A powerful online marketing tool exists for ambitious fiction authors who are savvy enough and dedicated to spend the time using it in order to promote their novels and short stories.
PatronQuo.com has unveiled special story badges that its participating authors may post far and wide, to tell readers where their tales may be found online, while at the same time making a pitch for patronage.
"The Resurrection of Howard Stein"
by Malyndi Shaffer
BE THIS TALE'S PATRON
Effective online marketing requires a concise “call to action” that tells a visitor where to go and what to do. And since the Internet primarily runs on the fumes of catchy eye appeal, PatronQuo has specifically designed its story badges to achieve all these marketing goals for its participating authors – - a place to click and a call to action, presented in an eye-catching banner.
Very shortly, these special badges will be available and showcased on every short story and novel submission page, along with the accompanying code that may be copied and pasted on to other websites. What this means is that not only will each participating author be able to promote their own literary submissions with their customized story badges, but visitors and fans will also be able to copy the code for these badges and place them on their own websites. In effect, they’ll be posting the call for patronage on behalf of the writers they support.
On the other hand, writers should be wary of any publicly open submission sites that seem to promise that anyone can passively submit their work and get discovered. Just as published authors these days need to expend considerable energy in nurturing a readership for the work the’ve brought to market – through public readings, touring, signings, conventions, interview sessions, and much more – online short story and novel submissions require extensive and proactive follow-up from their submitters in order to ensure that a growing audience of readers know where to find them.
In a saturated marketplace, passivity and apathy pave a clear and definite path toward artistic frustration and, ultimately, failure. Successful writers know that writing the tale is only the start of the path to success. The main goal is to get noticed, and that doesn’t begin with fruitlessly sending out query letters that are sure to be rejected. First and foremost, a writer needs to build their readership. These days, the most direct and affordable way to do so is through online marketing. And on a very basic level, online marketing consists of little more than telling your intended audience where you are and what to do when they find you.
All too often, aspring writers expend a great deal of time tending to the former goal (telling readers where they can be found) while neglecting the latter goal (telling them what to do once they arrive). If a writer is looking to actually sell their short stories and novels, a submission site that provides little more than a place to deposit feedback comments – and absolutely no other marketing tools or support for its participating writers – is likely one that will not fulfill the essential goals of an author looking to succeed in accruing an audience and income from their efforts.
And while some submission sites do indeed provide authors all sorts of links for their profile pages, they often fail to provide participating authors the essential tools needed to market their posted work off-site.
And there’s the rub: The hard work of marketing one’s posted stories generally occurs off-site from where one’s stories are posted. What this means is that a writer can’t passively wait for readers to gravitate to their posted work. Successful authors get out to countless sites and start planting the many links they’ll need in order to build their web presence.
In recognition of that need, PatronQuo has furnished its authors with the tools they’ll need to begin pollinating the Web with crucial, eye-catching links to their story postings.
And that’s where the customized story badges come into play. Every time a story badge code is pasted into a comment forum of a literary group, a link is being built to the writer’s story page. Links, in turn, build search engine rankings for that writer’s story page while at the same time building multiple portals for potential visitors to stumble upon their work.
So, where does one post one’s story badges? Most writers are simply too wary to send out endless emails, asking bloggers and friends to post their badges. Yet there is a far simpler – and far less frustrating – route to building links.
The secret: Start joining online forums and and social networking groups dedicated to books and literature. Often, it takes little more than a few minutes to sign up with these groups. And once signed up, a writer can then begin the important task of posting comments on other profiles and in various discussion forums, taking care to introduce their work while pasting in the code for their story badge. Click, send, and repeat. A link is created in mere minutes, and on you go. No begging and no frustration.
You might even take a leaf from many of the submission sites that tend to pepper your story submissions with their Pay Per Click ads. Instead, you might consider peppering your blog entries with your story badges – your very own free customized ads (and you don’t even pay for the clicks!).
It should be noted, however, that not all venues are set up for the pasting of story badge codes. Fortunately, there are a large number of literary groups that are established on a programming platform that does allow for the simple pasting of badge code into the body of one’s posted comments. In particular, the various literary networking sites that are part of the Ning Network – sites such as WriterFace.com. BookBlogs.ning.com, and BookMarket.ning.com, among others – are all standardized around the same programming platform, allow ease of use, and a similar posting experience. That, in the end, should save you time as you work toward amassing links to your posted tales.
Building your Web presence through these tools may very well pay off as you build your readership base, nurture opportunities to generate income, and eventually come to the notice of the publishers and literary agents who are looking for the talented authors with a proven record for attracting readers.
In the end, the clearest path to selling your novels and short fiction online lies with your sustained efforts to market yourself persistently and smartly. Toward that end, look upon your customized PatronQuo badges as powerful tools to wield in your online marketing arsenal.
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