Marketing/Promoting your 'unfinished' Book?

SellAnyStory

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Hi Friends,

New here and currently writing my first book which will be finished very soon (hopefully). To start getting the name out there do you think it is a good/bad idea to start promoting the book now. Ideally I'd be publishing a few chapters through a blog but I do worry about someone copying my work.:deadhorse
Other ways would include the norm twitter and youtube etc.
Do you think its best to start promoting it now or should I wait until the book is finished?

I would appreciate all advice given

Cheers

Lyn :e2fairy::e2fairy:
 

Osulagh

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First off, finish it. Have you revised it? Several times? Edited it? Proofread it? Writing the book is the easiest part; everything else takes up the majority of your time. And, sorry to say this, most author's first books don't float well--though, I have not read yours, I wouldn't know for certain.

Now, what is the book about? Are you self-publishing, or trade/e-publishing?

If it's non-fiction, I say it depends on what it's on and what you'll be doing to promote it and yourself. For example, a blog with similar content could be great for promoting yourself and your book.
If it's fiction, I say forget about it until it's on the market. You're a debut author, and without your book on the market it's hard to promote outside of your personal circle. Now, your second published book when you have a audience, yes, you could promote before publishing to raise interest.

But, I see no use in only promoting through sites/networks for promotional purposes. I mean, don't just create a Twitter/Facebook/Youtube(bad idea if you ask me) to promote your book without other content or a way to attract readers without stuffing your book in their faces.
 

Kylabelle

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If you are intending to self-publish, I encourage you to read this thread about intelligent self-promotion. And, welcome to AW. Osulagh's advice is good, IMO. Writing the best book you can, and polishing it as well as you can, should be the focus.

Read in some of the forums here, too. Read in the Self-Publishing forums, and also read in the forums related to the genre of your book. You've landed in a place where there is a genuine wealth of experience available for you to make use of, but that takes some time and patience because there's so much here!

You might want to post a little introduction, too, in the New Members forum, because as people get to know you you'll find that itself helps you find the goodies you need. :D

Enjoy, and good luck with your book.
 

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My opinion is that I promote things that people can buy,
that is the outcome I seek. So I wait until the book can at least be preordered
 
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I agree with veinglory. There's little point spending time promoting something which doesn't yet exist. Wait until it's finished and you know more about it.
 

dantefrizzoli

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I think hinting it on a website or a facebook page or fan page may be a good idea to get writers aware of the upcoming book
 

knowthyreader

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You should try to find an audience for your book before you even begin writing it, very early on in the planning stages.
 

LSMay

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I read somewhere that it was advised you start promoting your book 3 years before it came out. When I read that advice, I really did want to take it. I signed up for Twitter, almost started a blog, looked into various other things... but I didn't really have anything to say.
At least now, since my book is out, when I make a reference to my characters, there's a chance people will have read it and know what I mean.
One of the biggest things I read about promotion these days is to engage with the community (on Twitter or Facebook or whatever.) That's certainly something you could start now, but with respect to actually advertising the book, I don't think there's much point.
 

caracy

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Even if you can't promote your book, you can promote yourself. If you come across as intelligent, fun to be around and prolific, by the time you mention your book, you may already have a nice start on an audience for it. Be cognizant of your genre as well. Blogging about ice cream when the book is about space aliens may not do you as much good as a blog about science.
 

Emily Winslow

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You should try to find an audience for your book before you even begin writing it, very early on in the planning stages.

I suppose that could be done, in certain circumstances, but it rubs me the wrong way. Many books are never finished. Many finished drafts never reach their full potential. As a reader, I would feel weird about a writer I don't know pre-publicizing him- or herself as the author of an eventual book. (Specifically a first book, which is what I get the impression you're talking about. If you mean subsequent books by an author who already has readers, that's another thing altogether.)

If you mean for non-fiction that someone can promote their expertise in shorter forms while the book is being written, or for novelists that they can make an impression with short stories, then I guess I do agree. I'm just not sure what you're describing.

If you mean social-media-ing all over the place with the purpose of pre-exciting an audience, that seems cart before the horse. If you're naturally gregarious as a reader of your genre, that could have benefits, but I don't think it can be forced well.
 
