Book Promotion

How I Promoted My Book

(Update 12/1: Read How I Promoted My Book, Part 2.)

It’s now been about five months since Pyr published my first novel Infoquake. It seems as good a time as any to sit back and take stock of my promotional efforts. What worked, what didn’t work, what should I have done more of, what should I have done less of?

Infoquakes Cereal BoxWhen I started to make a list of all the promotional efforts I’ve made in the past year, I started to feel — well, a little embarrassed. To an outsider, it must look like I do nothing all day but come up with ways to move copies of Infoquake. The “Infoquakes Cereal” pic here is meant to be a joke, but honestly, sometimes it feels like I’ve tried everything but a sugary cereal for kids.

(Quick aside: Have you ever noticed that when companies say their cereal is “part of this nutritious breakfast,” the cereal box is always sitting next to… a complete nutritious breakfast?)

Here, then, are the promotional efforts I did that I think were well worth doing:

  • Designed and programmed a website for the book and bought several related domain names (infoquake.net, jump225.com, multireal.net, geosynchron.net)
  • Wrote several original background articles on the world of Infoquake exclusively for the website
  • Started a blog about eight months before the release of the book and began consciously trying to write about topics that I hoped would garner me an audience
  • Joined the group blogs DeepGenre (thanks to Kate Elliott and Katharine Kerr) and SFNovelists (thanks to Tobias Buckell)
  • Attended and got on the programming at a number of science fiction conventions (ReaderCon, WorldCon, Capclave, PhilCon, and upcoming Balticon and Penguicon)
  • Hosted a five-book gimmicky giveaway contest on my blog that received a fair bit of attention
  • Posted all nine drafts of the first chapter of Infoquake on my website
  • Encouraged friends and family members to send e-mails to their contact lists recommending that they check out Infoquake
  • Doggedly hunted down every interview opportunity I could find, and ended up getting about seven or eight interviews on sites like Barnes & Noble Explorations, John Scalzi’s By the Way blog, the Agony Column, SFFWorld, and Suite101.com
  • Created a MySpace profile and spent a couple weeks aggressively seeking friends with an interest in science fiction (1,698 friends to date!)
  • Created a mailing list for the book and added just about everyone I knew to it, then sent out once- or twice-a-month mailings on book news and events
  • Made a conscious effort to make friends in the science fiction industry, mostly just because it’s nice to have more friends (although the Machiavellian in me notes that several of these friends have had some very nice things to say about Infoquake on their blogs and such)

I also did a number of promotional efforts that may have had some positive impact, but it’s hard to tell:

  • Designed and printed 1,000 four-color Infoquake business cards through VistaPrint.com and passed them out liberally to anyone and everyone
  • Recorded the first handful of chapters on audio using my laptop, an old microphone, and free Audacity software, then posted these as a podcast on my website
  • Created and gave away approximately 350 promotional Infoquake CDs at cons and readings, including all of the sample chapters and audio files
  • Started an Amazon blog that basically just cross-posts the Infoquake-related blog entries from my main WordPress blog, and spent some time tracking down Amazon Friends
  • Gave away two signed copies of Infoquake to the Save Apex Digest raffle organized by the radiant Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Convinced a friend (Josef K. Foley) to do some original artwork for the Infoquake website
  • Did a handful of readings and signings at chain bookstores, which had rather disappointing turnouts, despite considerable publicity (listing in the Washington Post literary calendar, front-of-the-store displays, emails and invites sent to everyone in creation)
  • Held two book parties for immediate family and friends on what turned out to be two very inconvenient dates for book parties
  • Took a nice, official-looking author photo, only to decide I didn’t like it nearly as much as the spur-of-the-moment photo my wife took outside a club in Boston in 2002
  • Read and made comments on two drafts of an Infoquake screenplay, which has been in front of a few big Hollywood players (though I’m not holding my breath)
  • Made a conscious effort to participate in the blogosphere by commenting on other people’s blogs
  • Managed to get in touch with about a dozen authors and important people to ask for advance praise (“blurbs”), including an Obvious Legendary Hard SF Novelist, two Bestselling High-Tech Journalists, and a Business Legend With a Name So Big That Yes, Your Mother Has Probably Heard of Him — and only got a response from one person, the terrific Kate Elliott, who provided the gracious blurb you see on the praise page

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PhilCon 2006 Wrapup

I’ve mentioned before that I’m new to science fiction conventions. ReaderCon 2006 was the first con I ever attended (if you don’t count an experience at Balticon in 1990 that’s better left unexplained). That makes this weekend’s PhilCon 2006 only my fourth con ever.

So don’t take my word for it when I say that PhilCon was a tad disorganized. Take the word of other veteran congoers I talked to who said they wouldn’t be coming back to PhilCon. The word “sucks” was tossed around more than once. The best opinion that could be heard came from an insider, who said that “there have been better PhilCons, and there have been worse.”

