Today I received, through the author contact form on this site, a press release for a forth-coming, much anticipated YA novel.  The Angel Punk team snagged an ARC of the aforementioned title at ComicCon so I have, in fact, already read it.  And I loved it.  It’s a great read, beautifully executed, and well worth your time and money.

By now (thanks to my masterful use of suspense), you’re begging to know what it is.  But I’m not going to tell you. Why, you ask?  Because it pissed me off to get a marketing blurb over my author site from someone I’ve never heard of.  This guy (not the author, who is a genuinely nice person) is scanning blogs that mention YA, paranormal, angel, or whatever and finds me as a spam target.  ARRGH!

Holly & Shiraz Cupala gave a killer talk on DIY book marketing at the KidLitCon in Seattle last weekend.  The workshop included a list of 72 ways authors can market their books.  (I know you wish you had one.  Holly and Shiraz should sell them.  The list is that good!).  The take home message: give your targets something of value.

Let me repeat: VALUE

That means a book mark, a way to use the book in curriculum, a comic book teaser, a few free chapters, a behind-the-scenes look…  Something that will add to my experience of your book if I read it.

But the bait and switch where I get all excited because I think that someone cares enough about my site to use the author contact form and then spams me.  Puke.  Don’t do it!