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knowthyreader

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I suppose that could be done, in certain circumstances, but it rubs me the wrong way. Many books are never finished. Many finished drafts never reach their full potential. As a reader, I would feel weird about a writer I don't know pre-publicizing him- or herself as the author of an eventual book. (Specifically a first book, which is what I get the impression you're talking about. If you mean subsequent books by an author who already has readers, that's another thing altogether.)

If you mean for non-fiction that someone can promote their expertise in shorter forms while the book is being written, or for novelists that they can make an impression with short stories, then I guess I do agree. I'm just not sure what you're describing.

If you mean social-media-ing all over the place with the purpose of pre-exciting an audience, that seems cart before the horse. If you're naturally gregarious as a reader of your genre, that could have benefits, but I don't think it can be forced well.

Hello Emily

I mean that in the early stages, that a writer should be concentrating on audience development at the same time as story development, not for the writer to expect reader's to become interested in him or her first, but for the writer to become interested in the reader first, to learn about them, interact and to understand the potential target audience better.

A writer needs to become as interested in the target audience, as much as they expect the reader to become interested in their character's.
 
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Emily Winslow

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How specifically do you see this manifesting?

I would normally expect someone writing a certain kind of book to also be a reader of that kind of book, and so know, from their own experience, what is expected and hoped for.

Do you mean, for example, someone who is writing a romance should familiarize themselves with the expectations of the genre? I would absolutely agree. But I don't see that as being necessarily interactive. I would expect it most of the time happens through reading.

That sounds more like a research activity than a promotion activity. Is that what you mean?
 
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Why was this thread revived after a year had gone by? The OP only ever put up one post. I mean, I know it's the month of zombies and all... :)
 

knowthyreader

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How specifically do you see this manifesting?

I would normally expect someone writing a certain kind of book to also be a reader of that kind of book, and so know, from their own experience, what is expected and hoped for.

Do you mean, for example, someone who is writing a romance should familiarize themselves with the expectations of the genre? I would absolutely agree. But I don't see that as being necessarily interactive. I would expect it most of the time happens through reading.

That sounds more like a research activity than a promotion activity. Is that what you mean?

A writer who also reads in a particular genre, and who believes that they know what is expected and hoped for, is still going by their own assumptions, those assumptions then need to be tested on real people, most people's assumptions will be wrong.

Someone writing romance should familiarise themselves with the expectations of the genre, yes, and you're right, that is not interactive, by interactive I mean a writer should actually interact with the target audience, not just read about what motivates their book choices, but to find out why, actually asking them questions, taking an interest in the target reader properly.

In a nutshell, it isn't about promoting yourself as a writer, it must start with understanding the reader, the next most important people are the fictional character's.

There must be a connection between the target reader and the character's.
 

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You should try to find an audience for your book before you even begin writing it, very early on in the planning stages.

A writer who also reads in a particular genre, and who believes that they know what is expected and hoped for, is still going by their own assumptions, those assumptions then need to be tested on real people, most people's assumptions will be wrong.

Someone writing romance should familiarise themselves with the expectations of the genre, yes, and you're right, that is not interactive, by interactive I mean a writer should actually interact with the target audience, not just read about what motivates their book choices, but to find out why, actually asking them questions, taking an interest in the target reader properly.

In a nutshell, it isn't about promoting yourself as a writer, it must start with understanding the reader, the next most important people are the fictional character's.

There must be a connection between the target reader and the character's.

Since the thread has been revived, I'll chime in and say I disagree with this. The writer is the story's first audience. You write something you'd love to read. Fore-tailoring a story to a marketing plan is cynical in a way that is unlikely to be helpful to either the work or its eventual success.

As to the OP, it's completely pointless to promote an unfinished work, but it's not completely pointless to get comfortable on social media, if that's what you'd like to do. Make interesting, non-writing commentary. Promote books you've loved that are written by other people. Seek out some authors you admire and watch how they handle themselves in cyber-public.

And best of luck and inspiration to you!
 
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Helix

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Those errant apostrophes are confusing me.

There's so much wrong with this, it's difficult to know where to start. Market testing sounds like a dreadful way to write a story, although it might be a way to manufacture pap. Readers are not a monolith. When you start hitting conflicting ideas and try to please them all, you'll end up dishing out the literary equivalent of rice water.
 

