Promote Your Novel

Seasoned agent Chip MacGregor is offering a two-day intensive seminar – solely for novelists who want to learn how to promote and market their novels. Because, face it, most marketing instruction is aimed for non-fiction authors. Novelists tend to yawn when they’re told to develop side products for their books and to write articles so they’re seen as an expert in their field. That’s one reason I started this blog, to shine a light on the few bits of marketing advice fiction authors need. And now, there’s a whole seminar about it!

Actually – two! One in Dallas and one in Indianapolis.

Go to Chip’s blog to find out more. And take note of the special offer to save $199 on the seminar (that’s 40% off!).

Amazon.com is the one site where reviews have a direct impact on sales. Some glowing phrases and lots of stars and you’re set. No reviews and people will hesitate. A few disparaging remarks and one or two stars and people will move onto the next book. So how do you get good Amazon reviews?

I’m skimming by the fact that you must have written a good book. Your book is published now; so you can’t change anything about it.

Some authors give away copies of their book in exchange for reviews. This is great, especially if you have a group of influencers who love your work.

You can also link to Amazon’s page on your blog or website and ask readers to write a quick review if they liked your book. Most won’t take the extra step to click over to a different site, though. So how to reel in readers already on Amazon?

One excellent way is AmazonConnect. This allows you to directly connect with your readers right on Amazon. Cheryl Kaye Tardif wrote a great article to help authors get started on AmazonConnect – you can read it here. Bea Amor also shares how you can utilize the program and other services Amazon offers for authors.

How do you get Amazon reviews?

I want to interview some authors about their promotion methods, and I thought I’d ask all of you if you have any questions for them. Here are the questions I have so far – post any more you think of in the comments!

What do you wish you knew about promotion before your first novel came out?

Which has worked best for spreading the word about your novel, online promotion (website, email lists, social networking) or offline promotion (direct mail, booksignings, media ads)? Why?

If you could only promote your novel in ONE way, which way would you choose?

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to promote a novel?

Tell me about your latest novel. Does it have any special challenges for promotion or interesting marketing angles?

A final fun one: What fictional character (film, TV, or literary) do you feel is most like you? Why?