here is the list of ideas for advertising--there are more and I'll add to the list as we go along.  I'm certainly not an expert in all these, but I've dabbled in all of them.  I'll try to relate my experience and the degree of that experience to you.

1.  Have a website for your novel.
2.  Write a blog.
3.  Advertise.
4.  Literary awards.
5.  Book cards.
6.  Contests.
7.  Interviews.
8.  Blog tours.
9.  Press releases.
10.  Speaking and teaching.
11.  e-mailing.
12.  ...

The more you blog, the more potential attention you will receive for your blogs.  One a day seems to be a reasonable maximum.  One a week seems to be a reasonable minimum.  Most readers are looking for continuity in ideas, familiar concepts, and reliable delivery.  It's kind of like your newspaper--when you can't find it on your driveway in the morning, you get irritated.  Or, for the non-newspaper crowd, it's like your favorite Internet news site--you expect new news every day.  When you don't get the new news every day, you are unhappy.

You want to make your readers happy (that's one of my rules for writing--entertain your readers).  The same is true for a blog.  I'll admit, I don't do as good a job as I should--I could do better.  I could put in pictures to illustrate my points and give links all over the place.  The problem is that I don't have time.  If I didn't work a job full time, and I wasn't trying to write novel number 22, and I wasn't a businessman with business and life to take care of, I could give more to this blog and to you.  As it is, I come home very late some days, relax for about 15 minutes, get a glass of wine, then produce three blogs.  This is the first--its focus is mainly on the elements of publishing and marketing.  The second is a repost that still requires reformatting and editing http://www.ldalford.wordpress.com/.  The third is another blog on writing that tackles specifics of the skill of writing novels in scenes http://www.novelscene.wordpress.com/.  I try to make it short and sweet.

I'll write more about blogging tomorrow.

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples: http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.