Marketing for Fiction Writers

A big thank you to all the Twitter users who keep retweeting my tweets! It makes a big difference and I really appreciate it. I used to say so, personally, every time, but now there are just too many of you. What a wonderful problem to have! I do keep a list of all your usernames, though, and try to recognize you every Friday. If I overlook anyone, please speak up.

Photo: lifehack.org

Which brings me to the subject of marketing for fiction writers. There seem to be two basic schools of thought out there, from what I've seen:

1. Since we work so hard and produce products of value, we should sell them for a good price (even though we still may have to be working for a penny an hour for a while, until things pick up) and vigilantly protect our stories from being pirated or unintentionally shared.
2. Since most of the readers we're trying to reach need all the cash they can come up with for things like mortgage payments and fuel, and since most of us writers aren't famous yet, we should distribute our work as widely as possible for free. We should connect with other writers and pass their work on as well so they'll do the same for us, and once we've gained enough exposure, the money will come. It could be in the form of ad revenue on our blogs, or a publishing contract, or Kindle sales, or something else.

I tried the first option first, for over a year, and it failed miserably. For about three weeks now I've been wholeheartedly trying the second, and my blog traffic has skyrocketed. I want to thank Rebecca Scarberry (@ScarberryFields) and Nadine Ducca for the advice that got me started.

I'm still a rookie here, so advice from veterans is always appreciated.