OK...

[ksmith]

I finally have all my books approved for the Amazon Connect program.

For those who have pages, how much effort do you put into the thing? Do you blog there, or post anything on that Connect page?

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Unless they've changed things, when you post an entry, you can check/uncheck which book buyers receive that entry.

That was probably confusing. When I posted my goblin contests, I unchecked the box for my old mainstream PoD book, because I figured most of those readers wouldn't care about goblin stuff.

There's still a risk of people feeling spammed, but you can be selective with it. You can even "uncheck all" so that the only place your post goes is to your Amazon blog.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is where I get grabby. I left checked all the boxes for all five books.

I'll see how this goes. Right now, I could spend half my day online keeping up with things, and I really can't afford it. Honestly, the royalty statements don't reflect any bump. But what else can you do--online outreach is the only thing one has control over?

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Neither the online promo nor the real life stuff I've done have had huge effects, as far as I can tell. But there have been little effects. Sometimes I'll meet someone who's able to get a book reviewed somewhere, or who offers to take bookplates to all of their local bookstores, or who just talks about the book on different message boards and blogs. Nothing major, but I have to believe the little stuff adds up.

And hey, it makes my agent and editor happy to see me doing promotion, even if it doesn't have much of an impact on sales :-)