What kind of book promotion drives readers away most? Pasting long canned ads on other people’s pages or in their DMs. Utsudo once had the same author leave an ad under her Facebook post, then—after she deleted it—send the exact same text by private message. This kind of forced selling only makes people frown and close it. Grabbing attention is a required skill for creators, but it should be done in friendlier, more approachable ways, not by barging into someone else’s home to advertise.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

A long canned ad under my post

One day I posted on Facebook as usual. The next morning when I woke up, there were some unanswered comments.

While replying, I noticed one especially long comment. At first I thought it was from a reader who’d been deeply moved, but on closer look, it was an author advertising.

It basically said who he was, what he’d written, what events he was running, and invited everyone to take a look, with links attached—a sprawling hundred-plus characters at least.

I thought: in this day and age, people still post canned messages like this—and under someone else’s Facebook post? Super rude~ ~”

I couldn’t be bothered to warn him, so I just deleted the comment and forgot about it.

The same person messaged me again

Some time later, I woke up to a private message on my fan page. When I opened it, it was the same block of text again.

Yes, from the same person!

I occasionally get messages like “come read my work,” but this was the first time someone barged into my home to advertise twice. I was furious when I saw it, and replied briefly with something like, “This way of promoting is annoying. I suggest you stop.”

He read it and never replied. I just hope it sank in.

Crude selling only drives readers away

This tactic is called “hard selling,” and a pretty crude kind at that. I guarantee anyone who sees a message like this will frown and close it right away, with no desire to click.

I’m sharing this today as an example and a reminder: although “grabbing attention” is now a required course for creators, this kind of “hard selling” not only doesn’t work, it also upsets people.

I hope everyone finds a way to market themselves. Let’s keep going!

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Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #150: Café, Library or Home—Where’s the Best Place to Work?
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.