The truth of the matter…

The truth of the matter is that I don’t necessarily think very far beyond the general aspects of social media when it comes to book promotion. This detail might be why I’ve had limited success with the overall marketing thing, but it’s an honest insight. I think in terms of the bigger categories. For instance, I might think, “I should have a Twitter account,” but then not really know much about Twitter or its potential before I dive in.

I apparently have done the same thing with technology as well in regards to mobile phones. I think of writing/publicity assistance from a phone coming in the form of being able to tweet randomly, or to take a picture to post on Instagram. And these possibilities are legitimate uses for a mobile phone (or other mobile device) for an author.

I didn’t know though about some of the other mobile app possibilities available to authors. For instance, one site reports an app called “Story Tracker” that allows an author to keep track of submissions and such things (Enders, 2015). Though this ability might seem unimpressive to some, for an author, it could be a big deal. I’ve recently stepped into freelance working, so keeping track of what I sent and when might be a bit easier with an app like this. Even submitting books to publishers, or sending promotional details to bloggers, could be less cluttered with an app that stores that kind of information. In my experience, depending on my email inbox can be pretty disorganized and inaccurate. As the article stated, sending the same piece “to…the same person twice” (Enders, 2015) can be an awkward thing, and this app could help prevent that from happening.

The article goes on to explain apps that could help with brainstorming, editing, and finding inspiration (Enders, 2015), all of which could be important before a book is even released. This aspect is important for marketing in this situation, because if there’s no book to market, then there’s no book to market. Which sounds redundant, but is honest. The product should be integral in book marketing, so apps that help create that product are arguably assisting in marketing from the very beginning.

There also seem to potentially be phone-specific apps (or at least brand-specific) an author could use. One site shares a series of possibilities for those using Androids (Denton, 2014), but it’s not necessarily clear if those apps are all brand-specific, or if they’re just brand-accessible. In any event, the apps include links to popular social media sites and Evernote Hello, which allows the user to keep better track of “individuals, encounters and shared experiences” (Denton, 2014). But if these apps truly are brand-specific and others aren’t, the circumstance seems a bit lacking to me since simply having to change your brand of phone could ruin your best-acquainted methods of social media marketing at any given time.

But then again, I’m hardly the expert 🙂

On a more generic scale, I’d say something as simple as a planner on your phone could be useful when dealing with book marketing. I’ve had a physical planner to keep track of blog dates and such, and I would think being able to store that kind of information on a phone might be even more useful, since it would come with its own possible alert system, and maybe the option of automatically sending information at a certain time.

Basically, there are options!

References

Denton, D. (2014, March 14). “The Ultimate List of Mobile Apps for Writers with Andriods.” Retrieved from: https://darlagdenton.com/2014/03/14/the-ultimate-list-of-mobile-apps-for-writers-with-androids/

Enders, E. (2015, January 22). “15 Of The Best Apps For Writers To Download Now.” Bustle. Retrieved from: http://www.bustle.com/articles/59211-15-apps-for-writers-that-every-aspiring-author-needs-on-her-phone