Book promotion for introverts: help!

I'm pretty much an introvert myself. I spent some 6 months plus re-writing book one of my series 8 or 9 times before I let go & self-published it. Then re-wrote it again for copyright stuff, etc that I imagined might be trouble down the line in trying to write like I actually live on Earth. I guess now that one can only be so literal before going off the deep end & never getting it done. But self publishing is a pita. Too many ups & downs with sales. You have to do all your own promotion & cut prices & do just ebooks to at least try to get'em out there. I wish I had a real publisher sometimes. But then I wonder if I'm just a crap writer with what's basically a good idea? Then I just say "F****it" & forge ahead. Who are WE to judge if WE'RE good or not?

Yup. And introversion and anxiety often go hand-in-hand. Ungood.

Think of it this way: if you have a good book, as judged objectively by the quality of writing, lack of typos/grammatical errors, and a good cover, you're already ahead of the game.

It's a long haul, and it takes a lot of work (and not a little amount of luck). I honestly don't think the authors who are constantly screaming "look at me" sell many books as a result--at least, I've never bought one.

I'm not a charismatic person. People tend to forget I exist pretty quickly. Which would be a great superpower, but not so good for selling anything. I don't have much advice, because I did terribly. I had a blog of several years that people linked to, but they didn't really remember I'd written the posts (to the point of attributing them to other people). I had Twitter followers who talked to me and retweeted things, but there's a big difference between thinking someone is nice enough and being excited about the things they produce. I went to a convention and it was a couple of days before anyone who wasn't hotel staff spoke to me. It takes that extra spark to be someone people notice and remember... and I don't have it.

The only things that work for me as promotion are things that aren't about me as a person. Like someone else reviews the book (I can send out review copies), I run an automated promotion (Amazon sorts that and I can submit the promotion to listing sites), or I sell a short story to a magazine (it's based on the story, not on my personality). I haven't sold many copies this way, but without that I don't think I'd have sold outside of friends/family.

I'm now looking at trying other genres/sub-genres to find ones where books tend to sell with minimal promotion. Again, it'll remove me from the equation.

So that's the main advice I have really. Look for ways to promote that won't be about your personality. Blog and tweet and stuff if you find it fun, but it probably won't make a lot of difference when it comes to selling things.

Polenth said:

I'm not a charismatic person. People tend to forget I exist pretty quickly.

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I doubt that!

I'm a classic introvert, and you can use it to your advantage. Right now I'm still working on my stuff so I have no success stories on my current WIP. When I used to blog about being in the sex industry, I used to do attend reading events in bars... and was not good at the promotion because there were too many people, everyone talked with each other, and I'd shrink into the background and drink or go home early. Maybe out of the several times I performed, it was fun once because most of my friends were there. In other words, rather than try and get everyone's attention, I focused on one or two big mouths that I connect with and let them talk me up! It worked in its own way, as I had more people come up to me because so-and-so insisted.

I also made Youtube videos which helped.

What was also helpful was participating in interviews, some of which can be done online or over the phone. I've done that in the past and it helped a bit. And they'll always be one on one.

So best thing I can say in facetime is to let the work speak for you and connect with those who genuinely connect back. Have someone with you for support and fun, which is helpful, particularly someone who is extroverted and has no trouble talking you up.

It's all about knowing what you're comfortable with and starting there. As the momentum builds you can figure out how to expand in a way that works for you. I'm still trying to figure it out myself and its not easy. I commend you for wanting to learn how to get better at this for the love of your work!

PS Us introverts need to stick together. It might do us some good to be each other's mouthpiece and promote for one another. If anyone agrees, say aye (or is it ay)!

