M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer, blogs about the books she reads--mostly fantasy and mystery authors whose books catch her eye and keep her interest. Nothing so formal as a book review, just chats about what she liked. Theodoratus also mutters about her own writing progress or ... lack of it.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

"Taking Vengeance": Questioning Book Trailers and Genres

Slowly goes the e-book promotion efforts ... and
everything else.
No wonder old people think time flies by.

The book trailer for Taking Vengeance is progressing slowly.  The maker, Big Burrito Media will be giving me some places to market  So where do you place your trailer ... if you have the bucks to buy one ... or have the time to create your own?

So far I've found the following:  YouTube [the obvious, but you gotta be there] -- Vimeo [no separate listing for books in the drop down, but they have a tag for book trailers] --  Channels [way beyond my level of sophistication, but take a look to see what the publishers and others are doing].

In case you think trailers are only for e-books, take a look at this short trailer on buying used books [produced by Big Burrito Media].   I thought it was sort of cute.

More time is being consumed by thinking about my author's page.  I've been reading the pages at Amazon and Barnes & Noble where I guess I can put my trailer up ... provided I can upload it or whatever I should be doing.  I'll keep you posted on what I manage to do.

Actually, my big question is how do people find you when they don't know you exist?  I can Google/search my name [M. K. Theodoratus], and Smashwords has my stuff all over the place.  I can see two problems here:  1) spelling my last name ...  and 2) the different first names.  Guess this is a case of learning after the fact.

Then, there's the question of what sub-genre I'm writing in...
[Yeah, I know I should know what I'm doing at this late stage,
but my evaluation of things doesn't always agree with
mainstream thinking.]
   
So, now that I'm trying to promote Taking Vengeance, I'm trying to figure out what type of fantasy I'm writing.  Stacey O'Neale at YA Fantasy Guide has a nice list of fantasy genres: Identifying Your Fantasy Novel's Sub- Genre.   Unfortunately, I still feel in the dark because "dark fantasy" comes the closest, but I don't think I'm a particularly dark writer.  

Can anyone who read Taking Vengeance, give me some insight? At the moment, I'm wondering how that plays to middle grade.  --  I hate questions.

Wish I had some answers to all my questions.
How do you feel about your own writing?

7 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

Ref: my big question is how do people find you when they don't know you exist?

That's the million dollar question. My method has been to make myself visible on other blogs, forums, networks. Nothing over the top, just a consistent presence.

Unknown said...

Yeah I do that, ... a slow process, a best.

Anonymous said...

"Big Burrito" makes me hungry. As far as making yourself more visible online, I say have as much of your work posted as possible. Submit to online magazines and Twitter-zines, and build a following. But you're right: it can be a slow process.

Unknown said...

Submitting one's work? Nice idea, Milo, but first you gotta write something, revise something, and edit something. Then, find a market.

I'm off to find out what a Twitter-zine is.

Title Loans said...

The best way to find out is your fellow bloggers, but it's a slow process. I don't think it's fair to categorize things in one exact subject either. Sometimes, your writing fits in multiple!

Sara

Unknown said...

Actually, I find straddling genres more interesting than following a formula.

Unknown said...

Hello everyone, a book trailer is meant to create a presence on the internet. How you do that? You create something that other sites independently will post on their site. If you look at some of my other book trailers they have all gone viral. Why? because people are trying to generate traffic to their sites. So they find something that has appeal and post it on their sites and so on and so on. that's the beauty of the internet. just google john ray gutierrez videos and you will see. or go to big burrito media and look at the news section.