Book Promotion

I’ve been trying on this new straitjacket called Book Promotion, and it doesn’t fit very well. Press releases are bulging out in all the wrong places and my arms are tied up in a frustrating search for comps and target audiences. I have so many questions: How do you write a press release? Where do you send it? How do you find books comparable to your own? Where are your readers hanging out?

These are just a few of the book promotion questions I’ve been asking Google, Goodreads and anyone else who promises an answer. I’m spending more time lost in Internet rabbit warrens than I am writing. And I’ve got to tell you, I much prefer writing fiction than writing press releases.

What’s the point?

But I’ve learned something in the process:  researching comps does have a purpose (other than frustrating novice marketers like me).

Case in point, as part of the marketing research, I went through the exercise of identifying the target market for Awakening.  Next came brainstorming where this highly discerning market congregates and shops, and then what other books they’re reading.

That’s where the interesting bit came in.

The Gift Trilogy is an urban fantasy.  The urban fantasy genre often draws from other genres, like mystery, romance or thriller. My books draw on the thriller genre—which isn’t unusual—what sets them apart is that they don’t have vampires, werewolves or alternate universes.  Not that I don’t enjoy those elements – I do (just check out my Goodreads page) – I just didn’t put those elements in my books.

So … maybe the frustrating struggle with the straitjacket was worthwhile.  Maybe it helped me identify my books’ “Unique Selling Point.”  Apparently that’s very important.  And it might not be much, but it’s a start!