This thread will help you promote your book:

How to promote your book like an intelligent human being and not an SEO Dweeb

As has already been said, if you make sure your book is well-written, well edited, and beautifully produced, you're already ahead of the game.

unionrdr said:

I'm pretty much an introvert myself. I spent some 6 months plus re-writing book one of my series 8 or 9 times before I let go & self-published it. Then re-wrote it again for copyright stuff, etc that I imagined might be trouble down the line in trying to write like I actually live on Earth. I guess now that one can only be so literal before going off the deep end & never getting it done. But self publishing is a pita. Too many ups & downs with sales. You have to do all your own promotion & cut prices & do just ebooks to at least try to get'em out there. I wish I had a real publisher sometimes. But then I wonder if I'm just a crap writer with what's basically a good idea? Then I just say "F****it" & forge ahead. Who are WE to judge if WE'RE good or not?

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True, especially the last sentence.

I don't consider myself an introvert, but even so I find it a bit awkward pushing my pieces. It isn't out of shame over my story, but that I feel weird hyping up my own works! But hey, it's what self-publishing is all about, so I remind myself "hype away!"

One thing that I found that helped was doing a blog hop or some other means of getting other writers to mention or link to your book. It's an easy way of getting your story out there and in front of more eyes.

Fullon_v4.0 said:

I feel weird hyping up my own works! But hey, it's what self-publishing is all about, so I remind myself "hype away!"

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Fullon, read the link I provided up-thread. It's very helpful.

Selling things isn't all about hyping them up. In fact, if you spend too much time pushing your books on your social media networks you'll have the opposite effect to the one you want: you'll alienate people and make them avoid your work, not buy it.

If you're going to use social medial you have to use it to engage with people, not to self-promote in a pushy way. The former works, the latter doesn't.

Polenth said:

People tend to forget I exist pretty quickly.

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I remember you (and I have been known to forget people in two seconds flat)

I remember you because you say things that interest me. Which is why I read your (awesome) published story the other day

There's a guy I follow on twitter because he's fun and often says interesting stuff about publishing.

But he often does this thing about buying his book.At least twice a day. It's become a Thing. And maybe it's because I'm a Brit an we see self-trumpeting differently here but... he's really put me off buying his book.

I prefer to think of promo as engagement -- I write fantasy because I love it, because I am a fan. So I talk about stuff what I like, stuff what interests me. I only ever talk about my book if I get a fab review or it's on sale. Engage with fans, AS a fan, (as Polenth did) and if they like what you are saying, hey they may check out your books cos you seem like you say the right stuff. *

And bizarrely got more hits from "random funny penguin Monday" than anything else. Or maybe not that bizarre cos penguins rule


*It still may mean you only get 8 sales. You have to say the stuff visibly -- the more visible he venue....

Mr Flibble is right on the button.

To be clear, I'm not saying I think it's bad to talk to people as a real person, rather than being a spam machine. It's generally good advice to talk with people rather than promoting at people. But there's some realism there about how personality can impact the results. It's not enough to be yourself, chat to people, and all the rest. It takes being the sort of person others find socially attractive to have a chance of getting the ball rolling. The fear for someone who isn't is that when it comes to release day, only a few close friends will be interested... and this fear was realised when I started putting out books.

Which means there comes a point where advice has to be move beyond telling people to be more social. I don't have good answers to that, as I'm in the process of trying to answer it. The magazine short story sales were the best thing so far, but I'm sure there are other methods that'd do better. It's just there isn't much of a guide to this, as anytime someone asks, they're told to be more social.

Eventually, of course, we're hoping word-of-mouth kicks in and starts increasing sales. But there's no chance of that when sales are sitting at zero.

Well, not just a matter of personality, but willingness and ability to engage in tons of small talk and make a lot of new social connections without being completely drained.

I'm a complete introvert too, and I know that in theory, selling books is not about pushing your books on people, it's about making connections and chatting with people and being interested in them, whether you're doing it on social media or in person. But I'm not naturally a social and chatty person -- I LIKE people, it's just that my batteries wear down very quickly and I'm not really good at small talk! -- so it's exhausting for me to put in the work of building up the kind of social network that you need to have in order to do well at marketing yourself. I understand how it works in theory, but then I'll find myself staring at Twitter or Tumblr and not being able to work up the energy/spoons/go-get-em to post something fresh or go send a message to someone; it takes most of my social energy to stay engaged with my friends. (And I want to doubly emphasize that it's not that I regret or resent that; it's just that my limited pool of social energy is largely spent on people I care about, and digging into it to find the resources to meet new people on Twitter is haaaaard ...)

