Too Many Masks, Not Enough Faces

Many writers express a love/hate relationship with marketing. Smarter people than me have said anonymity is an author's worst enemy. I'd agree. (*shakes fist at anonymity*)

But who is that worst enemy's field marshal? Wearing someone else's mask.

Here's what I mean:

Too many authors, especially indies, are chasing the same brass ring and stomping the same path to get there. Just because something works for an indie juggernaut like J.A. Konrath or John Locke or Amanda Hocking or (insert name here), doesn't mean it will work for me. In fact, I'm likely to fail, and fail epically if I try to be someone I'm not.

Readers appreciate a good experience more than anything. A good experience starts with a good, solid story. "Knowing" an author helps, I think, but it's the icing on the proverbial cake.

My twitter feed is choked with authors saying basically the same thing about their books. Discussion boards are full of the same chatter. Everyone does a blog tour--and while this is a valid way to reach new readers, a blog tour should really try to bring something new and unique to the table. Introduce yourself but be yourself. Whatever marketing one chooses, please, please be you. Be yourself. Make it yours.

In the end, if I'm selling me, I can only sell the "me" I am. If I try to borrow a mask from someone else, it's going to look false. I work with teenagers all day. They're good at sniffing bullshit. So are readers.

Am I a marketing genius? My bank account would say no. Hell no. But I'm not going to get to the Emerald City on a borrowed yellow brick road.

(My path goes a bit wonky through the darkest part of the woods. But I hear there's a secret there, and perhaps I may find it.)

The Great Writing Pyramid Scheme

One of the "soccer moms" from Owen's U8 team is a "consultant" for some jewlery/pyramid scheme company. Bascially, she arranges "parties" for folks to come buy overpriced jewelery, and she pockets a pretty profit from each sale. Not only that, but she earns a sales percentage for each new "consultant" she recruits...and for each "consultant" these "consultants" recruit. My head is spinning a little. Have enough "consultants" earning under you, and I suppose you could retire. The same works with Mary Kay and Avon. Other companies, too.

So Soccer Mom/Jewelery Lady shows at an 8:30 AM soccer match wearing at least ten pieces of costume crap (er...jewelery). Each time she corners my wife alone, the conversation revolves around coming to a party (to buy, buy, buy...)

Yuck, right?

But...isn't marketing a book a little like that pyramid scheme?

The more folks who know about you, the more chance you have to spread a little "word of mouth" and sell books, right? In theory, if the book is good enough, the pyramid continues to grow.

Well, this is where I fail. I don't mind spouting about writing online, but in person, with the folks I interact each day...well, I just don't talk about it. The other day a brunch, a weekly "family affair" our closest friends in Lawrence attend each week, one of them said, "Well Aaron doesn't like to talk about his writing."

Eeek. Wrong message, I think. Sometimes I feel so insulated in my "writing world", I just don't want to brow-beat anyone in the "real world" with talk of my work. Maybe I should.

A little.

Just don't expect me to show up to soccer with a stack of autographed copies, okay?

Dear Reader...I'll Bake Cookies

My proverbial "gears" were already in motion before I read Brendan P. Myers' recent blog on the Futility of Marketing. He lays it out very neatly.

My summary:

"Traditional" advertising doesn't sell books. Word of mouth sells books.

So how, dear reader, does one get his/her book to be the topic of said "word of mouth"?

I've clicked on "read my novel, BAD TITLE HERE, at INTERNET BOOK SITE" links on Twitter only to drown in lousy writing after a sentence or two. Self-publishing crap and then asking people to read it isn't really going to help win readers. Besides, the only people who might have clicked on the link were already "following" the nitwit in question. I'm not getting down on Twitter here, just noticing that 90% of the chuckleheads who Tweet their stuff seek followers for self-promotion and nothing else. Personally, that turns me off faster than a power outage during a tornado. I don't want to be that guy.

If you're going to be your own word of mouth, I expect people (readers) need to trust you (and don't you dare break that sacred bond) and you have to be pimping something damn good. Personally, I don't think a writer can be his/her own word of mouth. Not in the traditional: read this because it is made of awesome sort of way. When is the last time you grabbed a book off the shelf and read it because the author of said book touted how great it was? In the real world, nobody blurbs his/her own stuff. So really, the only hope is to plant the right seeds and wait to see what grows. The right seeds? Quality stories. Entertainment. Writing that transcends. Writing in which you can't see the writer's fingerprints, but you can see the beauty of his/her imagination.

Yes, I've spent a good deal of time thinking about how to market my books. They won't be in bookstores (anywhere save local places which love to carry local authors). Every sale--and more importantly, reader--must be won from the masses involved in a crazy free-for-all battle royal.

For some readers, digesting a book is more than a passing thing. On Brendan's blog, I contrasted reading a novel to eating a cheeseburger (think about how each is marketed differently). I'm sad to say I probably eat more cheeseburgers than I read novels in an average year, but I don't talk about the burgers much after they're gone. The good books, the really special books, linger. I can't push them out of my mind (or from the tip of my tongue). I want to tell everybody: read this book. I talk (and blog) about them years later. The really great ones, I teach (when I'm lucky). The emotional investment is huge--much bigger than it is with a burger. A good book becomes part of you forever. A cheeseburger doesn't stick around after a few hours (if you're lucky).

So, yeah. I hope I have the good, lingering type of material for you, dear readers. I hope you'll give my work a chance. If I've lived up to my part of the bargain, I hope you'll pass on the book. And those other writers...well, they won't bake you cookies, will they?

I just might.

Doing "It" Well

I received an interesting bit in the mail on Friday. At first, from the shape and size, I thought it was another Christmas card. (don't get me wrong, I love Christmas cards...but they are about all I've received of late)

No, it was a glossy press-release type page and note from Robert Dunbar (author of The Pines, The Shore, and Martyrs and Monsters). The handwritten note mentioned my blog (this blog). I wrote about Martyrs and Monsters a few months ago...here.

Oh, I thought, through this simple gesture, Mr. Dunbar has made a Fan for Life^TM. I firmly believe that making connections with fans is the single most important thing an author can do in the new writing order. Does Dunbar spend a little on postage? Sure. Will he make that money back by selling a couple of books to some schmuck in Kansas? No...but I'm blogging about it. I'm more likely to read another book with his name attached, hunt down short stories, etc. And I'm working on a more detailed "review" of Martyrs and Monsters for Skull Salad. Will that sell more books? Dunno, but it can't hurt. Good karma for the win.

So I've been thinking: What can I do to help fan the flames of my potential readers? Cate Gardner did a brilliant job marketing her chapbook, The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon, earlier this year. (Cate's a pretty brilliant social networker all the way around) With my first book (The House Eaters) on schedule for "future release", what can I do to help make that connection? How can an author help make you a Fan for Life^TM?