What the heck am I supposed to do about promotion?

Yay! New Format!!

Hello everyone, as one of the original Paranormal Romantics people, I am very pleased to welcome all of the amazing new authors to our little blog.  It’s been such a pleasure blogging here all of these years and I am so excited to see what you will be sharing with all of us. 

In fact, can I admit?, that I’m having a fan-girl moment about being on the same blog with some of you.  SQUEE.

But, okay, I’ll control myself. 

For today, I thought I would talk about book promotion.  This has been on my mind lately because I’ve been very involved with several blog tours and I’m almost re-evaluating what works and what does not work in terms of selling books.

The author today does so much more than just write a book and let the readers read it.  Even the top-selling New York Timesauthors are out there engaged in promotion of their books. 

But how much is too much? How much is too little? What works? What doesn’t?

Here is the short answer: I don’t know and I’ve tried it all.  I can do exactly the same kinds of tours for 3-4 different books and have entirely different experiences each time. 

Is it the blog topics that draw the readers to check out the blog and then, maybe, make a purchase? Is it the blogs themselves? The giveaways? Name recognition? Reviews? The cover? The title? The publisher? Amazon?

I haven’t a clue. 

 I just know that sometimes books sell extraordinarily well and sometimes they don’t sell at all.

My advice on this subject, and I’m asked for it a lot, is do your best.  Do some promotion. It can’t hurt.  Do as much as you can.  And then wait and see.   Write something else.  Its really a mystery.  To all of us.