So I’m thinking about…

So I'm thinking about how to better publicize my Kickstarter project, Demimonde. It's a bit of a puzzle -- publicity has never been my strong suit. Any advice is very welcome. The project launched yesterday, and has 14 backers and $382 pledged, which is very lovely, in the sense that I wasn't sure anyone would back it at all. So, hooray for people who are excited about my book. Thank you thank you thank you! But how do I reach other people who might be excited about my book?

I've hit Twitter and Facebook and Google+ and my own blog, of course. As well as a whole host of subject-specific mailing lists I'm on, like Carl Brandon (minorities in SF/F), DesiLit (S. Asian lit.), Twilight Tales (Chicago SF/F), etc. I don't want to hit those subject lists again, I think, because I'm pretty sure that would be spammy. Minal Hajratwala enthusiastically posted to some subject-specific lists she's on, which is also a big help, and if anyone else felt like doing the same, that would be great.

I also signed up for a Broad Universe membership again; I'd let mine lapse, mostly because I didn't have any SF/F to promote, but now that I do, the $30 / year seems like a reasonable investment. Even after the Kickstarter itself is over, if I get funded, I'll be trying to sell more copies of Demimonde, so it should be useful.

And as you can see, I can post to Twitter / Facbook / G+ / my blog again. I could post daily, I suppose, but wouldn't that be tedious for readers? I don't want the next month to just be solid Mary Anne-shills-her-book-AGAIN. I could intersperse it with other posts -- writing stuff and garden stuff and house stuff and teaching stuff, and I probably will, but still, wouldn't a post-a-day on the book be kind of annoying?

Ideally, I should come up with new stuff to say about the book. I'm not sure what that would be. I have one story that I think it pretty solid and ready to go -- I was thinking I could post an excerpt from that, and possibly from some others too, as the month goes on. But what else? Would people be interested in my posting other erotic stories of mine, not necessarily from the book? I have lots of those -- I could even do one a day for the next month. (Would it be obnoxious to have smutty stories show up in your G+ feed?)

I was thinking maybe some giveaways? I could offer a drawing -- one lucky donor who gives today will be randomly selected to get a signed copy of one of my books? That would cost a little extra, of course, but might help counteract the known propensity of people to wait until the last day to donate -- we had that happen in the Strange Horizons fund drives a LOT, and it makes life anxious. If you're planning to pledge to the project, please don't wait until the last day. Pretty please? For the sake of my mental health?

At least for today, I have a special treat to offer -- Nobilis Reed will be doing a podcast of "Jump Space," the story that started this whole project going. I'll link directly to it once it's up, but if anyone else is interested in featuring this project in some way -- interviews, maybe? -- please do get in touch

Any other suggestions on what might help keep postings about this project vaguely interesting to you (and not annoying and spam-like) would be very much appreciated!

3 thoughts on “So I’m thinking about…”

  1. As a reader, I would say don’t hit all your hot spots (here/Twitter/FB) daily, as that does get to feel like too much. But certainly every few days. People have the best of intentions to pledge something, and then forget, so it’s good to give them an opportunity to remember. You do want to remind people that it’s out there, but provide them with a good amount of non-promotional content to remind them of why they like you 🙂 .

    Posting a sample of what the pledgers could expect would be great.

    Could you maybe talk with another writer who’s done this to see how they made it work for them? I know Tim Pratt did it for the book he’s working on now. I think he posted that the whole thing got funded in about thirteen hours. You have different writing and different fans, of course, and his book continues a series, but maybe he would have some words of wisdom that would help?

  2. Don’t forget the non electronic venues. Notices up at coffee shops and bookstores about local writer and her project. (got any smutty stores:)

  3. For a little while, anyway, why don’t you add the picture of the book to the top or side header, with some kind of tag-line like “Click here to support xyz”. Well, something more interesting than that. I don’t know how many occasional (vs regular) readers you have, but it would be good to have something which would immediately grab their attention, without having to do a bazillion postings.

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