Book Marketing for Introverts: The Benefits of Friends - Lesson Two

Friends help friends.

So we discussed the basics of marketing online here, and today we're going to discuss the benefits of friends (this is much different than FWB - Friends with Benefits, btw.)

The benefits of friends is that while it may be hard to promote your own work, it's never hard to promote a friend's work.

For example, watch this---

I am so excited, my friend (and co-editor of Crab Creek Review and co-founder of Two Sylvias Press) Annette Spaulding-Convy has her very first book of poems out-- In Broken Latin (University of Arkansas Press)!

I have been reading (and loving!) these poems for years and they are finally available!

You can buy In Broken Latin here.

And learn more about Annette Spaulding-Convy here!

____________________

Now, that was so much easier and fun than saying:

Oh my gawd, my book of poems, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room has been out for TWO years and I'm still so excited! I have been writing (and loving!) these poems for years and they've been published for two years and I'm telling you about it again!  I'm using lots of exclamation points because I'm trying to make it seems I'm still kooky about my book, but I think you can read into this post to realize my book has been out for two years and there's not much more to say about it!!

It is so much easier to talk about the good work of others than to talk about myself.

My friends dressed as poets
Back: Ronda Broach, Annette Spaulding-Convy, Ann Hursey, Lana Ayers, Holly Hughes, my mum!
Front: Nancy Canyon, Jennifer Culkin, me, Martha Silano, Susan Rich, Kathleen Flenniken

My writer friends are so organized we've actually connected a group of us who have recently published books. We are connected by email as well as in person so when we need something like--

1) we're giving a reading and we want to get the word out
2) we need help promoting our book
3) we have news we want to share

we email each other and say, This is what I need.

All the writers have different ways they do things. One hates the internet and is never on it, but has an email newsletter that goes out several times a year.  A couple have blogs.  Some are on twitter.  All are on Facebook.

This week I asked them about recommending a literary agent to me as well as any low-res MFA jobs.  They immediately came through.

(Note:  As I typed the above request, I realized this may sound as if we're highly successful and out in the world authors and writers, when I first met my writing group, none of us had books published.  There is an energy in groups and friendships.  And as The Artist Way says, Success happens in clusters.)


Anyway, back to your friends.  Whether they are real friends or online friends, friends can (and want) to help you.

I know when a friend of mine asks if I can help them with their books, I'm happy to.  Especially when it's one of my good friends, I am thrilled to help them because then I get to take the attention off of me and onto what they're doing.

I'm also someone who is more "service" oriented, which in the language of love, means I like doing things for people.


Here's a list of things friends can do for you--

1)   Mention your book on Facebook with a link to your website
2)   Mention your book on Twitter with link to your website
3)   Announce your reading on Facebook
4)   Include info about your book in their newsletter
5)   Announce your reading on Twitter
6)   Do a blog post about your book
7)   Do a book review about your book (on their blog or for a journal)
8)   Give you an Amazon review
9)   Mention your book on Goodreads and rate it
10)  Do an interview with you on your blog
11)  Give away a copy of your book on Facebook, Twitter or their blog
12)  Like your book on Amazon (and it will show up in their newsfeed)


Friends can help you out in promoting your book and you can help them out in promoting theirs.
It's so much easier to brag about someone else than yourself.

So ask a friend for help and tell them you'll do the same when their book/poem/novel/memoir comes out.  It's so much easier to promote others' work than your own.  And actually, very satisfying to do so.



~ Kells

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