Take Advantage of Promotional Offers
Well, I hope all of you had a good 4th of July. I was out-of-town on a trip and was thinking of making a post during the trip, which I did not. I at least did not forget about this blog, huh? Well, today, I thought that I would talk about something to help gain exposure. It is called promotional offers. Promotional offers can help unknown writers
Aren’t promotional offers usually spam? Many times, they are considered the equivalent of junk mail. We, as writers, do not want to plague people with our existence, but we do need people to notice us, in order to make a living. People can list books in as many places as possible, but that will not guarantee sales. However, if you have a promotional offer, either done by you or one of the channels distributing your work, it can help garner customers. To this end, promotional offers are in fact helpful, when not being spam. Promotional offers are not always spam.
What has driven you to this conclusion? While I was out-of-town, I found out from the Smashwords site about their Summer/Winter special going on. In order to help spread word about my work, I decided to enroll and made my works listed on the site free via coupon code. Within the span of 2-3 days, I have gotten sixteen sales from taking part within it. Now, so this does not raise questions, I have emphasis on sales because they were given away for free, but listed as sales on Smashwords. They are listed as sales because the books were not originally free and were obtained for free because of the coupon code. As of now, I am pretty sure others will take advantage of the free offer until the end of this month. However, I am definitely convinced that this stuff can indeed help gain exposure.
My distributor/publisher does not have such deals happening. How can I issue them? This step is very simple. Just go out and make them a reality. As the writer, you should be able to get copies of your work in either print or electronic format. Giveaway contests are an example of this. All you need to do is let people know that the promotional offer is happening. You can give can away free ebook editions of titles, if they purchase the print edition of your book. You could have an art or writing contest and the winner gets a free copy of your work. Creativity can help out a lot too. Do not rely on making deals happen through distributors.
Promotional offers can help unknown writers gain exposure. They are not exclusively offered by publishers or distributors, but can also be offered by the writer. Promotional offers are not always spam mail, even though they often are. experimentation can lead to results.
What are your opinions on this post? Feel free to comment.