I clicked over to the Amazon listing for The Elder King today, and was delighted to see that I already have 6 reader reviews, all glowing.
Thanks to everyone who took the trouble write a review. It does matter, and it is appreciated.
It occurs to me that I could appeal to madness of crowds, and ask for promotional tips.
What methods would you suggest for a writer with not too much money to draw attention to his work?
We all know, of course, that the better the advice, the less likely I am to take it. Because really useful promotional techniques generally involve a degree of chest-puffing, arm-waving, and horn-tooting that’s simply beyond my capacity.
But at least you can say you tried.
I first heard of you when you were on Issues, etc. Perhaps you could contact them and talk about the conversion of Scandinavia?
A lot of authors use launch teams where people promise to read and review the book (sometimes even do some social media promoting) for some kind of perk, like a signed copy of an older book or a print of the cover or something like that. I’ve been on a few launch teams and found them to be an enjoyable experience.
I’ve pushed on Twitter a good bit, but I have no strategy for the future.
One thing I’ve recommended to other authors of ebooks is to have business cards, postcards, or bookmarks printed for promotion. You could have one side with just the cover art and the other side with title, your name, and QR code or short link to Amazon for purchasing. With a physical card your potential customers will have a reminder of your book with them a while, so if they don’t order the book via smart device when you tell them about it, they have more of a chance to do it later. You could do that for all of your ebooks. (And business cards are cheap.)
It is a bit tricky here, in that it’s not just a good novel that you’re looking to sell, but the latest in a chronological series. Do you take the approach: Here’s a great series, which begins with The Year of the Warrior! Try it! … Or do you take the approach: Here’s an exciting new novel! Try it! After you enjoy it, you’ll want to read the earlier books too.
Surely there’ve been fantasy series that have commanded good-sized audiences that began to read the books outside of chronological order, e.g. Ace Books’ Fafhrd and Mouser books (not that I like them a lot nowadays) or even the Conan books. If one takes this approach, then, yeah, one will soft-pedal the “this is the latest installment” idea, I guess.
Dale
I recommend the series to all kind of folks when I suspect they’ll “get it.”
Either way…started it this weekend, and I’m loving the series all over again.
Odin’s curse on Ailill… brilliantly terrible.
What about a contest to win a foot-wide shield or article of clothing? We could research contest mechanics to figure out a good way to collect new buyers and then select one to win.
But then there’s always advertising. There are 3 million Facebook users in Norway.
It’s a thought.