Writers First Aid

Obnoxious Marketing

February 8, 2009

I sat down last night to finally go through a stack of writers’ magazines and other periodicals that had accumulated. I looked forward to browsing, flipping leisurely through the pages, stopping when a title caught my eye.

So why was I fuming within thirty seconds? All that infernal marketing done with post card-type inserts stuck into the center spine. I hate them! I ripped out NINE such inserts in one magazine alone. The stack of worthless garbage litters the floor as I fume.

Viral Marketing?

All those annoying ads make it impossible to leaf through your magazine. Instead of the pages fluttering nicely, they jerk by in clumps unless you take the time first to go through and yank the ads out. They’re tucked in everywhere! Am I the only one who gets annoyed by those inserts? It makes me want to boycott their products–not buy them.

Hawking wares–telling people about your product repeatedly–never works on me. I only find it annoying. I’m affected the same way by ads that pop up constantly for the same product when I’m Googling for information, or email campaigns even from my friends. I know that when a new book comes out, you’re supposed to blitz people with “see my new book!” and “watch my new trailer!” and “join me for a free teleseminar!” and “view my podcast!” and “meet the author!” and “read my guest blog tour!” Maybe it works for other people, but I just end up feeling nagged and put off.

Where’s the Balance?

I know you need to advertise. It’s important to be willing to help with marketing your books in this publishing day and age. And yet you don’t want to cross over from intriguing a buyer into annoying him. How do you decide where to draw the line?

Post tags: book marketing, marketing

Posted in: book marketing,marketing | | Comments (10)

10 Comments »

I have to confess that I avoid people doing blog tours. It’s like they are doing one interview and splitting it between a few different blogs, so the extra linking and looking for the rest just plain annoys me (and uses up my time).
If I’m interested in reading an interview, I’ll read the whole thing at once or not at all. Similarly, I rarely listen to a one-hour podcast – it needs to be short and pertinent – in other words, value for time.
When your free time can be writing time instead, all that marketing stuff from others feels like something I can’t fit in.
On the other hand, I’m interested in friends’/colleagues’ new books, so a quick email alerts me to at least take a look.
Does anyone else feel that time is a factor here?

Comment by Sherryl — February 9, 2009 @ 12:15 am
Yes, Sherryl, time is ABSOLUTELY a factor here. Plus I like what you said about “value for time.” For a while I would read the blog tours, listen to the podcasts, attend the teleseminars, etc. and realized I was listening to almost exactly the same thing each time. It would be stuff pulled from their blogs and newsletters and “repackaged.” I’m with you–a quick email alert or a postcard in the mail is enough for me.

Comment by Kristi Holl — February 9, 2009 @ 8:13 am
I have a book in print with a foreign micro-press, but other than announcing my good news when it came out, I’ve done pretty much no marketing. I maintain a book review blog and I post between 7-10 reviews a month. I have a link to my book site at the blog, but that’s it. Maybe that’s too little, but I also hate being bombarded with those “buy me” spiels, and I don’t want to do that to others.

Comment by Alice — February 9, 2009 @ 9:43 am
Alice, you and I sound a lot alike. It really is rather hard to figure out how much marketing is enough and how much is just annoying to people. When I get too much of it, it sounds more like bragging than marketing, which puts me off. (Your blog is great, by the way. I just popped over there, read a review, and bought the book on Amazon. Thanks!)

Comment by Kristi Holl — February 9, 2009 @ 11:01 am
For me, personally, I like to get to know the person hawking the book first, then decide if I want to buy it. After a month of reading your blog and seeing your Writer’s First Aid book on the front page, I decided you were someone I could trust and I wanted your book. Your presence, information, and personality won me over – not a blast of “buy me” emails!

Comment by Alice — February 9, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Oh, and thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you like the blog.

Comment by Alice — February 9, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Alice, thank you for your comments about Writer’s First Aid–and your thoughtful response about building trust. I appreciate you sharing that. That meant a lot to me!

Comment by Kristi Holl — February 9, 2009 @ 3:12 pm
Hi, Kristi! I TOTALLY hate those magazine inserts! The moment I sit down with a new magazine, I start shaking it to remove the loose cards and then find all the others and rip them out. It all goes into the recycle bin without a second glance.

Your comments about book promotion struck a chord too. With my debut novel coming out next fall, I’m struggling with the dilemma of how much personal promo effort I need to put forth. Like you, I’m put off by the barrage of blog interviews, invitations to view book trailers, mass Facebook announcements, etc. I certainly don’t want to add to the mix, but what’s an author to do when the pressure is on to get the word out?

If you figure out where that invisible line needs to be drawn, let me know!

Comment by Myra — February 10, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Myra, this might not work for everyone, but for me, it comes down to what I have peace about. I have peace about a certain amount of it. I don’t have peace about being pressured to do certain things. And my track record showed several interesting things: my all-time two biggest sellers came out when I was very sick and did zero promotion (about six years ago). A couple books where I promoted fairly heavily (for me) didn’t rise above average sales. A certain amount of this is out of our hands. To be honest, praying seems to get me better results than lots of self-effort. I’m not saying “don’t do anything.” I DO market. But I’m only one cog in the publishing machinery–and a fairly small one at that, I suspect.

Comment by Kristi Holl — February 10, 2009 @ 2:34 pm
[...] Kristi Holl created an interesting post today on Writers First Aid Â» Obnoxious MarketingHere’s a short outlineI’m affected the same way by ads that pop up constantly for the same product when I’m Googling for information, or email campaigns even from my friends. I know that when a new book comes out, you’re supposed to blitz people with “see my … [...]

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