How do you do this? Should you do this?
Everything I’ve read, and every author I’ve spoken to says: “Yes.”
When I pressed the submit button to the Publisher for my novelette LAST WINTER RED, I mulled for a little while about how important Marketing was to them.
Now, don’t let that surprise you. All publishers are interested in authors who are marketable or able to market themselves.
As I’ve said before, my Facebook page stinks. (From my perspective) My website/blog, however, I spend a lot of time on, and I am very proud of it.
I hoped they would see the value of that. But then, as I thought it over, I took it a step further.
I decided to post my LAST WINTER RED query on my website. I gave it its own tab. But that was boring, and I don’t do boring. I need to spruce it up a bit.
As most of you have noticed, I have an arsenal of artwork, and I am more than capable of manipulating graphics and text to bend to my will. (All of this artwork is copyrighted and paid for, by the way. Don’t copy it—that’s stealing)
A short while of scanning brought me to a model that looked just like my MC Emily. Throw an ashen Victorian dress on her and plop her into the snow in the middle of the woods. Perfect. Now, add the red cloak, laying on the snow. Pout, Emily, you’re sad and confused. Walla! Instant marketing piece.
If you look long enough, and if you are willing to pay for it (it’s not too costly) you can almost always find exactly what you need.
Now, I plopped this “advertisement” up really quickly, and spent more work on the art than the text since I used the actual query that I submitted to the publisher. I’m not crazy about the tone of the query for the advertising purposes, but I wanted to get it up quickly, in case the publisher stopped by.
In the next few days, I tightened the query to be a little more readable, and make it look better visually in conjunction with the picture.
A little extra effort shows that not only am I marketable, but I will also be willing to, and have already, marketed my novel.
Please take a look and let me know what you think!
Is this a great idea? An awful idea? Whattya think?
Click the LAST WINTER RED tab in my title bar or click HERE to take a peek.
Related articles
- That Damn Query!: An Examination of the Query Letter (jwhitsel.wordpress.com)
- Q & A: My Query Letters Get Rejected (storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com)
- ARTICLE: Tips for Writing Good Query Letters VIA Irene Watson @bloggingauthors #mwn (motownwriters.wordpress.com)
- The Truth in Fiction (allysonmarrs.wordpress.com)
- Tell Them What You’ve Got (thereaderwrites.wordpress.com)
Jennifer M Eaton 
I think it’s fahbulous Jennifer and LOVE what you put together. I think in this day and age, you gotta do everything in your power to stand out and market yourself. No sense waiting around for success to find you. Grab it by the horns and rock it out. I also think that it means you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket which rocks. If you have the skills and the ambition, why not. Luv it!
Thanks! I figure, it can’t hurt!
I agree with all your reasons to do that, but at the same time, isn’t that jumping the gun a little? You don’t even know IF the book is going to get picked up or not and you’re advertising it? Without a release date? I’m just not sure how you would go about doing this.
It’s not so much advertising like that to buy it. It’s more like “This is what I do”.
I actually know a pretty sucessful author who posted her first chapter on her Web Site, and it just happened to be seen by a publisher, and HE contacter HER. Now, it doesn’t happen often, but you never know.
It’s not for everybody. Some authors cringe at the idea. Of course, they aren’t published, either. I figure it can’t hurt.
True…and you won’t know until you try. 🙂
I would be nervous about making my first chapter public when the book is awaiting acceptance. What if someone uses it before you have a chance to publish your story?
Theorhetically, You would have the time stamp of when you published it. I’ve posted the first 500 words before. It’s pretty hard to steal someone elses work and get away with it. The onus, though, is up the the author to pursue it, which could be costly.
I thought publishers were supposed to do all this promotion for you? How is an introvert supposed to be out-there and high profile enough to please them? It’s good that you know how and want to take all these steps. The idea of maintaining writing, a blog, Facebook AND twitter, especially because I have to, rather than want to….. exhausting. Maybe I should start a publishing house for introverts where they can all be anonymous. Lol