Emily Winslow

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Why was this thread revived after a year had gone by? The OP only ever put up one post. I mean, I know it's the month of zombies and all... :)

Speaking for myself, I didn't want to let the idea of promotion beginning before writing the novel to go unchallenged. While that can be helpful in some very specific instances, I think most of the time it will be an unhelpful distraction and unwise advice. (And I also think that discussions can take on a life beyond the original poster, if the topic is widely relevant. Glad you joined in!)
 

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Ha! I wasn't calling you out or anything. :) You weren't the one who revived it. When I opened it up to take a look at the OP, the first thing I noticed was that the OP only ever posted once and that it was over a year ago. It just seemed odd.
 

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Since the thread has been revived, I'll chime in and say I disagree with this. The writer is the story's first audience. You write something you'd love to read. Fore-tailoring a story to a marketing plan is cynical in a way that is unlikely to be helpful to either the work or its eventual success.

As to the OP, it's completely pointless to promote an unfinished work, but it's not completely pointless to get comfortable on social media, if that's what you'd like to do. Make interesting, non-writing commentary. Promote books you've loved that are written by other people. Seek out some authors you admire and watch how they handle themselves in cyber-public.

And best of luck and inspiration to you!

I agree that the writer is the story's first audience.

As long as you know that your audience are on social media and understand their behaviour there.

A book without a marketing plan of some sort, without channels to reach the audience will lead to frustrations later on.

Off topic: As it was me who revived the thread, sorry about that, I thought that it might help more than one.
 

knowthyreader

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For those that don't agree, may I ask what alternatives you can see? What have you done that has worked well for you? What has brought you some success so far?
 

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Don't agree with what exactly? I put my energy into creating books first and foremost, I will keep in mind the intended publisher as I go, promotion to the public does not start until the book is available for preorder--although for nonfiction a basic outline of the potential market will be in the book proposal.
 

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For those that don't agree, may I ask what alternatives you can see? What have you done that has worked well for you? What has brought you some success so far?
I wrote books that I wanted to read, queried agents, dealt with a bunch of rejection, then eventually connected my work with an agent who thought she could sell it. And she managed to do so. There were never any guarantees and I can't think of any way at all that I could have divined what my future readers would have wanted, or how I would have shoehorned that knowledge into my writing process even if I could have.

I don't mean to sound flippant. It's just that most writers are not marketers, nor should they attempt to be. They should do what they do and to the best of their ability - write. You can't fore-guess trends or what you think your potential readers will respond to in some nebulous future that you have no access to.

There are a few genres or sub-genres that have expectations, like happily-ever-after endings for traditional romance, but for the most part, there's no formula to enhance a book's chance of success. All you can do is be the best writer you can be and write stories you want to write. Trying to suss out what your potential readers might want to see is, at the very least, a waste of time, and at worst, just another way to fail.
 

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A book without a marketing plan of some sort, without channels to reach the audience will lead to frustrations later on.
Frustrations are inevitable, and with the exception of movie or television tie-in novels (and arguably series novels, as well) I don't know any writer who starts with a marketing plan ahead of the actual writing.
 

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Don't agree with what exactly? I put my energy into creating books first and foremost, I will keep in mind the intended publisher as I go, promotion to the public does not start until the book is available for preorder--although for nonfiction a basic outline of the potential market will be in the book proposal.

Connecting with an audience in the early stages, doesn't mean promoting to them, it's a chance to build relationships, to find out if this is the right audience for the book, a chance to gain insight.

If there is difficulty in doing this in the early stages, it will be even more difficult later on.

At the beginning, the focus is not on marketing to them, no attempt to sell anything to them yet, so the need for a finished product is not necessary to do this.
 

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Connecting with an audience in the early stages, doesn't mean promoting to them, it's a chance to build relationships, to find out if this is the right audience for the book, a chance to gain insight.

If there is difficulty in doing this in the early stages, it will be even more difficult later on.

At the beginning, the focus is not on marketing to them, no attempt to sell anything to them yet, so the need for a finished product is not necessary to do this.

I guess maybe I don't know what you mean. If you ask readers what they want to read, you're likely only to get a blank look in return. As far as reading goes, you don't know you've liked something 'til you've liked it. Nothing a potential reader could say - even if you could get consensus - on what they might want to read in the future would be terribly helpful to a work in progress.

It's easy enough to read books that have been successful to see if you can detect skills and forms that readers have, in the past, strongly supported, but that doesn't require any interaction with people who might read your book when there's one on offer.