According to most websites directed toward marketing, especially marketing writing, I’m doing this all wrong. I should have spent time upfront building a following for my writing, dropping hints about my forthcoming project to build interest and momentum. Heck supposedly, I should have done research about what was a popular hot topic and then wrote about that. An older post on 11 Tried and Tested Strategies for Marketing your e-Book drives home my reverse timeline.
Instead, I had the nerve to focus on learning about the craft of writing and spending a lot of time editing to create a story I was proud of. I wrote something I enjoyed, spending hours of free time immersed in a world I created and wanted to share. You know, I wouldn’t change a thing.
It would be nice to have e-published and had a huge following to lift sales figures. But the nice thing about a book is that it doesn’t grow old. It can still be for sale 2 years, 5 years, even 10+ years from now. But that doesn’t get me off the hook from learning marketing. No one will buy Born of Water if they don’t know about it. Now that I’ve written something and chosen to sell it, the success of how many I sell is not only about the quality of writing but also about the ability to market.
While researching this new realm (to me!) of marketing, I stumbled across the blog A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing by Joe Konrath, a best selling author both in print and electronic. I like his cut to the chase style. His suggestions at the post What Works: Promos for e-Books just make sense to me. Maybe that is because I want to hear that it is never too late to build an audience or that driving around the country for book signings or paying big for ads isn’t the guarantee – or only option – to getting sales. The idea of ‘in your face’ advertising is a huge turn off for me. It just isn’t my nature. Do I have to change who I am to be successful? It is the same question as asking ‘do I have to change what I write to make it as an author?” If I do, is it worth it to me?
But that gets into defining what exactly is success. Multimillion dollars? Just a few hundred thousand? A few blogs I follow like the Art of Non-Conformity and Disrupting the Rabblement have been talking about defining success – FOR YOURSELF. But I’ll get in to that . . . in the next post.
Till then, deciding how to begin tacking the marketing mountain is what is on my mind. I expect, just like with writing, there will be a lot of starts and stops, directions that don’t work, and tons of learning to be had. I’m looking at joining some writer’s forums. Something I shied away from while writing afraid they’d be a time sink. I’m still writing, but spending at least a few hours each week marketing and networking have come to be equally important.
I’ve also recreated my Facebook account. My first inclination was to put all my settings to private. Um, probably not the best move when I’m trying to network! Yes, I do have a very long road ahead. There are days I think I should have gone with a pseudonym. It would be easier to pretend to be someone else like Weifarer rather than open up bits of my life to everyone – anyone. But I’ve come to realize the important part is the word ‘bits’. I don’t have to be all over the map talking about puppies playing in the morning, car problems, what I’m making for dinner. I can talk about writing. Even on Facebook. That makes it a little less scary to me.
With that in mind, I guess it is time to finish this update and try to connect Facebook to my Author’s Page at Amazon. Does anyone out there have any marketing tips and ideas to share? Do you think you have to change yourself to be successful?
Related articles
- Apropos ‘The Myth of the Bestseller’ by Joe Konrath (susannefromsweden.wordpress.com)
- The perils of self-promotion – Amanda Egan (blogupnorth.wordpress.com)