Can an author promote their books too much? That seems to be the question of the week making the blog rounds.

Justine Larbalestier is a bit sensitive to the topic since she's been accused of too much "self-promotery". (I love that term.) She makes some good points. First and foremost, it's an authors job to promote their work. With so many books being published, even in a particular genre, they cannot afford to sit on their laurels. Which is not to say that self-promotion cannot get out of hand. Some self-promoting can be downright intrusive. To my (non-author) way of thinking, it's a question of taste and tact and not so much the act of promoting. Like Larablestier points out: don't be rude about it.

John Scalzi also comments on the topic and outlines some good points. (1. First-time authors get a free pass, 2. Beyond that, maintain a sense of scale, and 3. Spread the love and promote others before yourself.) He also recalls his incessant pimpage of Old Man's War and how another author took issue with said pimpage.

Tobias S. Buckell also adds to the discussion and calls out writer Jeff VanderMeer's opinion (made in the comments of Larbalestier's blog post) that authors should raise the stakes on each successive book promotion. Buckell points to the recent appearance of book-related websites - as in one website devoted to one title, usually created by the book's author.

In the end, like any form of advertising, anyone who is tired of the advertising can always tune it out, or change the channel, or turn off the radio...

UPDATE
BTW, it occurs to me that I could have provided a good example of tactful self-promoting. I could have taken the time to let people know of an awesome website that is sure to stimulate and expand your mind. But instead, I'll let the linkage do that for me.

Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 9:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal