UPDATE: I briefly deleted this post due to a negative feedback from one of the people I follow on Twitter and enjoy reading, who called the idea of a blog pledge drive BS.
I took the post down to consult with the Twitterati, and while people couldn’t read the actual post, the consensus seemed to be (mostly) fair game. Though to be fair, the problem may be in the execution of the post.
So to be totally clear, I AM NOT ACTUALLY ASKING YOU TO PLEDGE MONEY TO ME. This post is just supposed to be a lighthearted reminder/request that if you enjoy the blog, which is free and something I devote a lot of time to, please consider buying the book (which I think/hope you’d really like!). If you want to. I’m not going to go crazy if you don’t.
Finding the right ways to self-promote is not easy and is truthfully is not something I enjoy a great deal, but since I want to continue writing books that find an audience it’s something to balance with the regular blog content. Your thoughts appreciated in the comments section.
Hello! You know how on PBS they interrupt their regularly scheduled programming for pledge drives and there are a lot of people in the background sitting in front of phones that are ringing at regular intervals and maybe there’s a bell when someone makes an especially big pledge?
Yeah.
We’re having a pledge drive today on the blog!
If you like your regular blog programming, please consider that this here blog and the discussion forums are free of ads, are free period, and are you might call a non-commercial enterprise.
If you do enjoy this blog, all I ask is that you please support the cause and consider buying a copy of my novel, JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW. Buy it for a friend, buy it for yourself, buy it and blast it off into space. Your choice! And if you have already bought it and read it, please consider leaving a review somewhere.
It should be available via your friendly neighborhood bookstore, or you can buy it from one of these online booksellers:
Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Borders!
Indiebound!
Powell’s!
This Week in Books will be back in full effect next week, and thanks so much for your kind attention. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Have a great weekend!
Photo by aficio2008 via Creative Commons
Thanks to Phoenix Sullivan for those interesting figures and suggestions! The Jacob Wonderbar sales do sound much lower than I expected. Particularly in the context of Nathan's online presence and 100,000 followers or whatever. Probably most Nathanites are, like myself, a bit older than the target readership (!) but most of us have children or nephews and nieces and there's no law prohibiting us from reading kids' books.
The figures are for Amazon alone, of course, and it's still early days.
Without reigniting the old print versus e-book debate, may I say the hardcover Jacob Wonderbar is a beautifully designed and illustrated book for what was a trade paperback price not too long ago. Being black and white, I assume the e-book has the illustrations too.
Now, which of my younger relatives will I give my second copy to?
Have no problem with blog pledge drive. Authors have to try whatever makes sense to them and see what works.
I almost bought your book for my 9yo who is crazy about all things space, just not your book. But don't despair. I think he just wanted the Star Wars book a little more at that time. Jacob will likely find a place near his bedside sometime soon. Worst case, Christmas.
I don't see a problem with a pledge drive. I do something similar with my free software (yWriter, for example), where I encourage people to order a Hal Spacejock ebook (just $1.99!) if they use the software regularly. Surely that's better than sticking a $49.99 price on the software and limiting it to people with spare cash lying around?
It is insane for anyone to say you can't promo your OWN book on your OWN blog. I receive this site straight to my email every time you post and I love it. You put a lot of thought and effort into the things you write. Anyone who says you shouldn't promo on your own gosh-darned website has NO clue what the internet is even for. Keep up the good work 🙂
Very interesting debate, Nathan, and I hope you'll share with us the results in terms of number of books sold whenever you manage to get that info together (very hard, I know, because I've also got a blog like you and my book on Kindle).
Self-promotion stinks and is damn hard to pull off, and the tone of comments here show it. But you should be encouraged by the general support shown! Just about everyone has come out saying that you have every right to pitch your book on your blog – and I agree!
The trick is how to do it without annoying. And that's a real difficult trick: here, let me use my economist's approach to it: it's a question of direct marketing vs indirect marketing.