So yeah, I definitely feel you here.

If you find that sort of social interaction difficult then yep, you are going to struggle to promote your work on social media. This is one of the huge advantages that trade publishing has over self publishing: if you aren't able to promote your own books and you're trade published, you can talk with your publisher to find other ways for your books to be marketed and promoted--and there are staff who will pick up a lot of the slack. With self publishing, you're on your own. If you don't do it, you're going to struggle.

I'm a total introvert, too. There are plenty of social-media-promotion-y things that I know I should be doing more or better. But I've also been surprisingly successful in the area of online engagement leading to book reviews and sales -- more successful than average, as far as I can tell from observation. And I want to echo what Mr. F said about honest engagement. I just sort of have conversations I want to have with people I want to talk to, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

That said, I know what you mean about seeing people who are really good at promotion -- not spammers, people who are just good at social media so that you want to read them and want to know what's up with them and then want to buy their books. I'm not that person, and I admire that skill. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to be that person to do okay. There's a lot of gray space between "shut in who never says anything ever" and "brilliant expert social media personality." Yeah?

Polenth said:

I'm not a charismatic person. People tend to forget I exist pretty quickly.

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That always surprises me to hear you say, because you're one of the people I actively like talking to / seeing your opinion online, and it did make me go check out your fiction. It stymies me that you don't sell better than you do.

Layla Lawlor said:

But I'm not naturally a social and chatty person -- I LIKE people, it's just that my batteries wear down very quickly and I'm not really good at small talk! -- so it's exhausting for me to put in the work of building up the kind of social network that you need to have in order to do well at marketing yourself. I understand how it works in theory, but then I'll find myself staring at Twitter or Tumblr and not being able to work up the energy/spoons/go-get-em to post something fresh or go send a message to someone; it takes most of my social energy to stay engaged with my friends.

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See, and you're one of those people I think of as being REALLY GOOD at having built a following / web presence! But I guess it always looks different from the inside.

slhuang said:

See, and you're one of those people I think of as being REALLY GOOD at having built a following / web presence! But I guess it always looks different from the inside.

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Awwww, thank you! FWIW, I really wouldn't have pegged you as an introvert either! I think for me, it's sort of ... I kind of fake it well, I guess? I've had people who know me IRL tell me that they're really surprised I describe myself as an introvert/shy person, because apparently I don't come across that way in social settings.

Which might be useful for introverts reading this thread: you really CAN fake it 'til you make it, and other people can't necessarily tell that you're having to pour on the effort to maintain it! It's just very hard and draining, or at least that's my experience. A lot of introverts really do enjoy socializing -- I'm one of them; I just think the difference is that it takes a lot more out of us to do it, and we have a steeper learning curve in acquiring social skills because we have to put in more effort to learn them due to the higher energy costs. (It's like a video game. A really sucky video game ...)

Back when I was doing comic conventions in the early 2000s, I used to think of it as "turning myself on". I would flip the social switch and EXTROVERT for all I was worth for 10 or 12 hours. It would wear me out really badly, though -- I'd be absolutely flattened for days after a weekend of nonstop fake-extroversion, and I ended up burning myself out so badly by doing 6-8 shows a year that I hated it by the end; I didn't start to feel like going to cons again until a number of years later. So obviously going hardcore is not a sustainable solution, or at least it wasn't for me. But it is possible to do it, and I also think that social skills -- small talk, chatting, interacting with people on social networks -- is a skill you can pick up and train yourself in. It's just that when I compare myself to artist friends of mine who ARE genuine extroverts, it becomes obvious how much more work I have to put in at attaining the same level of social connectivity that they can sustain with seeming effortlessness.

