I didn't have a post prepared for today, where I follow a posting schedule of something every Monday. I write the post in advance and schedule it to auto-post on its own. I was too "blah" to do it.
COVID happened and derailed everything! If you saw in my previous post, I had to cancel Animate! which broke my heart. There were a lot of people I really wanted to see there and of course, I wanted to give an updated version of my panel, too, but it didn't work out.
All week and weekend I was a zombie in bed with a cough like razorblades. I'm feeling better as I write this, but the cough is still persistent, and so is the exhaustion. I've already napped once today and feel like I could do it again.
Anyway, today's post is going to be a bit of a stream-of-consciousness but mostly about what I'm trying to do to get Son of the Siren out there. Hence the title, "the hustle is real."
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From what I can tell, publicity and marketing is a partnership between me and my publisher. They're doing great things on their end, designing beautiful ads (like this one) and connecting with people in ways that are above my abilities and reach. They've also hooked me up with blog interviews in very special places and I know they are working hard for readers to find Son of the Siren.
But there's also stuff that I could be doing to help! So what have I been doing?
Well, I really like doing interviews on websites, so I've been spending a lot of time looking for sites that do author interviews for free. I've found five so far on my own (not counting what Oliver-Heber Books has done for me) and I'm still looking for more even as I write this.
I'm also interested in book tours. I had found MTMC Tours like a year ago or so when I was trying to come up with a marketing plan for my book and their work is absolutely gorgeous. They are mostly Instagram-based, which means the photographs of the book and the spreads they use are beautiful and widely viewed. They also do BookTok videos. I'm not a member of BookTok, but I'm going to try to search their videos to see what they have to say about Son of the Siren. It's a Creative Blog Tour so anything goes with what they'll come up with! Tour dates are July 29-August 7 and I can't wait! On Saturday I mailed all of the paperbacks to each participant, and it's international, so I have books going to cool places like India, The Netherlands, Australia, and Mexico in addition to the USA. I hope everyone on the tour enjoys the book!
I'm looking at additional places for book tours online and seeing what I can do with my marketing budget. I have two places I'm looking at right now, but they seem expensive, although one clearly offers more benefits than the other. I'm just trying to see what else is out there in regards to this marketing option to see if I should add on another book tour in addition to MTMC's.
Probably the biggest thing I've been trying to do is get reviews. This has been annoying because ever since Son of the Siren showed up as published on Amazon, I've been getting unsolicited "reviews guaranteed" with exorbitant promises made that are clearly from shady companies. I'm getting solicitations at both my emails and on Twitter and it's been no fun. In the meantime, places that I do want my book reviewed want compensation, so I have to look at my budget accordingly and see if I can do it. Trying to weed through all of this has been a bit of a mess.
I'm slowly coming up with more ideas, but that's what I've been working on so far! If you have any ideas, feel free to add them to the comments!
Thank you for your support!
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