January 18, 2010

Every week I get questions like this: “I don’t have a book out yet [or my first book came out last year], but do you think I need to have a website, a blog, a newsletter, be on Facebook and LinkedIn, and also tweet on Twitter daily? Is all this self-promotion necessary?”

I wish I knew!

A Voice of Reason

If you believe everything you read that “they say,” you might think you needed to do all that self-promotion. However, I’m inclined to think James Scott Bell in his new book The Art of War for Writers is closer to the mark.  In talking about self-promotion, he said, “The more anxious you are about forcing success through self-promotional effort, the less creative energy you have for the writing itself.”

Why? “Because,” Bell says, “the most important promotional tool you have is your best book. Period.”

Creating that “best book” of which you’re capable takes hours and hours of writing and revising, learning new skills, honing your craft, your heart and soul, your blood, sweat and tears. He cautions writers not to dilute their strengths by obsessing over promotion. (Isn’t that a breath of fresh air?)

Good, Better, Best

Bell gives an interesting list of the “ten best forms of self-promotion.” Only one item on the list deals with the Internet. He simply calls #4 on the list your “web presence.” Guess what SIX of the items on the list are. Your book. He says that a good book-and the word of mouth it generates-will do more for your sales than all the Internet marketing efforts put together. That has been my experience personally, but it’s rare to find such a successful author say so. Rare and refreshing!

Concerning the questions I receive weekly about Internet promotion: I think I’m going to start quoting Bell’s book from now on. His simple guideline for “how much” self-promotion to do is this:

“Do what you can without (a) taking away from the quality of your writing time; (b) taking away from the quality of personal relationships, and (c) taking on debt.”

Now that’s food for a lot of thought.

10 Comments »

1. 

   Thanks for sharing this wisdom, Kristi!

   Comment by Jane Healy — January 18, 2010 @ 8:50 am

2. 

   I loved Bell’s The Art of War for Writers. Right now, with the growing popularity of digital readers and the reign of social media, it’s easy to get caught up trying to establish a web presence and forget about honing your novel! That being said, engaging author websites can create a following and increase book sales.

   Great writing comes first, however.

   Comment by Christie — January 18, 2010 @ 9:52 am

3. 

   Kristi,

   Amen. This post encapsulates everything I believe about self-promotion. There’s only so much time in a day, especially for those of us who can only write part-time, and that quality time needs to go into our writing and our relationships. Writers have been sold “a bill of goods” about having to be both creators and marketers. We need to be selective about what we can do and leave the rest alone: sort of like walking through a buffet line. Some food we just won’t eat. Thank you, Kristi, for shedding yet more light on priorities.

   Comment by Anne B. — January 18, 2010 @ 11:44 am

4. 

   Right on! That said, two editors recommended that I put up a website and I’m so glad I did. But the advice on focusing on writing is spot on.

   Comment by Vijaya — January 18, 2010 @ 2:16 pm

5. 

   I remember you saying a while ago that if you have only X amount of time during the day to focus on writing, you should focus on *the writing* – not on blogging or the like. I think this was directed to new authors. I’ve been doing that. What would be the point of blogging, if no one’s ever heard of me? I’m really glad to read this.

   Comment by Yvette — January 18, 2010 @ 11:06 pm

6. 

   Thanks for all the comments, everyone. This quote has given ME a lot to think about this week as well. Choosing and adhering to priorities is sure a balancing act, isn’t it?

   Comment by Kristi Holl — January 19, 2010 @ 3:34 pm

7. 

   The Art of War is full of great advice, isn’t it? He’s very straightforward and clear.
   I totally agree that you have to write the best book you can first. If I had to prioritise ‘web presence’, I’d say website first and foremost. Facebook has its benefits, and so does blogging, but not enough to replace writing! I think the jury is still out on Twitter.

   Comment by Sherryl — January 19, 2010 @ 7:59 pm

8. 

   Kristi, today I needed to hear exactly these words, from James Scott Bell and from you. Thanks. Sometimes when I think of all the things “they” say writers are supposed to do, I want to steal silently away and not even bother to send out queries, etc., because I don’t have all the “pieces” in place that it takes to approach agents and editors.

   Yet the bottom line never moves an inch: Without good writing, all the promotion in the world will not sell one book.

   Thanks for the breath of fresh air.

   Comment by Lenore Buth — January 20, 2010 @ 12:54 am

9. 

   Whew! I am so glad to finally find someone who doesn’t think that you have to be tied to the computer a hundred hours a day to get the job done! All this social networking and promotion makes my head spin.

   Comment by Bonita — January 31, 2010 @ 9:22 am

10. 

    I find that the books by the people who do all this promoting aren’t usually as great as the party line of promo says they are. It interested me to see that on the TextNovel site, where writers competed to see who could get the most “votes” from the Web on their novels so they could get a contract with Dorchester, the ones who had the most powerful rings of panting sycophants typing “what a wonderful story this is” in all the boxes they could find did not all get their books chosen for publication. Many of these yay-sayers come from the ether . . . no one could have time to make that many sockpuppets, so there must have been people behind some of them, but I can’t imagine who they were. Are they people who can spend $25 on a hardcover novel, though? It remains to be proven.

    ANYway. This social networking stuff is sucking away a lot of people’s free time, exercise time, thoughtful creating time, and time with their children or friends/pets/parents/whoevers. Lots of it is such trivial fluff (Tweets and so forth) that it is forgotten within hours. Better to spend your time on art! That is something that isn’t supposed to be forgotten . . . ever.

    Comment by Shalanna Collins — February 6, 2010 @ 12:09 am

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