(Though who knows, maybe they go home and pitch facefirst into a pillow too. )

Anyway, I think I'm becoming more aware of my own deficiencies in this area due to making a conscious effort to build up a social circle on Twitter. Which is really freakin' HARD for me! I think I did it without too much trouble on Livejournal because I didn't set out to do that; I just went there and started talking about things I was interested in, and found other people to talk to, and slowly coalesced a social circle that way. With Twitter, I don't find it at all a natural discussion medium for me ... and, as noted above, I have enough trouble just finding time to keep up with my friends, so I tend to end up fleeing back to familiar territory and spending my social energy on chatting with my friends instead. Which is lovely of course, and certainly you shouldn't throw your friends aside for ~fame and glory~ (why are you chatting with me, PEASANT, and what have you done for me lately? ) but I'm starting to realize I need to marshal some of my social energy for promotion as well.

.... which is another thought for browsing introverts: you only have so much social energy to spend! So allocate it carefully, and think ahead of time about where you want to spend your social points, so to speak.

Layla Lawlor said:

Awwww, thank you! FWIW, I really wouldn't have pegged you as an introvert either! I think for me, it's sort of ... I kind of fake it well, I guess? I've had people who know me IRL tell me that they're really surprised I describe myself as an introvert/shy person, because apparently I don't come across that way in social settings.

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Hahahaha! I know EXACTLY what you mean. I've had people IRL tell me they're surprised I'm an introvert too, and when people say that I die laughing. Better yet, if there's a friend of mine around who knows me really well (preferably what lengths I've gone to to get out of going to parties and/or has seen my crash hard after overstimulating socially), THAT friend starts laughing really hard TOO.

A lot of introverts really do enjoy socializing -- I'm one of them; I just think the difference is that it takes a lot more out of us to do it, and we have a steeper learning curve in acquiring social skills because we have to put in more effort to learn them due to the higher energy costs.

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Ya! That's a good description. I once heard (I think it actually might've been from something you linked, Layla) introversion vs. extroversion described as not that introverts have fewer social skills or are even less gregarious in a social situation, but that introverts expend energy socializing and need to recharge with alone time, whereas extroverts actually GAIN energy from socializing and find it an energy drain to be alone. I read that and it really had the ring of truth for me. (I lived with a good extrovert friend once and she would start getting despondent if she went too long not around people, same as if I spend too long around people.)

So, yeah, to draw back to the topic, if you (OP, or anyone else, I guess) are an introvert, I'll echo the advice of allocating your social media time wisely. There are some people who build a successful web presence off very small but frequent interactions, like tweeting once a day or something. Find things that make you comfortable and social groups you feel comfortable in, too, and that will likely expend less social energy -- clearly I feel very comfortable here on AW, so I post here a lot, and I've built up some fantastic relationships here (both personal and professional). I've signed up for other message boards but they never felt like I was a good fit and I never felt comfortable. And for me, platform makes a difference -- Facebook makes me intensely uncomfortable and frustrated in general, so I don't use it. Ditto for tumblr, which I've never figured out AT ALL. But I like blogging, and I like Twitter, so I use them.

I'm not saying this is the best social media strategy, mind. I'm saying it's what works for my introvert self, because it makes the social interaction less arduous and then I can do more of it.

Back when I was doing comic conventions in the early 2000s, I used to think of it as "turning myself on".

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Eee! That's what I call it, too -- being "on." *hate hate hate* And yeah, if I do it for too long I crash, HARD. I get jealous of extroverts sometimes.

(I think that's another reason I like doing social media in spheres I feel some degree of comfort and welcome. Because I don't have to be quite so on. Like a dimmer switch. )

Anyway, I think I'm becoming more aware of my own deficiencies in this area due to making a conscious effort to build up a social circle on Twitter. Which is really freakin' HARD for me!

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This is how my social circle on Twitter happened:

1) Took the name @sl_huang just in case I wanted it. Didn't ever intend to tweet.
2) One or two people in the SFF community followed me without me ever being active (or any links; I think it just said in my Twitter bio I was the same person) because of my blogging activities. I have no idea how they found me.
3) I wrote a blog post that got a lot of traction in SFFdom. Some people were questioning things about it on Twitter. I tiptoed in to answer their questions, feeling very awkward about, you know, stepping into the conversation.
4) Since I was tweeting, to be polite I added back the people who had added me, and then figured I should continue to be polite and add all the people I knew, including bloggers I had interacted with and everyone I knew from AW.
5) Suddenly I was seeing a social circle of people I already knew from other places chatting about interesting things.
6) I discovered I really LIKED tweeting! WHUT.

