Author Marketing

Why I Created Marketing for Romance Writers

Picture yourself cruising the net looking for a good spot to
promote your new book when you happen upon a great review site. You decide
to request they read it. First question: Title of book — hah! Piece
of cake. Publisher: Duh! This is easy too. ISBN: Hmmm. You tap your fingers on the keyboard. Didn’t I see that in an email? So you open a new window and start
rummaging through all the stuff in your inbox. It has 475 messages in it so it
takes awhile. You notice an email from a fellow author and read it, respond,
then decide to see what’s in that cool looking newsletter that just came. About
an hour later you close the email window and there in the background is that
review site — still waiting for the ISBN that you never found. Sound familiar?
I thought so. I’ve done things like this, and so have many
others. In 2006, I created Marketing for Romance Writers so I could get some
writing done but still help about a dozen friends with questions like “How
do I get my book reviewed?” “I’m drowning in email. How do I create
folders?” “What’s the #1 thing I should do to market my book?” I figured if I helped them, they’d help me when I had a question too. Guess what? It worked. We all helped each other.
I answered their questions with articles on how to create a
review request form, how to determine what kinds of folders you need, and ideas
on how to find out who was talking about you online. These were things I was learning myself, and I enjoyed sharing. Since that time, those
twelve people have morphed into over twelve hundred, and I am not the only person answering questions. Our group is a self-help group that relies on crowd sourced answers. Everybody shares info and news. We started calling the
group MFRW because we talked about it so much and the title was too long to
write out. We invited guest speakers to come help us learn, and we shared with
author groups and our publishers. We gave free workshops. I decided at the beginning that we would not charge for
lessons because everyone needed a chance to learn and not everyone could afford it.
We began a professional newsletter, gave seminars,
workshops, and had Q&A sessions. We started two blogs and a Facebook group. We created a few excerpt books to give away. This month, we added a website, and in July, we’re sponsoring a free, two-day Marketing
Summer Camp with over a dozen guest speakers, panels, and a large number of
giveaways and handouts.
Things have changed. Yet the more they change — the more
they stay the same. A recent discussion on the Yahoo group asked “When
does marketing become spam?” Last count, there were over fifty responses
in two separate topics relating to that subject. We also took on the task of
liking each other’s Amazon author pages, and on Facebook, we regularly like and
tag each other’s books as a way to help with sales.
Our Author Blog Banner
Yes, we’ve come a long way. We started out with a Yahoo
group and a dozen friends, and we’ve become a crowd with multiple aspects of
social media. We have a newsletter editor, two proofers, a blog director, five
group liaisons, a promotions director, and me. Eleven people to look after the
goings on around a group that started with only a dozen members. Yes, things
have changed, but they are still focused on the same five things as they were
in the beginning. Our motto is still “seek, teach, share, learn, succeed.”

Our Volunteer Staff

Kayelle Allen Founder 
Newsletter Editor: Rochelle Weber
Proofers: Cat Gardiene, JJ Keller
Blog Director: Lynn Crain
Promotions Director: Karen Cote’
Group Liaisons: Jeanne Barrack, Jean Drew, Dawne Prochilo, Heaven O’Shey, RJ
Garside

Join Us!

We still help one another and look for ways to advance our
careers by working together. It’s been a little less than six years since we
started on this journey. I can’t wait to see where the next six takes us. Won’t
you join us?

Where to find Marketing for Romance Writers online:

Our Marketing Blog Banner

Sign up for Summer Camp by joining the Yahoo Group.

All
members are enrolled. To take part, read your messages. That’s all there is to
it!
img credit: “You have a new book” rgbstock.com

The Romance Lives Forever blog features authors and new books from all genres.