Taking February Off ... Kind Of

http://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2016/02/taking-february-offkind-of.html

 

For the rest of this month I’m going to try a little experiment: absolutely no book promotion. Why? Curiosity.

There’ll still be posts about various things, including writing—I just won’t sell my own books during that time. When it’s over, I’ll compare the results with figures from previous Februaries, and other months in general.

I suspect I’ve reached a limit in current social media efforts. It feels like people who’ve followed/friended me either have already bought whichever of my books they’re interested in, or they just aren’t going to.

There are plenty of good reasons for that. An online friend may love my fiction, but have no interest in history, for instance. Some are so far behind in their reading it would take years for them to get to my more recent efforts. Some don’t read at all. Do I want someone to buy my books when they’re never going to read them?

Well … sure, now that I think about it, any literary port in a storm … but still.

That’s one reason why I’ve been asking everyone to repost about my stories, or give reviews, or other such things that might help spread the word. But I’m going to take a month off to reassess my promotional ideas, and also to finish a few projects that need done. And maybe catch up on reading myself, since I’m one of those far behind people.

What do you think? If you’re a writer, what are your most and least successful selling ideas? If you’re a reader, what attracts you to buy a book, or read an article?