Erzabet Bishop: Marketing Thoughts

Today, Erzabet Bishop shares some thoughts on marketing with us. Erzabet is a published author. Two of her short stories found their way into our anthologies and her first novella will be published in June ( Sigil Fire).

Working full time in my day-to-day life, I have to be smart about what I can and can’t do as far as marketing and social media are concerned. Most of my time off is spent writing; most of my spare moments at work are used for plotting ideas and scribbling them down on post-it notes and shoving them into my lanyard so I don’t lose them.  So what’s a busy writer to do? There are some things that I use to keep my name out there to create reader recognition. Here are a few.

*Support authors in your field by retweeting when you can. It supports them and in turn, they support you with their followers.

*Reblog posts when possible. WordPress is wonderful for this.

*Make good use of wonderful media outlets like  the Liz McMullen Show. Liz often has calls for special events. You read your story, and many readers of f/f fiction get to know you as an author and a person. Liz is a whole lot of fun, and I have greatly enjoyed the three times I have been on her program.

*Connect with other f/f and les-fic authors for events, for example, Love Spanks and Ana’s Advent Calendar with Anastasia Vitsky. These events happen every few months and give you an opportunity to showcase your writing and drive more readers to your blog. Siobhan Muir has many opportunities for flash fiction on her blog as well. Get out there and get noticed.

*There are many blogs that specialize in reviewing and author spotlights. My newest blog http://lesficandlipstick.wordpress.com/ will feature authors, interviews, spotlights and more. If you are interested in being on the blog, please email me at erzabetwrites@gmail.com.

*Have a Facebook author page. Keep it updated and set your blog to feed into it.

*Get an Amazon author page. Keep it updated.

*Goodreads—be there. There are many groups for f/f and les-fic that are hungering for more books to read.

*Offer your books up for review. There are so many sites looking for les-fic and erotica. My own—Erzabet’s Enchantments, BDSM Bookreviews, Read the Rainbow, Long and Short Reviews, Lipstick Lesbian…there are a ton out there.

*Join Facebook groups for Les-fic writers and readers.

*Publish short stories in anthologies. If you are just starting out, this is a great way to practice the craft of writing. You learn the process of working with editors, and the word count is often small, enabling you to work on several things at once. It is a wonderful way to increase your writing resume and build name recognition.

While none of these suggestions are overly tech savvy, they do help get your name out there. I am always searching for new and exciting ways to use time more effectively and make some great friends and readers while I am doing it.

Happy reading and writing!

Erzabet Bishop

Follow my tweets and check out my reviews at @erzabetbishop on Twitter.