I need to ask a favour
I need to ask a little favour and I know it's a little pathetic and could backfire but....
My most recent book, No Better Place, has been out since August 2015. Despite this, and the sheer number of people who seem to have it listed as "to read" on Goodreads, I've had very little feedback on it either directly or via book sites.
If you've bought it (and read it) could you let me know what you think? Thanks.
My most recent book, No Better Place, has been out since August 2015. Despite this, and the sheer number of people who seem to have it listed as "to read" on Goodreads, I've had very little feedback on it either directly or via book sites.
If you've bought it (and read it) could you let me know what you think? Thanks.
Written by Alistair Duncan
Buy my books 
This is more of a general observation, but perhaps to gain more reviewers you could engage with your possible readership a bit more? Host a giveaway, take part in another author's book tour, interact with people on Twitter, put out another and more regular call for contributors. Your blog offers some interesting articles, but (I'm sorry, I know this sounds a bit rude) they're usually framed to act as a promo for your own books - nothing wrong with that, but it can be off-putting as it seems like you're only offering content in the hope that it'll prompt attention for your own work. Constant promo often acts as a deterrent rather than an incentive; it's nice to receive content for content's sake, not with a constant agenda behind it.
ReplyDeleteI apologise if this seems too forward. I wouldn't make these kind of comments unprovoked, but within the context of this post, it seemed like it might be helpful.
Hi. Great name. Thanks for your post. I will take on board your opinion as it could well be shared by others. I won't pretend that I accept all your points and some of your suggestions are not necessarily practical (e.g. book tours - I'm not a full-time author and have to hold down a day job). In any event, an apology certainly wasn't necessary. I asked for opinions. That carries the risk that they could be widely varying in their robustness. :-)
DeleteYou could help me in one respect (if willing). How did you come to see this post? I know that people come to my blog through many routes so it would be good to see how you came to this post. Your comment implies that you are a fairly regular visitor but is it Twitter, Facebook or something else that first led you here?
Thanks.
You're welcome!
DeleteI think I found your blog through MX Publishing - I've done some editorial work for them in the past, and I must have found your blog through their website or Facebook page. Honestly it seems like such a long time ago, I'm afraid I can't remember! But I follow your blog through Blogger, so I see your new posts in my feed.
As for book tours - I meant the virtual book blog tours, which I've seen used very effectively on other book blogs. About five or so book blogs "host" the tour, and each blog makes a post about an aspect of the book on a certain date (one blog might feature an interview with the author, another blog might host the cover reveal and show an extract, another might have an article about some interesting aspect of the book, another might have a giveaway, all that kind of thing). It's a really great marketing tool, and it can really boost your audience as with each "stop" on the tour, you're reaching new readers who might not ordinarily know about your book as you're getting all those blogs' combined followers. With giveaways as well, you can often gain more publicity by setting it so that people get more entries the more they share the blog tour on their own social media platforms.
Ah well that makes more sense as an idea for someone in my position. Nice to see that you are a long time reader. I'll give it some thought. Thanks.
Delete"This is more of a general observation, but perhaps to gain more reviewers you could engage with your possible readership a bit more?"
ReplyDeleteThis is something I would agree with. I know book sales are hard, but I've seen self-published authors on amazon do it very effectively by offering their books at lesser prices for a day or two or doing give-aways for readers who interact with them and such. It's a fine line, but many manage it quite successfully.
I'm also always stumped as to why your blog doesn't get more and livelier discussion threads, but it could be that you have to encourage different views to be aired and not be so afraid of confrontation (I think I mentioned that one before).
The problem there is that I would have to get my publisher on board with regards to adjusting the price.
DeleteI'm not too concerned with confrontation providing its civil. I think what may put people off is that I moderate my comments. You tend to see "livelier" comments where there is no moderation. I started out like that but my blog got spammed so much with dodgy links that clean up became almost a full time job. In view of that I went down the moderation route. With other blogs that I read I see this trend repeated. Where there is moderation there are less comments.
To be honest I expected my posts on the performance of the Sherlock special to get people moving. Generally, if you are seen to criticise BC there is usually a reaction. However, the only comments I've received (despite links being put out on Twitter) have been in support.
DeleteFunny old world.
I think what we see here is a real display of fading interest in the topic of BBC's Sherlock. The boards I visit, like IMDB and the Sherlock FanForum and such, have slowed down quite a lot and even tumblr gets calmer every day. Discussion of TAB is now - after four/five weeks - down to an absolute minimum and more and more BNFs (big name fans) are dropping off. What's being discussed at the moment are X-Files and Star Wars. Even many long time Sherlock fans have hardly commented on TAB.
DeleteWell I don't visit all those places (perhaps I should) but my experience does tend to bear that out. I think a lot of long times fans will do their best to pretend TAB never happened. I still maintain that if they'd delivered the stand-alone Victorian episode they'd promised things would have gone a lot better.
DeleteThat may well be. I think if they would just commit to something sometimes it might help. But they always try to have their cake and eat it as demonstrated by the Victorian, but not, TAB.
ReplyDeleteWell this has certainly become a good comment post :-)
DeletePerhaps contribute to this?
ReplyDeletehttp://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/27?utm_content=buffer2f307&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer