It’s no secret that for many, many writers, marketing and promotion is much harder than doing the actual writing (and even if the writing is hard at times, I would hope we at least enjoy doing it).
I, perhaps unsurprisingly, fall into this category. I’ve never really been a “people person,” in general, and while the internet makes interacting with others easier in several respects, I’m still not quite as active as I ought to be. Additionally, I’m not by nature a “pushy” person, and to an extent that does help in online marketing and promotion, as you need some of that to approach people with your book. Thus far, I’ve also done some marketing/promotion in the real world, mostly through giving out my card, which had info on my book, and by leaving a few at places I frequent. I also did a small talk/book signing, but that was really more a local friends/community thing.
Fortunately, while I still have a lot to learn as I strive to make my writing my sole job and full time career, there are plenty of great resources that help make things more manageable/understandable. These are all articles that I have read and found helpful and informative, and I’ll probably need to read through them all again to fully process all the information they contain as I further develop my marketing and promotion strategies.
First we have two posts by Russel Newquist. In the first, he talks about the fact that effective promotion does, most of the time, require a monetary investment, and gives some great advice on working on that. In the second, which itself links to a couple other posts on the subject and is kind of part of a larger conversation that was had about the topic, he talks about the importance of having a marketing/promotional plan.
The next article was the result of a large survey taken of authors, and Ferol discusses many of his findings in looking at what successful authors do differently from those that find less success. It’s a fairly long, dense read, but that’s because it’s packed full of interesting and useful information.
Rounding out this short list is another long but densely packed article, written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She focuses her discussion on the topic of brand image, which is closely related to one’s discoverability. Lots of great stuff here, so give it a look.
Don’t have too much more to add right now, other than to mention that I will very much be working on this for the next couple of months.
For now, though, I will mention that I will once again join Brian Niemeier tomorrow on his podcast, Geek Gab: On the Books, at 4pm Eastern time, where we’ll be talking about cover art and the general cover art process.
And, what would a post about marketing be without a little of my own. My debut novel, A Greater Duty, has been out for a while now, but I’m currently hard at work on the sequel, which I plan to release on the Fall. I’m going to need a couple of beta readers before too long, so if you’re interested in that, the best (and only) way to prepare for that is to read A Greater Duty, which is now available for purchase on Amazon.
That’s all for now. Remember to keep reading, writing, etc, and be sure to check out Geek Gab: On the Books tomorrow at 4pm Eastern.
Writing, Ascendant 