Promotion zone: Rules

Members' book promotions?

Hi, All!

I found this loverly thread as I was exploring the site. I was just as excited about the opportunity offered to talk up one's own work - until I saw the July 2013 date on the last post. Everyone in the thread seems so happy to have a promo forum - but apparently no one has taken the first step? Ummm...what am I missing?:confused:
 
Promo Zone?

Say, has anyone ever actually POSTED anything in the promotion zone? It's such a great idea - yet no one seems to have posted anything they're promoting. Kinda scary that I'm here responding to my own post.

Still...in the hopes somebody will LOOK, here's my newbie member promo, such as it is. I'm looking for suggestions for places to market my debut sci fi novel Home World. BIT ON THE BOOK: this is most definitely NOT hard sci fi. Much more along social sci fi lines. What I'm hoping for is that members on this site would glance through the freebie chapters to get an idea of the story & then maybe suggest sites that cater to readers who'd enjoy this kind of sci fi. (I hope that makes sense.) Put another way, my goal is NOT to push my book under your noses with a hawker's cry, but rather to enlist your greater knowledge of what's 'out there' in helping me reach folks who are most likely to enjoy this kind of story. To which end:

Home World is now live on Amazon. The link is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

I know - there's a way to shorten the link; I just don't know what it is.

Here's hoping -
Bonnie Milani
 
Rob B said:
Clearly, you haven't looked in the Promotion Zone because people are posting their stuff there daily:
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?81-Promotion-Zone
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Hello bonniemilani!

I'm afraid Rob is correct. This thread (the one you posted in) is to ask questions regarding the rules of the Promotion Zone sub-forum.

If you want to post something about your book, you can start a new thread within the Promotion Zone (big blue button that says +Post New Thread). I hope that helps. :)
 
Would it be inappropriate to use the zone to post about the story I'm serializing on my blog? It's not exactly published, so I wasn't sure if that would fly and wanted to check first.
 
Can't see why not, Rich. It's your work and as long as it's generally genre related, it should be fine.

Appreciate you checking, though.

M.
 
Thanks

Great idea to keep our begging and pleading out of the general forums while allowing readers to easily find new things to read.

Thanks
 
Separate threads

Once I have a promotion thread, do I always have to use that promotion thread or can I start a new one. For example, the thread I have is for A Warrior's Path, but I have a short story collection coming out, and I wanted to start a separate thread for it. Can I do that?
 
Can't see why that would be a problem, Davis: I'm others have done that!

Appreciate the check though.

Best of luck with the new release!

Mark.
 
Just a note to first time posters: Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, the forum software automatically moderates posts. Which means, they are posted, but no one can see them except moderators. Once we do, we can approve the content (or not).

If you have posted something and it all seemed to go well but you still don't see your post, it is probably in the moderator queue.

Sadly, we don't have anyone assigned to the Promotion Zone forum to screen the moderated posts. So of these posts end up in the queue for a very long time. If after a day or so, you still don't see your post, please feel free to contact a moderator directly and ask them to check the queue.

Thanks!
 
I wanted to ask a rather nitpicky question before I inadvertently stepped on any toes.

Assuming I'm doing a new promotion for a book every few months (Amazon Kindle's free book deal split into 2 separate promotion blocks, in this case), would you prefer I open a new thread every time, or modify an existing thread and bump it with the new promotion information? I wouldn't want to be accused of flooding the forum with new threads, even if it's only sporadically and the promotion is relevant. At the same time while I can manage modifying the existing thread for a new promotion time (assuming the thread title can be changed), the aesthetics of bumping it over and over again aren't the best.

In the end I'm happy to do whatever you prefer, or the best I can for the forum if you have no preference. I'm also grateful to you for giving independent authors and contributors such as myself a space to promote our work on the forum without having to intrude in other spaces.
 
Hi Cerberus.

Thanks for checking this. Most of our members seem to have one thread in the Promotion Zone that you update. Bumping up isn't really an issue for us.

Hope that helps!
 
Question

Hi Hobbit,

I posted a video I made to the movie section, but after seeing this I'm guessing it was supposed to go here. Is that correct, and if so, how would I get it here?

Thank you!
 
Hi Jarvisimo.

You are quite right. I've shifted your thread over to here for you.

Best wishes

Hobbit / Mark
 
Rob B said:
After much discussion and deliberation, we have decided to run, as a trial, a new Forum area where members can highlight their own books, films, trailers, websites and things of genre interest.

The Promotion Zone is just that: a place where new things can be examined by Members.

The area still follows all the usual SFFWorld rules.

This is a new area for us: and, looking at the rules, is not what we normally do at SFFWorld, up to this point.

So, it is a work in progress, and one we will watch very carefully.


Staff will be moving threads and posts that are placed in the usual Forum areas to this new Zone where it is felt to be more appropriate.

Thank you for your understanding.

Mark / Hobbit

Addendum:

Since we have offered up the Promotion Zone for members to post about their novels / stories / blogs etc, we expect NOT to see such advertisement posts in the main forum.

Furthermore, if you post visitor messages on a Member's page or send Private Messages to members advertising your novel / stories / blog / etc., this would be considered severe abuse of our forum guidelines and the spirit behind providing this forum for Promotion. As a result, you will be banned immediately.
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Just a question: most people just won't want to go here! Why would he? He just wants to see what happens in the fantasy world! A promotion being beetween general posts would be more likely.
Sorry if I'm rude but I don't think it was a good idea...
EDIT:Sorry I realized I was just wrong...
People need the option to see that, not the must . Sorry again!
 
Although the thread has been up for several years, I thought I'd add a marketing observation. Most of the comments relate to whether or not the promotions, per se, will be valuable. Honestly? No, these promotional announcements are unlikely to sell many, if any, books. On the other hand, the internet search engines constantly "crawl" the SFFW site, along with other sites. The sheer sum and variety of links that an author spreads across the web will help his/her books. Google, Yahoo, Bing and the others make use of algorithms that rank websites via the number and variety of high-quality incoming links. When using this Promotion Zone, go ahead and address the internet search engines by doing the following: Make certain to include links to your book and/or your homepage; include your name or pen-name; and include the pertinent key words that will identify your book and its intended audience, i.e. -- young adult, fantasy, quest, wizard, elves, unicorns... whatever.

Good luck!
 
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Window Bar said:
the internet search engines constantly "crawl" the SFFW site
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I agree. While it is not immediately satisfying to the poster, know that it does help, in the long run, to post your promotional stuff in this sub-forum.

With that said, I know that I, for one, DO check this forum. And I have bought a book or two based on the posts here.

But that's like two out of the hundreds, if not thousands, of posts. The odds of someone buying your book based on a post here is a long shot, but that would be the case where ever you posted, right?
 
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