As is pretty clear from the above, the theme in how I built up my particular Twitter list is that it started with a list of people I knew (and was interested in) already from long form interaction. I'd recommend adding AW peeps -- there's a thread where people list their Twitter handles and a lot of people have Twitter links in their sigs, and it's a good way to start getting that nucleus of people going.

Here's what I like about Twitter:

1) I use it more to have conversations than anything else. I have a really interesting Twitterlist and I like responding to things they say, and then we basically have really public IM conversations, and both of us sometimes @ other people in, and then I meet new people . . . the good thing about this is that you don't have to be exceptionally witty or "good" at Twitter; it's just being interested in other people, and if your Twitter list is people who are sufficiently interesting to you, that's not bad.

2) It asks less of people. In other words, you have a way of letting people know what you're doing that doesn't ask very much of them the way following a blog would. A lot of people who follow me on Twitter don't read my blogging, but they like me, and if I tweet a link of a blog post I wrote that sounds interesting to them, they'll check it out. Like that. You know?

3) It allows more personable, back-and-forth interaction. I feel like I get to know people better through Twitter than I do through blog comments or message boards or any other mode of interaction.

4) It's a good place for casual, off-the-cuff things (or painstakingly pre-planned tweets that LOOK casual and off-the-cuff ) that don't feel like enough for a blog post. Which lets people get to know ME better.

Anyway, I <3 Twitter. (Or rather, I <3 my Twitterlist, which makes me <3 Twitter.)

I think I did it without too much trouble on Livejournal because I didn't set out to do that; I just went there and started talking about things I was interested in, and found other people to talk to, and slowly coalesced a social circle that way.

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Yup, that's exactly what I did on Twitter. Who knows, it might just be a platform thing for you (specific you ).

What are you doing awake?! (says the gal in the earlier time zone ...)

And I think I can say that one reason why you are having better-than-usual success at selling your book is because your book is DAMN GOOD, and as professionally put together as anything on the shelves at B&N, and people respond to that!

slhuang said:

As is pretty clear from the above, the theme in how I built up my particular Twitter list is that it started with a list of people I knew (and was interested in) already from long form interaction. I'd recommend adding AW peeps -- there's a thread where people list their Twitter handles and a lot of people have Twitter links in their sigs, and it's a good way to start getting that nucleus of people going.

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Thank you for the Twitter primer; this looks quite useful in getting started! I didn't know there was an AW thread for it; I'll go look for that.

I think one of the things that's been stalling me on getting into Twitter is that I'm having more-than-usual trouble figuring out the mechanics of it! My understanding from what people have told me is that when you reply to someone's post (with the @ thing) the only people who can see it are you and them, or possibly just your + their mutual followers? Is that accurate? I'd gotten the impression that you have to add a "." before the "@" so other people can see it? But I also see people's conversations where they don't seem to have done that. I AM CONFUSE. It's making me hesitate on replying to people, especially since a lot of the people I follow (RL friends) have locked Twitters, so I have no clue if I'm replying directly to them, or to everyone.

I am also unsure if replying to an individual Twitter post in an existing conversational thread is bad etiquette. I guess I just need to try chatting and see what happens! But I think that's the thing that gives me the biggest hangup, is that I'm stymied by the mechanics of it and worry about being that person who jumps in the middle of a conversation and does all the stuff that everyone KNOWS they're not supposed to do.

Layla Lawlor said:

What are you doing awake?! (says the gal in the earlier time zone ...)

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I KNOW. We napped earlier today so now I'm all off!

And I think I can say that one reason why you are having better-than-usual success at selling your book is because your book is DAMN GOOD, and as professionally put together as anything on the shelves at B&N, and people respond to that!

