Ben, I love your cartoons! You're clearly very talented, not only with sketching but also with being able to catch humorous snippets of life in your posts and your strips. Your writing is pretty great too.
May I make a suggestion, in terms of marketing? Since following you on Twitter, I notice you promoting your books way too often during the day. A few of them, well...they sound like you're begging people to read/buy/review your work. You never want to project desperation (same applies to finding a job or a relationship, btw!); it turns people off. Tweeting twice a day is recommended, tops in order to get to a morning crowd and afternoon/evening crowd. Other than that, I highly recommend you writing a post once or twice a week (with or without a cartoon strip, up to you) about your daily life. You've got a great sense of humor and it really shines in your writing and your strips!
Also, keep in mind, most, if not ALL, authors had/have day jobs (except those who have a writing career like Neil Gaiman--everything from journalism to content to, eventually, novels.) Stephen King was a professor at University of Maine in Orono even after he was successful. ; )
I think expanding upon your cartoons and marketing them may be key to helping you promote your books, even though you seem to want to focus on your novels right now. May I suggest doing both but really moving forward with submitting your cartoon strip(s) for local and/or national publication??
I think you've got a great take on life: use it to build a story, characters...something along the lines of Baby Blues, perhaps? I love your sketch for your daughter! And bringing animals in your strips great too. People respond and like to share graphics far more readily than book excerpts. Something to think about. I hope you don't mind my suggestions, (sorry, it's the life/job coach in me). And...I'd really like to see you succeed.
Ben, Think of Twitter as being your access to the world and its people. Follow people YOU are interested in and don't worry about who follows you. It's a completely opposite mindset from FaceBook. FaceBook is all about quantity of followers who follow you. Twitter is all about quality of people *you* follow & interact with.
What I meant was to tweet only a couple of promotional tweets per day. And, don't make them "feel sorry for me & buy them" tweets. You don't want to use the hard sell approach. You want to promote yourself in a positive, upbeat and subtle way. People respond more often and much better that way.
In addition to that, tweet one or two things of interest to you. They can either be RT's of posts you like, found informative/helpful, amusing and think others might enjoy as well.
If someone you follow had something interesting to say, or you have a question on an article they wrote, tweet them a compliment or ask them the question! Start interacting but don't immediately plug your book. If they appreciate your interaction, they'll click on your profile to find out more about you and see you have books for sale. Let them discover YOU, don't push yourself on them. Appreciate what they have to offer, build relationships and you'll have a lot of fun on Twitter, learn a lot of new things and find your voice. :) And yes, cute animal photos catch people's attention, so tweets about any pets w/photos & comments are always good.
Use this same mindset with your blog. Again, don't make it all about promoting your book/getting reviews. Share yourself with people! Pick 1 or 2 interests/passions/hobbies and write about them once a week. When you do, tweet about it using a fun catchy title & that will send people to your blog where they will naturally find out who you are and about your books. Let them discover you, like I did!
Ben, I love your cartoons! You're clearly very talented, not only with sketching but also with being able to catch humorous snippets of life in your posts and your strips. Your writing is pretty great too.
ReplyDeleteMay I make a suggestion, in terms of marketing? Since following you on Twitter, I notice you promoting your books way too often during the day. A few of them, well...they sound like you're begging people to read/buy/review your work. You never want to project desperation (same applies to finding a job or a relationship, btw!); it turns people off. Tweeting twice a day is recommended, tops in order to get to a morning crowd and afternoon/evening crowd. Other than that, I highly recommend you writing a post once or twice a week (with or without a cartoon strip, up to you) about your daily life. You've got a great sense of humor and it really shines in your writing and your strips!
Also, keep in mind, most, if not ALL, authors had/have day jobs (except those who have a writing career like Neil Gaiman--everything from journalism to content to, eventually, novels.) Stephen King was a professor at University of Maine in Orono even after he was successful. ; )
I think expanding upon your cartoons and marketing them may be key to helping you promote your books, even though you seem to want to focus on your novels right now. May I suggest doing both but really moving forward with submitting your cartoon strip(s) for local and/or national publication??
I think you've got a great take on life: use it to build a story, characters...something along the lines of Baby Blues, perhaps? I love your sketch for your daughter! And bringing animals in your strips great too. People respond and like to share graphics far more readily than book excerpts. Something to think about. I hope you don't mind my suggestions, (sorry, it's the life/job coach in me). And...I'd really like to see you succeed.
Keep up the great work!!
Ben, Think of Twitter as being your access to the world and its people. Follow people YOU are interested in and don't worry about who follows you. It's a completely opposite mindset from FaceBook. FaceBook is all about quantity of followers who follow you. Twitter is all about quality of people *you* follow & interact with.
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant was to tweet only a couple of promotional tweets per day. And, don't make them "feel sorry for me & buy them" tweets. You don't want to use the hard sell approach. You want to promote yourself in a positive, upbeat and subtle way. People respond more often and much better that way.
In addition to that, tweet one or two things of interest to you. They can either be RT's of posts you like, found informative/helpful, amusing and think others might enjoy as well.
If someone you follow had something interesting to say, or you have a question on an article they wrote, tweet them a compliment or ask them the question! Start interacting but don't immediately plug your book. If they appreciate your interaction, they'll click on your profile to find out more about you and see you have books for sale. Let them discover YOU, don't push yourself on them. Appreciate what they have to offer, build relationships and you'll have a lot of fun on Twitter, learn a lot of new things and find your voice. :) And yes, cute animal photos catch people's attention, so tweets about any pets w/photos & comments are always good.
Use this same mindset with your blog. Again, don't make it all about promoting your book/getting reviews. Share yourself with people! Pick 1 or 2 interests/passions/hobbies and write about them once a week. When you do, tweet about it using a fun catchy title & that will send people to your blog where they will naturally find out who you are and about your books. Let them discover you, like I did!