The Tradeoff: Giving vs. Selling

Of all the great tools for helping authors promote their books online, I would say social networking is number one for me. I’m referring to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Ning, Yahoo groups, and such online places where people share friendship and information.

I hate selling anything but I love sharing what I know and I enjoy interacting with people. I’m not sure that makes me an expert on any particular topic, but it does bring great response to whatever I’m promoting. After all, the only reason I’m promoting a book or offering author publicity service is because I have something valuable to share but I can’t afford to give away my time.

I’m always researching and learning, asking questions, and gathering information. I create books and e-books as a way of dispersing some of the knowledge I have acquired. For example, my e-book Book Marketing in the Digital Age Online Promotion Made Easy is a compilation of the material I crammed into an hour-long lecture I gave at Nashville Writers Meetup Group and everything I presented in a three-hour intensive workshop at the Tennessee Writers Alliance 3rd Annual Conference; plus it includes the research I've done on SEO and social marketing.

I do give away a lot of information to help people see that I have some idea of what I’m talking about. If an author tries my free e-book on freelance writing and has success with it, I figure they will come back for more. Perhaps they will need help with their writing or editing needs.

It’s a win-win for both of us, and that creates a nice balance—a zen sort of thing.