Publication - Advertising Ideas, Websites

8 December 2011, Publication - Advertising Ideas, Websites

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.  ...

Websites are the life of Internet advertising.  You must get this together or you will have little hope of breaking your novel out of the pack.  Even so, there is much more that can be said about websites than I could possibly convey in a blog.  I'll try to do the subject justice...or at least get you started.

I use www.godaddy.com.  I'm not necessarily advertising for them, but I find they provide all the support I need, and they were recommended to me.  Go to www.godaddy.com or any other similar web URL provider and hosting site and obtain the websites for yourself and your novel.  Do it as soon as you set the title on the novel.  The cost of owning a URL (a .com mane) is about $8 per year.  I obtained www.AksinyaNovel.com for Aksinay.  I put www.Aksinya.com on back order.  You also need a "host" for your site.  You can self host, if you are familiar, or you can get someone else to host for you.  I use www.godaddy.com as my host.  Once you own the URL, you can host anywhere.  There are definite advantages to self hosting and to off site hosting.  For right now, the easiest is to use on off site host--like www.godaddy.com. 

Once you have a host, you need to set up the site--I'll discuss this 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/.