Review: Informative and encouraging
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2012
Author Angela Yuriko Smith self-published her vampire book End of Mae at the end of May 2011. In No Money Marketing, she reveals the secrets of her cyberspace success. As one of those authors who "aren't much a promoting" I know I have a lot to learn, and her claim that you no longer have to "spend money to earn money" is certainly attractive. So I discover I must learn to make my novel my baby, love it like a mother, tell it like a grandma... then discipline it like a dad. With chapter sub-headings like these, this book is certainly an easy read that makes its points clearly and memorably.Chapter two begins the detailed description of how End of Mae was marketed, from Virtual Visitor Center with free gifts, mailbox and links for book purchases. A press release followed, with the author using her links to the fashion industry to leverage connections. But Second Life seems to be the key to it all, and the author's premium account isn't entirely free.The author certainly makes Second Life sound fun, and gives plenty of advice on how to do things either alone, or with free assistance, or with paid help. I learned of places to network and learn. But I found myself wondering if I don't already spend too much time on my virtual (facebook, twitter, gather, google) life already, without adding a Second virtual Life on top of it all. Would it sell books? It appears to for Angela Smith. Would it sell my sort of book/your sort of book? The answer is probably, it depends. Who are your ready-made followers, bound to see your ad as they walk their virtual world?The author moves on from Second Life to the somewhat more familiar worlds of blogs, facebook and twitter. Her idea of using a blog to support others and get support in return makes a lot of sense and, indeed, I am finding other bloggers very generous in offering help when I ask for it. But I'm still running a very small-scale operation compared to the one suggested here. With videos beautifully produced by her daughter (and a nice reminder that paying more doesn't always guarantee better quality) plus Cadbury chocolate (her favorite and mine) piggy-back campaigning... the sky's the limit. Or at least, the End of Mae's happy success is only the start. Facebook shop talk, fan art masterpieces, the list is (almost) endless.Filled with great ideas and very clear explanations of what the author did, this book is a fascinating and mostly encouraging read, highly recommended to any new authors wondering just what the cyberworld might have to offer.Disclosure: I won a free copy of this ebook and hope I might slowly learn to make better use of its suggestions.