Keep in mind that my circle of friends is pretty much confined to the Literary track. You know, the people who were more excited about seeing Charles Stross than dressing up like their favorite Buffy character. To the gamers and the filkers and the people dressed up in chain mail and goth makeup, PhilCon might very well have been a blast. But to the Literary folks, the common wisdom was that PhilCon 2006 was a bust.

Some of the frustrations included:

  • A rather lackluster keynote interview with Charles Stross. There was nothing lackluster about Stross himself, who appeared relaxed and humorous and fully engaged. But the MCing by Darrell Schweitzer was quite haphazard, as if someone either threw him a microphone at the last minute or he lost his prepared list of questions.
  • None of the moderator assignments were given out ahead of time. I arrived at PhilCon on Friday only to discover from the program booklet that I was moderating two panels that weekend. Some moderators didn’t realize they had been assigned to moderate until they arrived at the panel.
  • Room changes were rampant. Everything was constantly moving around at the last minute. And because the panels were spread liberally among at least five floors of confusingly labeled rooms, salons, parlours, ballrooms, and (in at least one instance) the middle of some random hallway, finding one’s way around was close to impossible. My understanding from various sources is that the Sheraton hotel was mostly to blame for this.
  • The hotel closed the bar on Saturday night for a private function involving some very well-dressed people who had some involvement with Barbados. No bar to hang out at on Saturday night at an SF con? Lame.
  • Parties died down early. The SFWA party was the place to be on Saturday night, but even that was on life support by midnight. When you hear lots of people say on Sunday that they retired to their rooms a little after 11 p.m., you know that something’s a little askew with the social vibe.
  • The reading schedule bordered on the farcical. I had hoped to do a reading from Infoquake at PhilCon. But as late as Saturday noon — halfway through the con — we were being told that the reading schedule was “still being worked out.” Finally, mid-afternoon on Saturday, a sign-up board materialized at the top of the escalator with slots for each hour and a few names scribbled in (illegibly, in one case). How could one sign up to do a reading? Well, if you could decipher the (also pen-scrawled) message in the bottom corner of the sign, you would be directed to someone in room 1200-something who could get you on the list. Where were the actual readings held? Who knows? The room listed in the program booklet was wrong, and the sign didn’t say.
  • Bizarre panel assignments. I’m not sure how I ended up moderating “Teleportation Is More Than a Way of Getting Somewhere” and “Navigating Amazon,” while I wasn’t even on panels for “Blogging and SF” and “Websites for Writers.” I suppose this could have just been me, however.
  • Nobody in the dealer’s room was carrying Infoquake. I’ve just about given up on getting con dealers to carry my book. The only people on the programming they go out of their way to stock are the guests of honor. Hell, it doesn’t matter, I get a much better margin hand-selling them anyway.

But don’t let my list of gripes give you the impression that I didn’t enjoy myself despite the confusion. Some highlights:

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Whose Books Do You Buy in Hardcover?

I happened to look at the listing for Infoquake on Amazon the other day and see that there are 57 (update: actually only 19) used copies for sale there, going as low as $7.50 per. People sometimes ask if I “mind” them purchasing used copies of my book at a discount rather than paying the full $15 cover price for a brand-spanking-new copy. And my answer is always “no, buy the book anywhere you can … Read more

One Year in the Blogosphere

I’m about to hit a nice little landmark that I think is worth sharing: as of tomorrow, I’ve been blogging for exactly one year. Before I jumped onto the blogwagon, I was really quite skeptical about the entire concept. I had no idea what a trackback was, little clue about Technorati, and unsure why RSS feeds were so darned special. Even worse, I wasn’t quite sure I’d have enough to say to fill a blog … Read more

Quake Up Your Book Group

If your book group wants to read and discuss “Infoquake,” just e-mail me and I’ll join the discussion by phone. If the members of your book group have purchased five or more copies of “Infoquake,” then I’ll throw in a signed sixth copy for free to the member of your choice.

Capclave 2006 Wrapup

As many of you know, this is my first go-round on the SF con circuit. So I’m finding it interesting how cons seem to have their own personalities based on some mash-up of the surrounding environment, the personalities of the organizers, and the guest list.

Capclave 2006 FlyerBy this standard, Capclave 2006 might be your kooky uncle who’s continually rushing around in a frenzy of activity. He’s a blast to hang out with, he’s smart as hell, and he can teach you a thing or two about Standing Up to The Man. But when he drops you back home at the end of the day, you can’t help thinking to yourself, “How can anyone live like that?”

It’s now evening on Sunday October 22, Capclave has officially come to a close, and any minute now I expect them to finally lock down a schedule for the weekend. Because there certainly wasn’t a definitive one available on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Events were constantly changing rooms, panels were added and subtracted, new people were appearing left and right, and the hallways were full of quickly taped-up signs of schedule changes. Programming manager Elaine Brennan could be seen rushing to and fro throughout the whole weekend, bravely and nobly jousting against the confusion.

Add to that the fact that the Hilton Silver Spring is not a well designed hotel, to put it charitably. There are two separate banks of elevators that go to different floors. The lobby is minuscule, and the bar is almost impossible to find. The hallways are narrow, the meeting spaces are strangely configured, and when you open some doors they block off the little gold plates with the room names on them. I got the impression from various overheard comments that the hotel kept fucking around with the Capclave people and altering the particulars of their agreement. (The Hilton in ominous, James Earl Jones basso profundo: “Perhaps you think you’re being treated… unfairly?”)

One could easily imagine taking this chaos in stride at a con where everyone was wearing Spock ears or gladiator costumes. But the Capclave programming was fairly high-minded, with panels on The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence, Global Warming, and Sling-Shot Endings in Fiction.

But for me, the programming side of things turned out to be a bit of a wash.

I received my panel assignments via e-mail on Thursday. I wasn’t listed in the program booklet for any of the three panels I’d been assigned to, and one of the panels I was supposed to appear on wasn’t listed in the booklet either. My reading (like everyone’s) was in a small room on the 12th floor that wasn’t listed in the program booklet. I had no idea I was scheduled to do a signing until I happened to wander past a table in the dealer’s room and see my name on it. When I arrived at one of my panels, my co-panelist apparently had no idea I was supposed to be there and had already begun a prepared 40-minute Powerpoint presentation, with handouts. Another of my panels was canceled because the hotel yanked away a block of rooms at the last minute.

Other than that? I had a great time. Programming is nice and all, but really I go to these conventions to shake hands, pass out Infoquake-related freebies, and attend the parties. The Saturday night formal, in particular, was a schmoozefest of the highest order.

So here are some of the people-related highlights of my Capclave experience:

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Random Things Not Worth a Full Blog Post

Where have I been the past few weeks and why haven’t I been blogging? Take your pick: Freeboating at a fancy-schmancy LexisNexis conference in Boston with my wife Diligently avoiding sharp objects in an attempt to avoid despair at the still-unfinished state of MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake Falling increasingly behind on a number of web projects Starting half a dozen rants about this or that topic and coming to the realization that none of … Read more

Gimmicky Promotional Giveaway Contest Winners

Used car salesman holding 'Infoquake' bookI’ve had a lot of fun with this Infoquake Gimmicky Promotional Giveaway thing. (See this entry for a recap of the rules.) I received a lot more limericks than I had anticipated, and a lot fewer science fiction convention sexual experiences than I had anticipated.

So here now, I present the five winners of signed copies of Infoquake. Winners are being notified by e-mail.

1. The poet: Liz Burgess.

There were lots of good limerick entries, and I had a tough time deciding on a winner. But in the end I had to award one copy of the book to Liz (last name pending her e-mail response) Burgess, whose entry made me laugh out loud for its skillful use of Beyond Linux from Scratch:

There once was a young man named Natch
Who read “Beyond Linux from Scratch”
Pushed code to production
Had poor QA function
And jonesed for a nicotine patch.

Honorable Mention goes to Thom Stanley, who certainly wins on tying in the limerick to the plot of the book:

There once was a young man named Natch
Whose program was more than a patch.
It is called MultiReal,
Which allows you to seal
A fate even God cannot match.

Honorable Mention, but Disqualified for Reasons of Nepotism: Cindy Blank-Edelman, who managed to squeeze three glossary terms into her entry:

There once was a young man named Natch
Whose enemies sent him a batch
Of code very black —
Programs Natch couldn’t hack,
Not even with Doc Plugenpatch!

And the “I Like the Way This Guy Thinks/Somebody Please Lock This Guy Up” Honorable Mention Award goes to Izyk Stewart:

There once was a young man named Natch
Who had quite the problem with Flatch-
ulence in his car
He never got far
But he never ran out of gas

2. The detail-oriented reader: Andrew Albert J. Ty.

I received several correct entries (and a few wrong entries) for question #2, which was to name the city that is the seat of centralized government in Infoquake. The answer is Melbourne, which is evident to anyone who’s read through to chapter 5 of the excerpt on the website. I used the Random.org True Random Number Generator to determine a winner among the correct entries.

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The Day of Gimmicky Promotional Giveaways

It’s Thursday, my brain functionality’s starting to recede down the back of my neck, and I’m staring at a stack of Infoquakes wondering what I can do to promote the book. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing some kind of gimmicky promotional giveaway here on my blog before. But I’ve always decided to put this off, because I don’t like to do things half-assed and I have no idea how effective this will be. … Read more