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Thank you for the Twitter primer; this looks quite useful in getting started! I didn't know there was an AW thread for it; I'll go look for that.

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Oh, haha, I'm glad it wasn't just useless nattering! Here's the AW thread:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109507

It goes back to 2008 so there's a mix of people you'll still see around here versus not, but someone told me when I was first joining Twitter that AWers stick together and provide a friendly social group there, and it's very true. *hugs everyone*

There's also a Twitter list of AWers that Medievalist maintains, which she can add you to.

I think one of the things that's been stalling me on getting into Twitter is that I'm having more-than-usual trouble figuring out the mechanics of it! My understanding from what people have told me is that when you reply to someone's post (with the @ thing) the only people who can see it are you and them, or possibly just your + their mutual followers?

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The latter. If you start a tweet with an @, then the people who see it are the people @'ed and mutual followers.

I'd gotten the impression that you have to add a "." before the "@" so other people can see it? But I also see people's conversations where they don't seem to have done that. I AM CONFUSE.

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You can actually put any character before the @ to make it public. People use the . for convenience when they want to make a tweet public that would otherwise start with an @ (but sometimes they use another character instead). So for some example tweets:

@Layla_in_Alaska Hi! Only you, me, and our mutual followers see this.

But if I put @Layla_in_Alaska in the middle, all my followers see the tweet.

.@Layla_in_Alaska, this is what I do if I want to start a tweet with your name but I still want everyone to see it.

Note that ANY of the above are still public, including the first one -- meaning if you click on my name and read all my tweets and replies, you'll still be able to see my tweets addressed directly to people. BUT they won't show up in people's Twitter lists unless those people follow us both. Since my account's public, anything I say is public, but only tweets that start with a non-@ symbol automatically show up in all my followers' feeds.

It's making me hesitate on replying to people, especially since a lot of the people I follow (RL friends) have locked Twitters, so I have no clue if I'm replying directly to them, or to everyone.

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I believe if you reply to a locked account your reply is still at whatever privacy settings your account has. So if my account were locked and you replied to me, people looking at your Twitter feed* would see

@sl_huang Are you sure using a kumquat that way is safe?

and they might say, "wow, what does THIS mean?" and click on the conversation, but they wouldn't be able to see what I said that prompted it (again, IF my account were protected).

* Again, they'd have to be looking at your Twitter feed rather than their own, because something @'ed to me wouldn't show up in their Twitter feed automatically unless they were friends with both of us, in which case they'd be able to see the whole conversation anyway.

I am also unsure if replying to an individual Twitter post in an existing conversational thread is bad etiquette.

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I still have trouble with this one too!! Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It seems to depend how well I know the people and how relevant what I have to say is. Kinda like butting into a real life conversation, I guess . . .

But I think that's the thing that gives me the biggest hangup, is that I'm stymied by the mechanics of it and worry about being that person who jumps in the middle of a conversation and does all the stuff that everyone KNOWS they're not supposed to do.

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Don't worry yourself too much. I see people doing things in ways they don't mean all the time, and people are very nice about it. And like I said above, if you join in with AWers everyone's pretty friendly, especially as they get to know you better and better here. This goes for you, too, OP (and anyone else ).


eta: Here's a thread I started when I first got on Twitter asking about social etiquette -- it was VERY helpful:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273248

Polenth, btw, when I was looking for this I was totally remembering how helpful your reply was. Some of us find you very memorable.

slhuang said:

@Layla_in_Alaska Hi! Only you, me, and our mutual followers see this.

But if I put @Layla_in_Alaska in the middle, all my followers see the tweet.

.@Layla_in_Alaska, this is what I do if I want to start a tweet with your name but I still want everyone to see it.

Note that ANY of the above are still public, including the first one -- meaning if you click on my name and read all my tweets and replies, you'll still be able to see my tweets addressed directly to people. BUT they won't show up in people's Twitter lists unless those people follow us both. Since my account's public, anything I say is public, but only tweets that start with a non-@ symbol automatically show up in all my followers' feeds.

