How to Get Me to Read Your Novel
(And one way not to do it.)
(This is adapted slightly from my blog, which I don’t think gets read by anything other than Google bots and spiders.)
There are plenty of ways to get me to read your book. I’m a big reader. I love books!
But I’m going to start off by ranting about how not to do it.
Don’t follow me on Twitter and then, the second I follow you back, hit me with a direct message like this: “HEY PERSON I DON’T KNOW, I AM SO GENEROUSLY GIVING MY FREE BOOK TO YOU EVEN THOUGH I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU OR WHAT YOU ACTUALLY LIKE.” You guys don’t even bother telling me what the book’s about, for frack’s sake.
This approach has all the charm of the person soaked in cheap body spray and desperation who puts the moves on every customer at the bar in the hopes that someone, anyone might go to bed with them. Or the person who bangs on your door on Saturday morning wanting you to buy overpriced wrapping paper for their kid’s school, while all you want to do is share meaningful time with your coffee.
I haven’t been engaging with the writing community on Twitter all that long, and this has already happened enough that I’m getting wary of following people back. I know it’s a tough market out there and it’s fine if you use your own Twitter feed to promote your work, of course, but it annoys me to no end when you nag me about it via direct message. I guess I like to flatter myself that people follow me on Twitter because they find something about me interesting, not because they see me as another sales unit.
Here’s a good way to get me to read your novel: Be witty and smart and insightful on Twitter (and elsewhere), and interact frequently with other people. And by “interact” I mean “have actual conversations,” not “I like cats too and also I WROTE A BOOK THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT AND I DON’T KNOW YOU OR WHAT YOU LIKE TO READ BUT I’M SURE YOU WILL LOVE IT.” (I know that was too many characters for an actual Twitter post, but whatever. You get the idea.)
Be a real person, not a salesbot. What do you like? What are you working on? What annoys the crap out of you? What upcoming movie will you drop everything to go see the second it comes out? That’s the stuff that makes for Twitter feeds I like reading.
If I get to know and like you online, I will almost certainly go check out your writing—even if it’s not in a genre I usually read. Although I’m not a big sci-fi fan, I bought John Scalzi’s first novel Old Man’s War the minute it came out. Why? Because after years of reading his blog and getting to “know” him as a person, I liked Scalzi and wanted to support his work. And hey — look at him now. Writing a funny, smart, interesting, and personable blog might not have been directly responsible for all the sales that led to his killer book deal, but I bet it didn’t hurt.
I want to support people I like.
But that involves getting to know you first.
This is part of the Ninja Writers May Post-A-Day Challenge. If you enjoyed this, I’d ❤ a recommend heart. You can find a listing of my fiction on Medium here, and I blog occasionally over at my personal website.
