Deep in the Promo Weeds
By Lois Winston
My post last month talked about the five-letter word that sends a shudder through most authors. I’ve been in the promotion weeds ever since, due to the recent launch of A Crafty Collage of Crime, the 12th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Between my own blog, Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, and the two group blogs I belong to, this one and Booklover’s Bench, I also signed up for a blog tour with Great Escapes Book Tours and booked a few guest blogs on my own. The grand total came to—drumroll, please—26 blog posts through the middle of August!
And here lies the conundrum: How many ways can I talk about my series and the newest book in it without sounding like a broken record? Or worse yet, a carnival barker? Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Be the first to experience the latest murder and mayhem author Lois Winston has dumped on her poor reluctant amateur sleuth!
No one likes being bombarded with “buy my book” pleas on social media. Hard sell often works against an author. Years ago, when I was still writing romance, I attended a conference where a well-known, bestselling author kept pleading with the audience to buy her books because her teenage son was growing so fast that she was spending a fortune every month at Foot Locker. From the sideways glances those of us in the audience were giving each other, I had the sense that this author’s attempt at a cute marketing ploy was backfiring badly. Especially since we’d all seen her latest advance recently posted on Publishers Marketplace. I’ve been published since 2006, and to this day, if you added up all my advances and royalties from the past seventeen years, the total would still be less than what that author had received in one advance.
At any rate, Anastasia and I (some bloggers requested posts written by my sleuth or interviews with her instead of me) have tried—desperately—to keep each of the posts fresh and different. My Great Escapes blog tour began June 19th and runs through July 2nd. You can find the schedule here. Visit each site to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win one of three copies I’m giving away of A Crafty Collage of Crime. Because the drawing won’t be held until after the last guest post goes live on July 2nd, you can also go back and enter at the blogs that have already posted.
I promise I won’t implore you to add to my sons’ or grandsons’ sneaker funds!
Instead, if you post a comment here, I’ll enter you in a random drawing for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.
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USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.
Congratulations on the new book! Good luck on all the promo.
Thanks, Carolk!
Haha, funny about Footlocker. I have A Crafty Collage of Crime on my TBR!
Thank you so much, Vera! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Congratulations! And wow, you’ve been a busy lady! Getting yourself out there, as you do, entices people to purchase your books. Your recent (I believe you said it was your first one) was excellent!
Thanks, Kathryn!
Lois has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. She is never idle whether she’s writing, promoting or taking care of her grandsons. I get tired just thinking of all she has to do. Oh, and by the way, A Crafty Collage of Crime is great!!!
And I didn’t have to pay her to say that. 😉 Thanks, Donnell!
Amazing how the promo takes over everything — and it doesn’t seem like as much when you book it, but it grows and grows and grows.
It certainly does, Debra!
So thoughtful of you to vary your blogposts. This consideration for your readers shows in every one of your books, too! Congratulations on this latest one.
Thanks, Saralyn! I try. 😉
You always have the best promo ideas, Lois!
Thanks, Kathleen!
I like when author vary their blog posts.
I do, too, Dru. That’s why I strain my brain to the max when on a blog tour. 😉
Congratulations on the new book!
I appreciate your effort at writing unique blog posts for that long list. If I’m following a blog hop and it’s the same post at each stop I’m inclined to drop out. During the editing process of one of my quilting books whenever the editor cut something she’d write in the margin, “save for a blog post”. Maybe you could use cut material as a few of the blog topics.
Great suggestion, Barb! Thanks!
I feel your pain, Lois, it’s difficult to come up with numerous fresh ideas for blogs, especially when you’ve a lot of them, but somehow––you always do! Good luck with the launch and don’t stress the articles, you’ve got this! Joyce W. 🙂
Thanks, Joyce! I appreciate your confidence in me. 😉
Holy Moly, Lois. Twenty-six blog posts, each one unique and entertaining! If there was someone who could do this, it’s you. And maybe you’ll be helping a few others along the way–as you helped me by inviting me to be a guest on your Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog in the midst of all this. Who knows, you may even help support Foot Locker… if nothing else, by wearing out your sneakers and needing to buy more ( ;
LOL, Pam! I’m a Skechers girl. I don’t think Foot Locker carries Skechers. 😉
Well done – AGAIN! Best wishes for many more to come!
Thanks, Mary!
Whew, Lois. Talk about a whirlwind tour!
It has, Gay. One negative aspect this time around is that some of the blogs have tightened their security to the extent that it becomes difficult or even impossible to post comments. In several cases, I couldn’t even thank the hosts.
It’s always hard to know how effective a tour is. The Rafflecopter numbers are more than 1300 entries so far for the 3 copies of the book I’ve offered through a giveaway. So that’s good, but I’m sure a percentage of those are made up of people only interested in freebies. I’ll have a greater sense after I see how many have said they’d like to be subscribed to my newsletter and how many don’t unsubscribe after receiving the first newsletter.