Irish indie author Laurence O'Bryan shares his innovative ideas for extending the marketing reach of his next self-published book online.
Laurence O'Bryan
One aspect of the changing environment for writers, which has been little discussed, is the idea of extending our stories online with the help of social media, blogs and web sites. Social media and the online world are parts of the new wave of online communications, which is dominating the lives of billions, with its instant tribal culture, its visual cortex stimulating ability and its snappy story-telling pull.
The challenge for writers in the 21st century, in my opinion, will be how to integrate these tools into our storytelling.
I propose to take this challenge for my new novel, The Nuremberg Puzzle, to be indie-published November this year. My previous three novels were published by Harper Collins, worldwide. Here's what I will be doing to extend this new novel, the hardest puzzle I have had to crack:
- Hashtag Using #thenurembergpuzzle on Twitter, Facebook etc. to share links to images, videos and posts related to the story.
- Blogs These images and posts, on Pinterest/my blogs/YouTube etc and on guest posts on other blogs, will aim to add both fictional and non-fiction elements to the story. For example, I will be blogging about my WW2 reading list, posting maps and pics from research trips and blogging on all matters of historical and present day interest on racism in Germany, which I hope will add depth to the story. A fictional account of the visit by Hitler to Sacré-Cœur, and who he met there, will be one post.
- Map An online map, linked to social media, will allow readers to see locations for the story.
- Q&A Conversations, via comments on the blogs and through Twitter and Facebook mainly, will ask questions, answer questions, and explore the story in the book.
- Guest posts A series of coordinated guest blog posts about the novel, on, hopefully, 50 bloggers' sites around the world, will introduce the novel to readers worldwide in the run up to the launch.
- Free books Book giveaways on Goodreads and blogs should also add excitement.
- Subject focus Posts on online subject-specific groups on Facebook and forums about Nuremberg and the unpunished crimes of WW2 will help to engage potential readers interest in these issues.
The launch will be a good test of whether extending a story online helps reach readers, the way a good cover and reviews did fifteen years ago.
I am sure I have missed other ways to extend this story. I'd be happy if you suggested some below.
OVER TO YOU
- Have you found great ways to share your story online?
- Do any of Laurence's ideas especially chime with you?
- Please join the conversation via the comments box!
- If you enjoyed this post, please extend it online via your social media!
EASY TWEET
“Authors – #toptips from @LPOBryan to extend the reach of your #selfpub book online: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/extending-online/ #AuthorALLi”
Thanks for creating your list of promotion sites.
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I have 15 E-Titles published on Amazon KIndle
In many How-to E-Guides I use links to more extensive info on the subject
I also use chapter headings consisting of keywords that when used with a search engine will give the reader a plethora of alternative sources on the subject discussed in that chapter
Yes the latest tech creates a fantastic new world for the writer who self-publishes and is not afraid to read the boring instructions of E-Publishing servcies
This is a good list, and comes at a good time for me as I’m in the process of uploading my latest ebook to Amazon (it’s uploading cover and converting to Kindle). I am thinking, after reading this, that I might blog a bit about what inspired me to write scenes in the book. Yes, I will do that later this week. Put a note in my diary.
Very good stuff: am hoping to get the e-book copy of The Labyrinth Year onto Amazon in the next week … however it’ll have to wait a bit there as am in midst of getting to know WordPress in order to launch a new blog! Meanwhile, the best potential publicity is that Debbie has done a review of the Kindle version of its prequel Baby, Baby (see http://debbieyoungsbookblog.com/2015/01/28/baby-baby-by-mari-howard/) Many thanks for that! 🙂