Saturday, March 21, 2009

Marketing Yourself as a Writer

I have posted on the importance of following publishing blogs, but what about hosting one? In this technological age, writers have seemingly endless possibilities to market themselves and their work. Consider some of the following online options:
  • Author website (a general website about you as an author, which could be personal or strictly professional)
  • Book website (a separate site created for each of your published titles)
  • Agent's/Publisher's website (request that your agent updates his website to include your book after publication)
  • Author blog (again, depending on your audience, this could be more personal a la Sarah Dessen or informative, such as this blog)
  • Book review websites (submit your book for consideration at sites such as: Goodreads, etc.)
Then there are the numerous social networking sites (some of which I have linked to before):
  • JacketFlap (children's/YA publishing blog reader/networking site)
  • Technorati, (online blog directory with networking features)
  • Facebook (social networking site)
  • MySpace (social networking site geared towards a younger, school-age demographic)
  • Twitter (micro-blogging site with the ability to network)
  • Linked In (professional networking site)
In the blogosphere, there have been a few useful posts on these topics recently. QueryTracker offers a pros/cons list of several major social networking sites, a 'how to' guide on creating a writer blog or website, and a helpful list of what to include in your website. Writer/blogger Shelli interviewed Sarah Davies from Greenhouse Literary on how authors can help market their books. Shelli also posted several helpful links on 'Friday's Marketing Round-up.' Finally, literary agent Jessica Faust from BookEnds gave her thoughts on what authors can do to sell books.

Please comment with any important online market avenues that I have left out.

UPDATE (03/28/09): Jane Smith wrote a great post on how to write a press release.
First-time picture book author, Kim Hutmacher, created a terrific article on steps to maximize the publicity her debut manuscript.

2 comments:

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

hey Sarah - thx for visiting me :) You've got a great blog. YOu just need to get out there and keep commenting some you get visitors. I love your topics :) Ill be back to visit you. If you want to personalize - go to btemplates.com - they have great fun templates for blogger you can easily download!!!

Sarah Garrigues said...

Thanks for the tip. I'm glad you found my blog helpful. You're welcome to visit anytime!