October 11, 2022Earlier this year I set myself to the task of posting a promotion on Facebook for every book in the Men of Marionville collection. I must love abuse.
All-in-all it's going well. In some of the groups I've achieved my goal and all twelve Marionville stories are posted. But along the way, I discovered many new and new-to-me groups so I got a later start on them, but I think that's okay. I don't mind different groups getting different promos on the same day. Why not spread the joy around? Of course, I won't make the goal in some of the new-to-me groups and I'm fine with that, too. The sky won't fall and I'll just keep on going until the Marionville stories are all posted in those groups.
I'm sure there is an easier way to post in all the groups. I was around back in the days of the Yahoo groups when each group had a mail-to addy. If you created a mailing list, you could send out to all the groups with just a few clicks. With Facebook, I like to visit each group and check the status of my content. That's how I locate groups I need to abandon for not approving my posts.
I have a spreadsheet that I would be lost without. I list every promo group I'm in, its URL, how many members, and if it's public or private. Another column tracks the day and book I posted a promo for, plus any other pertinent notes such as if a post went into review.
Yeah. Into review. Most group moderators are right there. They approve a post within hours and I'm very appreciative of that. Then there are some other groups where the same post has been hanging in purgatory for several months with no indication of why.
Out of necessity, I added a new worksheet to the spreadsheet and I'm transferring those "unapproving" groups to that sheet. In all of them, I already have posts and maybe on some rainy day, I'll go back and see if my last post ever got approved. If so, I may post the next book in the series, but I will not put them back on the main page to be part of my rotation.
Does this mean I'm cutting off avenues of promotion? Not at all. For every group I abandon, two new groups crop up. What I have to prioritize is my time. Time is a valuable commodity even for us old retirees who don't have to punch a time clock. Maybe even more so because I've fallen victim to one of the major perils of retirement - I have way, way, way too much I want to do in one day!
I doubt very much I'm the only author who keeps track of promos and whose time is too valuable to waste. I'm just whining a bit.
If you're a newer author, it pays to keep track of where you promote. If you're a more established author, it pays to keep track of where you promote. I have seventy published works and if I don't record the promotion, I could end up flagged because I've posted the same thing over and over and annoyed a group administrator. That would not be good.
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KC Kendricks, Between the Keys, Facebook promotions, group reviews, contemporary gay romance, m/m romance, a writer's life, honesty, time management, country living, rural lifestyle
