Friday, October 9, 2009

How much is too much?

Tip of the day: Want to read Tina Springer's book, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST? Of course you do! Her release day is getting closer! You can pre-order your very own copy HERE or HERE.

With my own book's release date less than three months away, I've been thinking about promotion. Specifically, is there such a thing as too much?

I have a little blog tour lined up for the week of the release. But I know some authors set up guest blogs and interviews for an entire month after the release.

I suppose the idea is that the more places you and your book are, the more people who see you. But what about the people who see you again and again? Are you potentially turning them off by showing your book to them over and over?

I have to admit that sometimes I think to myself, okay, enough already. But I may be an odd duck. I understand, we all have to promote ourselves. But I guess I believe that at some point, you have to let go and turn the book over to the readers, and let them tell other people to buy it. If it's good, that's exactly what they'll do.

But I want to ask you - do you think an author can do TOO much on-line promotion, to the point where you're potentially turning people off? Or is there not such a thing as "too much?"

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

5 comments:

Kate Fall said...

Usually, when I see an author on a blog tour in a lot of spots, I think, Hey, people must be loving her book for her to get so much support from the writing community. I should read it!

I do love to read what I think everyone else is reading. And I don't think it's too much unless someone is personally obnoxious, like posting ads for their books disguised as questions to a message board clearly not used for promotion. You'd never do stuff like that.

Shannon Messenger said...

I think it depends on the author. If they're boring (and I would never consider you boring--not even for a second) and they just say the same thing over and over, I suppose it could get a bit redundant. But if they give a couple new details (about themselves or the book) in each place I'll eagerly track them all down to find out as much as I can.

Emily Marshall said...

Shannon gives a good point, give alittle new information with each interview. But to be honest, if I see an author a bunch of a places, I might read the first interview and skip the rest. But I never think it's "too much." I'm more likely to think, man I need to diversify my blog choices to get info about other types of books or things that interest me.

Anonymous said...

It's hard to know, because you never know how much audience cross-over there is among blogs. And even people who read a blog regularly sometimes miss certain posts.

But if I see a book mentioned after I've already bought it or decided it's not for me, I just skim past that post. It doesn't annoy me.

I do think it's a good idea to have an occasional mention of the book throughout the months after its release, because there are books I see mentioned, think, "I want to read that," but I have too many unread books already, so I put it off. Then I see it mentioned a couple of months later, and it reminds me that I still want to read that book.

Kate Fall said...

Jenn has a good point. Sometimes it's easier to find the books in stores and libraries a little after their release. I could always use a reminder of what I meant to read because my memory's kind of full up.