Writing, promotion, tips, and opinion. Pour a cuppa your favorite poison and join in.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Marketing. Are you too busy to do it?

 
I've heard it all before.

I don’t have time to market my book.
Publicity is not my style.
I’m really shy.
Perhaps you’re all of the above. Maybe you have other excuses. But let me tell you this. From the day you put a The End to your beloved manuscript, marketing is All. You’ll. Do.

No one gives a flying fig about your book. No one cares as much as you do. No one can offer a compelling reason to read your book.

Except for you.

At UnicornBell, we talk about critiquing those first chapters, that important first page, and who to send them to. But nothing gets you published if No One Reads It. Not the best written chapter in the history of literature or most alluring book ever. Nope. Nada. Nothing.

To draw people into your world, you must write a compelling hook. I mean, those fish won’t just leap into the boat, folks. You start with a query, a sentence, a unique idea that brings readers to your ms.

Taglines, queries, synopsis, blurbs; these are your first marketing tools. You must learn them in order to be a part of this writerly world. Establish your platform in social media with blogging, websites, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Goodreads.

And regarding blogging, informative material is All. If no one follows you, if there are no spectators then you are not marketing yourself well. Alex Cavanaugh is one of the best examples of a well-run, informative, and consistent blog. He comments on nearly all of his followers' blogs, a mighty accomplishment to be sure. It creates loyalty and connects him with his followers.

Some believe the real marketing begins after the contract with bling prizes, bloghops, and book tours. And yes, that will be a big part of your life when it happens. But before all that, marketing yourself is the one and only relevant tool in your mechanics box.

If you think writing the novel was the hard part, I want to give you a heads up. If you don’t market your manuscript, nothing will come of it.

Learn how to market. There is no other way.

7 comments:

D.G. Hudson said...

Yes, we don't like the admin part, but it's a necessary part of the process.

Even submitting is admin, but a book can't go anywhere, if you don't send it out to play.

Great advice.

DMS said...

So true! It is important to get the word out there and market our books! Otherwise- no one will know about them.

I am always impressed that Alex is able to respond back to so many followers/commenters. I think it is important to follow-up with our blog readers- but he must spend hours! :)

Excellent advice!
~Jess

mshatch said...

Yeah, this is the part I'm not so fond of but, if I want my dream to come true there's really only one person who can make that happen: me! Hence me joining twitter, trying to post on my FB page more often, and even thinking of getting my own author website.

Liz A. said...

Of course, everything is marketing. Every comment. Every interaction. Every time you do something online. Or in the real world.

Sigh.

dolorah said...

Blogging was an attempt to create a web presence for when the novel sells. And to learn valuable writing and marketing techniques from other authors.

Still, gotta market to more than just bloggers, who are also authors marketing their novels . .

........dhole

mshatch said...

@ Donna, partially true. There are lots of people who blog that aren't writers; they're knitters, artists, bird watchers, cat lovers, etc. I read something about following blogs that AREN'T about writing and thereby cultivating readers who aren't writers in order to broaden your fan base.

Terri K Rowe said...

It was definitely the part of being published that I was least prepared for-and it is always a challenge.