Promotion: A Whole ‘Nother Thing

Since I now have a tentative publishing date for Safe House, my second mystery to come out in print, I’m gearing up for promotion–and finding that the whole ball game has changed since the first book, Safe Beginnings came out.
First off, learning how to promote after the solitary act of writing requires a whole different mindset. You have to be available on so many fronts when you promote. Bigger publishers put the book out for review and maybe (if you’re lucky) get you an ad somewhere. My publisher is small so it’s all on me. I have to decide if I will make the advanced readers copies (Help!) that I send out for review myself or if I will go to Lulu and have them made (Anybody got an opinion?). I have to keep track of deadlines. Who requires the book four to five months before publication–or no review? Who will take it after publication?
I’ve already had a mystery website or two contact me about getting a page on their sites for advertising. I have to pay for that from my own pocket of course. Just as it’s up to me to get a website, maintain it, have a presence on mystery related groups like yahoo’s mystery most cozy and on mystery forums like Crimespace and to blog regularly enough to keep my name in some search engine somewhere. And should I do a blog tour? What about chats?
This is apart from lining up booksignings and discussions in the real world and having a life and a job and a family. Like most writers, I knew all of this going in. But I wanted to write anyway.
But this world of promotion and push is a long way from the world of creativity and craft that we usually talk about here. Is writing too commercial now? Could you write if no one ever read it? Or is that just defeating the purpose?