The indirect marketing ALWAYS works better – no question about it, as the big soap advertisers have learned since the 1950s when they used to claim their soap washed better than any other.
Your blog is your best INDIRECT MARKETING TOOL because, while you have banners on the sidebars plugging your book, you're giving out (free!) content that people are looking for.
What people? Here's the catch for you: your audience is mostly writers, would-be writers, literary agents too (no doubt about that since that used to be your working world not too long ago) and maybe a few editors and people in publishing houses. In other words: people who are into writing and publishing (whether self or not).
Other people out there? No. I think that's what you need to think about: how to reach the much broader MG audience.
Of course, that's where TWITTER comes in: it's a tool that BREAKS across audiences (mainly thanks to the hashtag trick) but you have to tweet about OTHER things than publishing matters! MG readers surely don't care about publishing!
Just my 2 cents thought…
Nathan,
I think Claude hit the nail on the head.
Along those lines, might I suggest setting up a separate Twitter account as Jacob Wonderbar – which you can use to exclusively target MG readers. You can do the same with a dedicated FB page – and have a simple free WordPress/Blogger page to "anchor" all the content. Would only take a few hours to set up, and then you have a little promo machine chugging away in the background.
Dave
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. First off, based just on Amazon rankings I do feel like these promotions worked. I am thinking about how to reach the audience directly, but am also trying to build a base with my most natural audience, which is the people already following my blog and Twitter account.
David – I could start tweeting as Jacob, but I'm not sure I see that as a totally effective means of promotion. Are people going to follow Jacob who aren't already aware of the book? And having built a Twitter following from scratch, I know how much time that takes.
I cannot believe I missed this. Oh well, I'm here now.
There isn't much left to add, but I have to say that the simple fact that you are asking how we feel about this, and engaging in an intelligent conversation about the whole thing? Brilliant.
It's this exact kind of open-minded, mutually respectful attitude that endeared me to you in the first place.
Oh, and I'm part of Mike's blog. Project Mayhem. We would love to have you. But Mike has to organize it now, meaning: do all the work.
@Nathan
I know plenty of authors who solve the problem of different audiences with multiple Twitter accounts.
Yes, it's extra work, but it helps you separate and target your messaging.
If you have the handle of JacobWonderbar and the book cover as your avatar, I could see it work very easily.
People will decide to follow or not based on all the usual criteria – most importantly the last few tweets they see. Plus a lot of people simply auto-follow back anyway.
So if you are tweeting stuff which your target audience will like, they will follow (and I'm sure you will have no problem there).
You don't have to pressure yourself to grow a big following, you can be much more selective about who you follow, make it much more targeted (and there are great tools out there for that).
If you do, sending a tweet about the book to 100 MG readers could be far more effective than one to 5000 people who may or may not be interested in MG.
There are many ways to skin this cat, but this could be neat solution.
I think it's absolutely appropriate to use your blog for a little self promotion!!
Plus,you've been such an amazing (FREE) resource over the years. I'm sure we all want you to make boatloads of cash so you can continue this blog.
I hear ya man. Self-promotion is totally legit and necessary. If you don't believe in your project, who will? If you don't promote it, who will?
@VAL (July 15 '11)
You only have 56 views in almost 2 years and you talk like you know something about self-promotion? You're a troll. And you trolled here and that's probably where you picked up those 56 views.
Nathan I know you have strict rules about put-downs but it needed to be said because I'm angry, too, just reading this garbage.
You did NOTHING wrong here, Nathan, it was funny, plain & simple. People take things WAY too far online. Idk who Donn Linn is (was) and I don't care. I will block him on Twitter when I leave here. End of story. I don't like that he upset you to the point where you removed your blog post. He sounds arrogant and needs to stop sniffing his own behind.
Sigh! I feel better now. Okay, you can delete this if you want. I'm off to block this fool. Okay, bye-bye.