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Thank you very much - this is all super useful! I think in particular, THIS is what I was having so much trouble with - the distinction between "is public" and "shows up in feeds". I had thought the @ posts should not be public to anyone except followers, but I could still see them .... why??? But, if I'm understanding you correctly, they only show up in followers' feeds, but everyone can see them if they click on the conversation, right? That's what I was getting stuck on. And this helps a lot.

Layla Lawlor said:

Thank you very much - this is all super useful! I think in particular, THIS is what I was having so much trouble with - the distinction between "is public" and "shows up in feeds". I had thought the @ posts should not be public to anyone except followers, but I could still see them .... why??? But, if I'm understanding you correctly, they only show up in followers' feeds, but everyone can see them if they click on the conversation, right? That's what I was getting stuck on. And this helps a lot.

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No problem, and yes, exactly right.

Oh, and if you check out the last post in the thread linked in my ETA, Torgo linked an excellent guide to Twitter basics -- I just looked at it again and it's great. She explains all sorts of different lingo and mechanics of Twitter.

OP, you should find us over there, too. Like half the people in this thread are folks I like interacting with on Twitter.

*stops derailing thread with Twitter evangelism*
*finally goes to sleep*

Dragonwriter!

Here's some more recommendations:

Dragonwriter said:

I'm keeping track of this thread, so when I relaunch my series I can start taking my first steps into the social-media arena.

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Can I recommend starting now? I started my active online presence 1.5 years before my book release and because that's a good amount of time, I built relationships with people during it. And then when my book came out, there were already a variety of people who wanted to see my book do well.

I would love to blog regularly, but I got discouraged because I don't think anybody ever reads it.

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If you like blogging, try building your low-commitment follows like Twitter and FB, and then posting the link when you blog. Like I said above, I find that it's a lot of activation energy to get someone to follow a blog, but they're always happy to click on a link that looks interesting.

Post in the "Have you updated your blog today?" thread here, too.

I don't want to get in people's faces about "go look at my blog/Twitter feed/Facebook page where I will do more than just flog my books..." but it seems like that's what I need to do.

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Nah. There's a difference between pushing stuff in people's faces and just letting them know it's available. Having something post up on your author Facebook that says, "Ooo, I just blogged about how awesome slugs are. Check it out!" with a link isn't getting in people's faces -- it's just letting them know that the post is there. On the other hand, if you go around begging for traffic, that's a turnoff to people.

What do you blog about? I find some of my most popular posts are the ones that engage with issues in the SFF community or writer community. I've had several posts go viral, and all were ones that engaged with current events. Other popular posts are things like how-to guides and link roundups that people are looking for. These are very external types of things , I'll note -- talking about things that are helpful to others rather than blogging about myself.

I'm not even sure about where to do it. I've tried publicizing it to my FB friends, but at some point I need to break out of my own little circle and I don't know how to do that.

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Put links in your sig here -- dollars to doughnuts you would've gotten some clicks just from this thread. Post in the "Have you updated your blog today?" thread, too -- a fair number of people check that. Post the links to your Facebook and Twitter in casual "hey, a post about X!" ways. Start adding people on Twitter you find interesting -- and like I said above, there's a built-in AW community on Twitter, so start with us.

Obviously you want to build up outside of AW. But it helps to have people to start off with.

Also: comment on other people's blogs and fill in the place where it asks for your URL with your website. Link to other people's blogs when you commentate, and you'll get pingbacks posted in their comment sections. I've gotten a LOT of traffic off pingbacks.

I don't know about Facebook, but on Twitter, do the same -- show interest in other people's tweets. Retweet them when you find them interesting, reply to their tweets, recommend books you like, etc.. Think of things you are passionate about and find people to follow on blogs/Twitter/FB who talk about those things, and then talk about those things with them.

In my own experience, having an active social media presence is WAY more interactive than I expected. It's conversations, not shouting into the void. For me, doing social media has actually been a lot more about being interested and invested in OTHER people than it's been about blogging or tweeting myself. (Which is totally fine with me. My friends are way more interesting than I am. )

And things like having a table at a convention just scare the bejeebers out of me.

