Radar and Fleshbot awesomeness and shameless self-promotion the hard way

Radar went to a recent Playgirl party and reviewed the mag, giving a mention to my anthology Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z.



And the fabulous folks at crazy hot Fleshbot blogged my He's on Top/She's on Top kinky virtual book tour! It starts this Sunday, April Fool's Day (for real) over at Viviane's Sex Carnival. From April 1st through May 5th, you'll get giveaways, reviews, excerpts, and deep thoughts about dominance and submission!



When I was in Oregon people kept asking about my book "tour." I don't think they quite understand that I pay my own way for all my travel, and bought 90 extra copies each of my books to do this promotion and a lot of other promo (like take an ad out on Susie Bright's blog. Hopefully it'll pay off, but I've spent out most of my advance. By choice; it's a calculated risk, one I can take because I have other money coming in and because, frankly, otherwise I don't really know how to spread the word about my books. I feel like I've been gifted with these brilliant, gorgeous covers, and I'm so proud of every single dirty story in these two; there's no filler, no iffiness, no things I'm not that cool with. Recently, another publisher I'd worked with in the past, Alyson, chose to cancel one of the anthologies I co-edited for them, called Second Skin. I was sad, because my co-editor and I put a lot of work into it and the three previous books in the Fetish Chest series, but at the same time, it made me realize that publishers, especially ones new to the erotica field, don't always know what they're doing and can come up with unsellable ideas just as easily as us authors can. When you're really broke or in debt, you have to jump at any opportunity given to you, and I did, and we put those first three out at breakneck speed. I have my own ideas about why they didn't sell all that well, largely to do with the covers, content (an equal mix of straight, lesbian, and gay erotica) and placement (I believe they are in the gay/lesbian section of most stores, due to being published by Alyson, but am not really sure). I still think those are great books but have to put my energies into the ones I'm most passionate about. I'll also always be the kind of person who wants to know what's being said/written about me, and wants to take an active part in the publicity process. I know that can only be a boon next year when working with Bantam (part of Random House) to promote my first novel, Everything But... I'm not saying I know everything, but I do feel that I know the erotica market pretty damn well, both in terms of selling my work, editing anthologies, and figuring out which media outlets might bite.

I hear and observe a lot of authors pretty much leaving everything up to someone else, and I can't speak for them, but for me, that'd be a mistake. I'm a control freak about a lot of things and I want to know what's happening with my books, and also, for me, I got into all this not so much to make money (though clearly I want that), but because it's something important to me. Though my erotica has largely, though not entirely, shifted from true, personal stories to actual fiction, it's still me writing it, and I still cover topics I care about. I miss the sex journalism I used to do but am looking for new outlets for that, but am also welcoming the freedom fiction gives me. Sometimes it is a tough balance between the creative work and the marketing work, but I also find a real satisfaction in it. Plus I get to indulge my post office fetish and feel a little bit more connected to my readers. Sending out postcards all over the country has been really cool and whether or not those people buy books, I like having a little piece of something I created to hand out. For me, that is always the most exciting part, to take an idea from the mere idea stage and turn it into something people can hold in their hands, can savor, can jerk off to. I sometimes forget that that's what erotica is for, which sounds odd, I know, but I'm in it and surrounded by it all the time, so it's rarer now that I get so lost in it, but show me a good story, and my body reacts. I think these books tap into really elemental, key parts of some people's sexuality - at least, I hope they do - and knowing that, I hope I've done them justice. All this to say that I'm very invested in how my books do, not just for ego or financial purposes, but because they're a part of me. They're my babies, though I think I am definitely playing favorites with my books much more than I will do with my babies. Yes, I want a couple of those someday too. Like three, or four.

I think doing your own publicity, as my friend Audacia Ray has written about, teaches you about what works and what doesn't. It allows you to try innovations like this virtual book tour, and I think there is also something about the personal contact, as opposed to the publicist pitch, that can help. I deal with publicists about book reviews all the time and they're courteous and helpful, and refer people to my books' publicists when I need to, but even leaving aside my post office fetish, I think over the last six or seven years I've gotten pretty good at publicizing my readings and events. It's hard, and there's a lot to stay on top of; you can't just mail stuff off and forget about it. I saw my Powell's reading listed in The Oregonian, via Google news alert, but had to be told that it got a very nice plug in The Portland Mercury. I think it's all valuable, but it does come at the expense of, and uses a different area of my brain's creative energies, writing at times. I've never been the hide away in an attic type of writer, and while I don't often physically write in public (though I did file a piece that's running tomorrow, on cupcakes - I think it's my first paid gig writing about cupcakes - from the Portland airport), I think getting your name out there, forcing yourself to overcome the nerves and do readings, is valuable and can be fun.



Speaking of book promotion, the fabulous Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube (which I also recommend for those of you, like me, who work full-time, and to men), looks for affordable printers and quotes some of the stats I found. I wound up getting my She's on Top promo postcards, which I'm bringing/sending to bookstores and sex toy stores and mailing out to interested readers (want one? email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "postcard" in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the body) from 1-800-POSTCARDS, because they were local and I thought I'd get them before SXSW. That didn't happen, but I am still really happy with their service. I also chose them because they did some of the layout work for me for only $25 extra, because I have ZERO brain for design. Next time, I'd go with 4 X 6 instead of 3.5 X 5.5, but still, I'm happy. And still have well over 4,000 postcards, which I'm sure I'll be using and handing out for a long time to come. (Thanks again to this Saturday's Spextravaganza organizer and Girl With Glasses author Marissa Walsh for the 1-800-POSTCARDS tip.)