Monday 23 February 2009

Should a writer be his own publicist?

To a point - yes.

Anyone in any walk of life must use all tools available to them.

In the days of the internet then it is the writer's duty to push their work. The more books you sell the better the rewards. But it's not the financial aspect that's the important thing - it's getting your work to as many readers as possible. If you believe in your work then you must do all you can to get it noticed.

What's the point of creating a world if no one lives in it?

With that in mind the campaign for Arkansas Smith starts here.

The idea is a series of short teasers - say ten that will reveal aspects of the character as they go along until the book's publication.

What do you think, folks?

Here's the first teaser.

9 comments:

Chris said...

Liked the teaser—keep 'em coming!

I actually really liked the drum sounds you used for this!

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Chris - it's made up of royalty free music and images. I can't find the composers name. I'd like to credit him.

Charles Gramlich said...

Nice one. You seem to have a good handle on the promoting thing. I wish I was better at it. I try but my mindset doesn't seem to fit the demands very well.

Jo Walpole said...

In the days of the internet then it is the writer's duty to push their work - does this mean that any writer who doesn't should be denied the right to be published?
Jo

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

No of course not. But all writers would want to get to as large a readership as possible. Surely that's the nature of the beast.

Unknown said...

Gary, Charles and Joanne set us thinking here. And a lengthy debate on the topic appeared last week at Murderati. It's worth checking out.

I've always recognized a certain responsibility to do some promotion. Like Gary, I try to make it for fellow authors as well as myself, but it has been extraordinarily difficult to secure material from more than just fraction of the BHW writing team for the Black Horse Extra webzine. The keenest supporters so far have been Paddy Gallagher (aka Greg Mitchell), David Whitehead (aka Ben Bridges), Keith Hetherington (aka Jake Douglas, Tyler Hatch etc) and the late Chris Kenworthy (aka Walt Masterson).

Gary is something else -- a "natural" when it comes to publicity. Perhaps his acting background has something to do with it. Then again, maybe we should all forget our websites and launch blogs. The Adulterated Repository anyone?

Gary's Amazon list achievements are extraordinary. Today another BHW writer emailed me: "While I was looking at the Bestseller lists
I discovered that there were only two BHWs in there. With Gary at Number 4 - the other was at Number 45: The Gunman And The Actress by Chap O'Keefe. I thought that you might like to know."

My response was:

"Yes, Gary is the best thing happening to BHWs on the publicity front, but I think I've said that already at his and Bill Crider's blogs. All done with a product that as a tangible entity doesn't even exist yet!

"I've never understood Amazon rankings, bestsellers, etc. And though I didn't know before you told me, I find it truly bizarre that The Gunman and the Actress published in 1995 (fourteen years ago) should feature in any list. According to the people who run the equivalent here [New Zealand] of PLR, there are only 20 copies of that book in NZ libraries, so it doesn't qualify to bring me any income whatsoever, whereas six other of my 20-odd registered titles do.

"A slot for G&A in someone else's list is the success you have when you're not succeeding! The whole rigmarole has a touch of the emperor's new clothes about it."

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Keith - As I understand it the 45 position will be because Amazon would have sold some second hand copies of your book. That chart is the actual sales chart and if a book published in 95 and out of print can chart then that shows even more demand.

G. B. Miller said...

Very nice teaser.

Gets me to thinking whether or not the person might have a military background.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Georgie - keep tuned for more Arkansas Smith details...

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