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| Me, Katie O'Sullivan, and K.R. Conway in our Shanty! |
I don’t think I can remember a time in the recent past
when my life wasn’t fairly busy, but this spring and summer have been an
absolute whirlwind of activities, many revolving around my new release –
HAUNTED SOULS. Any writers reading this
can understand how difficult it can be to launch a new novel in the current
publishing market…so to gain visibility for my new title, I tried to explore
every promotional opportunity I could think of—some very much “outside the box”—and
take part in every event I could fit into my schedule. So this week’s post serves as a recap, while
also hopefully serving as inspiration for others in terms of creative marketing
ideas.
After brainstorming with some other local authors,
three of us decided to apply to rent one of the Artist Shanties along Hyannis
Harbor for a weekend in the spring.
These adorable little shanties are made available for artists, writers,
photographers, and crafters to use as a little storefront for a few days. The rent was incredibly low for such great
exposure—the difficult part is making sure your shanty is open and attended each
day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. With three of
us for just three days, this wasn’t too difficult…but when the rentals move to
full weeks in the height of summer, I imagine a renter on their own might
experience a bit of exhaustion by the end of their time! Then again, everyone is so excited to share
what they’ve created, chatting with visitors, shoppers, and other crafters
provides its own energy.
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| We hung pages of our books from the ceiling and matted quotes on the walls. |
The original post about our preparations can be found
here, and I’ve included pictures of the final product—our decorated shanty,
which came out great and attracted lots of readers and visitors to Cape
Cod. We had so much fun just sitting
around and chatting all day as well, and as three authors, we often discussed
writing amongst ourselves. This led to
more networking ideas, and one of my fellow authors who was participating in
the Barnes and Noble B-Fest Weekend recommended me to a B&N looking for an
author to run the Sunday Teen Writing Workshop event during the B-Fest book festival.
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| Teaching a teen workshop at Barnes & Noble B-fest. |
Since most of my novels are meant for an over-18
reader base, I don’t get a lot of opportunities to highlight my one Young Adult
novel, DIVINE FALL. It was great fun to teach
some elements from my writing classes to teen writers, and many of them took
home signed copies of my YA Paranormal Romance.
On June 1st, my fourth novel HAUNTED SOULS
came out, and I did a lot of the usual online promotion. I had a fantastic Release Party on Facebook
with many author friends posting as guest hosts. Social media promotion led to another
fantastic opportunity—the manager of a local bank offered to display and sell
all my novels in their lobby for a week, plus host me for a signing on Friday,
as part of their emphasis on community and reading over the summer. It was another out-of-the-box promo event
that worked really well, and I received a message from a teen who purchased
DIVINE FALL that made my week…it included the sentence “It was one of the best
books I’ve ever read”!
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| My books on display at a local bank! |
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| I spoke about the haunting and historical inspiration for my new book at the library event. |
Speaking of hectic paces, I’m gearing up for my August schedule of events, which include an interview with the local paper, a signing at our local bookstore, speaking at the Cape Cod Writer’s Conference, and signing books at the Cape Cod Museum of Art for the Art, Wine, and Words Fundraiser to benefit a children’s charity.
Of course, all the promotion I do does cut into
writing time, but for me, connecting with readers and the community is just as
important. Hopefully, readers visiting
my blog today will consider reaching out to authors when they love a book—it means
SO much to us! And for fellow authors
visiting, I hope I’ve sparked some ideas for promotion and networking--and with the exception of the very low Shanty rent (my part was $25)--all of these events cost nothing! For more ideas, here's an older post I did on the same topic. Happy reading and writing!
