How to Grow an Audience

For the last few months, I've been standing back and watching how other people 'push' their books. I think there are basically two camps.

Camp 1 authors have a large loyal audience who will buy whatever they put out. They use social networking for...well, to be sociable. There's not a lot of pimping going on. They'll do interviews and occasionally write articles, but talking up their book is kept to a minimum.

Camp 2 are relative unknowns. They're on Twitter, FB, Linked In, Pinterest, Tumblr and any forum that will let them talk about their book. They spam the air waves, mad to get their name out. They usually have only one or two books. And who can blame them? There's no time to write when you have to sell.

Camp 1 authors have longevity on their side. They've been writing longer and have had the time to forge a back list of good books. Word of mouth is their best form of advertisement.

Camp 2 authors must rely on social networks to get the word out--a tricky business because social networking is still morphing and we're trying to sort our boundaries on what is and is not acceptable.

Shouldn't social networks remain social? Does spamming sell work? More importantly, has spam ever worked on you?

The other elephant in the room is that we're not only advertising to friends, but to other authors. The trick is to ESCAPE the sea of familiar faces and make ourselves available to people who have never heard of us.

Ah, but there's the rub. How do we reach new readers?

We used to get a nice bump in sales if our books were sold through a good-sized publisher. They have the clout to get your book in front of big name reviewers. But even that muscle is diminished because of all the competition.

The mediocre is shelved with the fabulous, forcing the consumer to wade through the choices.

...or is he? 

I'm finding that I'm more likely to choose an author I know than try an unknown. This makes the onus of achieving recognition even more crushing.

To grow an audience requires one thing that only the really successful authors in Camp 1 employ. Write a lot of good books. A strong back list implies reliability, readability, and readership.

We're bombarded with newsflashes of overnight successes and runaway bestsellers so often that we forget the majority of authors grow their audience one book at a time. Don't fall for the hype (like I did) that good writing is appreciated immediately.

Be patient and choose your venues wisely. I have a feeling once the ego-rush of self-publishing wears off and most of the dilettantes walk away, we'll end up with core professionals who are in it for the long haul. I want to be in their camp.

Quick survey: When was the last time you picked up a book from an author who was totally unknown to you? How did you find him? Was he good enough to buy his next book?

The last new-to-me author was recommended by a friend who knows my reading tastes. Since I didn't follow this author, I never knew she had a book out so all her time and money on pitches was for naught.