More Stuff on Marketing (in the guise of more link sluttage. heh)

Alison Kent has an excellent post up, with links galore at the end of her post, so I won't bother replicating her efforts. Just go over there.

Jorrie Spencer also pointed to some interesting posts about promo'ing and I was in the middle of posting a long-ass comment on her blog, when I remembered A) that I didn't have a blog post up here, and B) how inherently lazy I am. (Funny how that all works out in the end. heh). Here is my long-ass reply that I decided to post here instead, which means I'm off the hook for posting today. ;-)

Jorrie, I agree, a minium of promo (reviews, posting excerpts, an active blog/website) is required just to get a leg up.

And let's not forget the non-promoting writers who haven't had a book out in years, yet folks are still salivating for their next release. Word of mouth gets the hype out for any upcoming releases months in advance, and once the book is read, word of mouth again comes in to play with people posting reviews/opinions all over the various messageboards/blogs.

People (like me, gg) are just waiting for the next Judith Ivory release (last book published in 2002) or Robin Schone (last book published also in 2002). We've been waiting for 4 years. And once those books are released, the word-of-mouth machine will start rolling.

It really is quality vs quantity. (And when I say 'quality' I mean engaging (character/storytelling) not necessarily 'the best').

Really, the best thing you can do is write a killer/kick-ass book (execution/concept/emotional impact). Next, get the word out in a non-obnoxious way. lol. Hopefully WOM will pick it up from there.