Wednesday, April 14, 2010

An update on promotion




Day 7 (April 12) : Created an author's profile on Goodreads. Will keep adding to it.

Day 8 (April 13) : No promotion. Too tired from studying for microbiology theory and practical on April 14.

Day 9 (April 14) : That was a rough exam. I usually enjoy the esoteric details of medical micro, but come on... which fungus is endemic to the Southwestern United States? I barely know which fungi are endemic to the country I live in, let alone the one below it.

Oh well, back to promotion. Updated my profile on ff.net to include the book's cover and links - plus, added a chapter to an ongoing story to attract traffic.

3 comments:

Barbara Ann Wright said...

Hi there, it's my first time here, and I was wondering if you had any way (besides book sales, of course) to track how your promotion efforts are doing?

Marian Perera said...

That's a good question, Barbara. Besides book sales? None that I know of and none that are as important.

Website hits, my name on Google, and all that... they're fine and I appreciate them, but ultimately it's about sales. James MacDonald once said that the reason sales are emphasized is because we can't count the number of readers who picked up our books and enjoyed them - but we can count sales.

I wouldn't rely on Amazon or B&N sales rank, though - those fluctuate wildly. It used to be possible to get sales information from Ingram, and I know Nielsen tracks sales, though I'm not sure if writers can access those stats. I'd have to look into it.

Thanks for commenting!

Anonymous said...

Marian,

I'm really glad you are doing this feature on your promotional endeavors. It's giving me ideas for when/if my own novel ever gets published.

Continued good luck to you!