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Eh, I wouldn't worry too much about that. From what I hear, that's one of the least-lucrative types of selling for most people anyway, at least in adult SFF -- you can be a successful author without ever hand-selling a book.

Do what you're comfortable with, but do it regularly and well.

A guy I know has managed to present himself as the future and savior of webcomics for years - with the same five or six pages, over and over, and lots of photos of hm drawing or at least posing with a pen. I half loathe, half admire that. I absolutely couldn't do it even if I had just reinvented webcomics.

I hate drawing attention to myself, so self-promotion doesn't come naturally at all. Every time I publish something new, my lizard brain has easy game eating up all the promotion energy I might have by convincing me it's not that much of a deal, nobody's exactly been waiting for it, I need to prepare something sensational and unattainable first and draw attention to that instead - I'm sure you all know the routine.

However, some things do come easy.

Twitter, for one. I think the main difference between it and Facebook is that it's much more about the conversation, as opposed to the people conversing. You live through the things you say and share, and when you don't have anything to say, you're invisible and nobody will bother you. I like that.

Tweeting has another advantage. It's writing. Writing, now, that's something I genuinely enjoy. Of course, other than the cliché Twitter user, I'm not writing about myself. You won't find any pictures of food or bursts of how I'm feeling in my feed (that I know of). I write about stuff I'm interested in, stuff that bothers me, and of course stuff I made.

Back in 2006 or 2007, I started my feed just to have some regularly-updating content on my site between publications, back before it was a webcomics site that updated anyway. After half a year of doing that, I logged in to the site noticed people had started following me and answering to posts I had made in the meantime. That's when I started joining the conversation. That history helps with the second thoughts I may have about tweeting my publications. That, and the fact that I'm already in that conversation. Twitter really feels like a place where people are waiting to hear about what I've got to share - the ones who have subscribed to my feed, anyway.

I'm using Facebook now, too (since 2011), and I'm using it pretty much the same way I'm using Twitter (but with more pictures). People connect with me socially there, but they have to get used to my way of using it. I just don't 'do' picture galleries of me doing stuff. I do 'stuff'.

Another thing I never had a problem with - and this will sound very un-introvert, but bear with me - is public speaking. I can sit in panels at conventions and be all charming and funny and even a little self-promotey if the topic demands it. Stagefright or that dread that nobody will care what I have to say do appear, but I can beat them with preparation. I used to play theater at school and I learned to present papers at college, so I've got some skill there. I can do an engaging sales talk at convention boths, too, but that's a little harder and I have to put my mind to it.

The thing is, I found I can be all outgoing and public and attention-getting - as long as I can direct that attention to something that's not me.

A topic, a text, or a book. Even a book I made.

I can use that and model my own promotion to work that way. Just like I've modeled my Facebook performance on my Twitter performance. Basically, it's not "hi, I'm Max, I'm a writer and these are my books" but "these books are about x, and I can sign them for you 'cause I wrote them".

The one hurdle I've yet to take is the one where I actually start those conversations. I don't invite myself to those panels, after all, and at the convention booth, I only engage the passers-by who already showed some interest in the stuff on my table. Too bad I don't have anything to model that on.

Online Presence

It's a must these days. But you still have to be careful how you use it and how to make it work for you. My kids started my 'online' presence and then they said, "Mom, get your own and hey, please, don't post anything on ours, don't comment on ours, like keep your distance." And I have. Save a 'poke' now and then.

It's hard for any introvert who doesn't like to talk about him/herself but hey, there must be a topic that such a person is passionate about and so mine that topic for all it's worth.

I hate to talk about myself but I can talk pets, dogs in particular but cats get me going too. I can talk cars and repairs, movies and TV dramas and collecting DVDs of many shows, and collecting stamps, and browsing books in bookstores and libraries...there must be something that an introvert is passionate about or he'd have a hard time being a writer. So pick a topic and then go "shine" for the online community draped in it. And if you happen to promote your books that way, so be it Edita