I’m not averse to technology. Actually, I depend on it. But I am averse to self-promotion. I fret about being obnoxious, too in-your-face. I don’t want to annoy people. So I tremble before the mountains of advice for authors about how to promote their work online, and I almost always turn away.
But when a friend showed me another author’s attempt to gain some readers by using a little quiz with book give-aways as a prize, I decided I could be comfortable with that. So I put together a little quiz of my own, and posted it on the Facebook pages of a couple of creative non-fiction writers’ organizations and on my author page. I posted it on twitter—a place I never go. I even decided to pay FB $30 to “boost” my post for a week. They promise thousands of “exposures’ for that paltry sum. 😏
Then, I waited for the clicks to come rolling in. On day 1, I got two. On day 2, one. Then nothing. Lots and lots of “likes”, but no clicks. No attempts to answer the very simple quiz question. Sigh. Another failed attempt to extend interest in my memoir beyond my immediate neighbourhood! (I’m not really sure why I care, but maybe that’s a topic for another post.)
As it turned out, I was sabotaged. Some twenty-four hours after I posted my promotion, wordpress decided to “upgrade”, turning my site into a blank page. Not the whole echoriver site—Jack pages were unaffected. Just mine. Just the pages I was directing people to. If that’s not sabotage, I don’t know what is.
It’s fixed now. But my FB “boost” is nearly half over, several dozen people have tried to click and given up, and I have a grand total of three contestants. OH! A fourth came in just as I was typing these words. So…maybe all is not lost!
Do you have my book yet? Here’s the promo if you want to enter! (And that’s as pushy as I get.)
To enter click here:
https://echoriver.ca/pauladunni…/index.php/shifting-currents
It works. I promise.
Be sure to include your name and address. I will draw 2 names from the first 10 correct responses.
it is just awful how they screwed you. I got off of Facebook and it took a long time. Pretty hard to quit. I had never posted anything except a comment to a friend’s post. But there was all kinds of crap on my ‘site’. It’s too bad that I don’t have access to info about friends, especially ones who are no longer here. Hmm..just filled in the info below. I haven’t a clue what gravator.com/ccote is. But I don’t think I’ll go there. Take care and enjoy echoriver.
It’s a mad word now. You have to promote, hustle, share. Non-stop. Don’t post once and leave it. Share it again. And share it on your Twitter. Or your Instagram. I know. So annoying. And then you feel like you’re annoying everyone. But really. The average person will still only see it once. Good luck with the contest. I didn’t enter since I own (an autographed) the book.