Greetings everyone and welcome back! I hope the week is being nice to all of you so far. Right now mine has been far too warm, but I will survive (hopefully). So far my morning has involved the kitten accidentally nicking my toe in his enthusiastic attempt to get at a string, and when I thought everything was fine (because cats scratches happen) I then looked down to find out, oh...that's not fine. So currently my big toe is wrapped in a lot of paper towels. It's kind of silly.
Moving onto things that shouldn't make a physical mess, writing! Please note, if your writing makes a physical mess, I don't know if that's writing anymore. The Smashwords Summer Sale is going on now, which means today is a great chance to talk about advertising. I know it seems like kind of a cop out, but getting the word out that your story exists is just as important as writing it, and when a sale is going on is the perfect chance to do so!
Think about the posters, signs, commercials, and other things you see whenever a company has a sale, especially a big annual one. It's like when Ikea has their sale and you get that novel of a catalog in the mail. There are balloons, streamers, people doing crazy stuff, as well as the conventional ways to advertise happening all in an attempt to get you to care about that product or sale. It might seem annoying to you as the consumer at times, but to the person trying to sell the item, it's all they can do out of hope they will get some sales.
You have to be that guy. I know it sounds weird, but you have to. Advertising is incredibly awkward, even when there isn't a sale going on or if you make one up yourself. Just on say a regular Tuesday. It can be one of the most uncomfortable things you can do because you are forced to throw yourself and your product out there and there is a chance that either no one will care or there will be backlash. It's incredibly scary, but if you don't do it, then nothing will ever happen and that's pretty much worse.
Go back to the stores having their sales. Let's say there's this thing you want really bad, but you feel it's normal price is too much for you to pay for so you're waiting for the discount. Then a big store-wide sale happens, you go to the store but that item isn't part of the sale because the company that makes it doesn't believe in happiness or bringing good things to people. This is how it is for people when they don't realize your books are part of something like a large sale for your distributor. Think about how much your got during the Steam Summer Sale, and how much you wouldn't have noticed normally if those games hadn't been put to the front of your screen. Also, good luck playing all of those games before you're retired!
I do have a point in all this, and it's that you have to participate. I know it sounds weird, and if you follow me on Twitter you are likely two seconds from an Unfollow because of how frequent my posts about my books are, but it's important. Do it for yourself because if you aren't paying for an advertising firm (which...don't) telling people is all you can do, and just relying on clicking that you participate to help people see your books isn't going to be enough. You have to bring the traffic to your page and show them.
Thanks so much for stopping by today. As a not-so-subtle reminder, the Smashwords Summer Sale is happening now! You can get 'Rending the Seal' for 75% off and 'The Light Rises' for FREE all month long! Please spread the word! I would appreciate it! I'll be back next week, hopefully not a melted pile of tired.
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