In April…
I participated in the A-Z
Challenge…
My theme was Pulp fiction.
One of the authors I
highlighted…
Was H.P. Lovecraft…
Who now is regarded…
As the most significant…
20th century
author in the horror genre.
Success should have happened
in his lifetime…
But it didn’t...
He was virtually unknown…
And only published in Pulp magazines.
Never able to support
himself…
From earnings as author and
editor…
Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him…
Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him…
Because he lacked the
confidence and drive to...
PROMOTE HIMSELF! (source: Wikipedia)
And that in a nutshell is my insecurity.
PROMOTE HIMSELF! (source: Wikipedia)
And that in a nutshell is my insecurity.
But when I think about it…
I'm surprised that way back then…
Authors had to promote.
I always thought…
They had an agent and a publisher…
Who would do all the promotions…
So authors could just write, write, write, write. Right?
Guess even back then…
If an author wanted sales…
It was all about promotion.
And what about you?
Is the process of promotion…
Easy, hard, or not even a concern for you?
Got any tips?
Always,
Em-Musing
17 comments:
Of course I've heard of Lovecraft but I didn't realize all his success was after he died. Self-promotion is so difficult. There are some writers who are very good at it. I don't have any perfect advice but staying active on social media can't hurt.
Susan Says
I have not heard of Lovecraft. I had heard of one Indian author who died penniless, after his death his books became famous and his children inherited all the money from his books.
I don't think that's changed much over the years. No one likes to promote himself. Much easier to have friends help.
So interesting that someone so highly regarded now had these kinds of insecurities. I never would have thought about writers having to market themselves back then. I guess that curse has always been with us!
I don't like to promote myself (of course, I have no books, but have plenty of newspaper and magazine articles). I enjoyed your A-Z challenge theme and learned a lot from your posts. And this is a nice recap!
Back then, most everyone was self-published and had to promote. Then along came publishing companies who did a lot of promoting. Now we are back to the author having to promote no matter what.
H.P. Lovecraft is the master of horror and one of my favorite writers!
I'm sorry I missed your theme but it sounded great. Will have to go back. Promotion is one of my biggest struggles but I suppose social media helps us a lot. Dickens used to do speaking tours to big crowds to promote his works. That sounds terrifying!
It totally is about promotion. You can have the best product in the world but if no one hears about it, it will never go anywhere.
I wasn't around for the A to Z Challenge, but I'm betting your posts were beyond epic.
Love me some Lovecraft! Promotion is a necessary evil for the introverted writer and, I suppose, a great pleasure for the extroverted writer ... and also unicorns. If one exists, surely the other does.
Sigh... I don't know. The more I look, the less it seems that promotion actually works. Maybe Lovecraft was only unlucky.
I adore Lovecraft. The question of promotion in this day and age seems to me to be more a question of quality vs quantity. Haven't gotten it down to a science, myself, to be perfectly honest. I suspect (with a fair amount of jaded certainty) that a decent percentage of the "How To" people (How To Successfully Use Social Media To Sell Books, etc.) are not experts at all. They're just picking up the equivalent of Taco Bell drive-thru wisdom and hanging out, flaunting their bag of junk food around the edges of an inadvertent Hunger Strike. And, yes, I have a twisted sense of humor.
I have a lot to learn on promotion. I had no idea it was so much the same back then.
A note on the stacked rocks I posted a picture of. They're cairns. One of my commenters told me they were used way back to mark the way when traveling or to help those who were lost. And they were used to mark where someone had died.
Legacy is pretty cool, but as for me I'd much rather get my due while I'm alive to enjoy it. I'd be happy to get rich and spend my money myself than be remembered for how great I was and never got recognition in my lifetime.
Promotion? One of the great mysteries I guess. Right now I don't have that much to promote, but I guess I'd try all kinds of stuff if I did. Just gotta keep trying different things and repeat the things that seem to at least kinda work.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
I vaguely remember that I've come across the name Lovecraft, but didn't know what genre to associate with him. That's a shame, isn't it. The most significant author in his genre in retrospect, but nearly unknown during his time. I have to confess, promotion always feels like a hassle to me. I constantly drop the ball in favor of reading or writing. No tips at all.
Hi,
I have had a difficult time promoting myself because I was afraid of it. Now that I am almost finished with my book, and after attending three or four workshops and taking a couple of courses, I know there is no way around it. I have to promote myself. So, I am doing it. Here in the IWSG, you get to know people whom you can interact with. They'll help you and that is a good feeling. Most important, they don't mind stepping out there and doing a blog cover reveal, or book review, or tweets. So, you're in the right place. There are more methods for marketing out there. Just take a step at a time. You'll get there.
All the best.
Shalom aleichem,
Patricia
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