Saturday, June 14, 2008

Why bother?

The author and the publisher is king(s), respectively, so their word is go when it comes to book promotion.

That said, like any other service provider, Mr. Obie Joe finds the situation a bit vexing when an author or publisher takes a direction not of sense to the goal of finding an audience for a book.

A lot has been hyped about online promotion. Get a MySpace page. Throw thousands of dollars for a web site. Do a blog tour. Put on podcasts. The focus is always on the wrong thing: a successful book promotion is less about the tools, and more about the actual CONTENT. Sorry to shout, but Mr. Obie Joe must remind authors and publishers to choose their online tools carefully. Few of us are as charismatic as Chip Kidd (sigh), or as funny and prolific as Haven Kimmel in their book trailers, websites, blogs and podcasts.

Make the commitment stick when you choose your tool for online promotion. Don't scramble all over. Pick one or two tools, and show up regularly. The bookmarks Mr. and Ms. Obie Joe bookmark are ones with regular posts; that's all, and that's enough.

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