Marketing and Authors

I have been working on Marketing and PR Work with the UCLA Extension program and one of the participants provide three big concepts that I think you all need to consider. For these participants, they have really been in a closed bubble, learning material on writing like many would do in a Creative Writing MFA program. For them, they only saw the writing side of their career and not how to actually turn it into business.

Take-away #1: That when someone is an author, they are also a business and they'll have to do some business things.

This is a big one and something I try to talk about here as well. When you become a professional writer, you are now in the world of publishing AS A BUSINESS! You will be devoting a lot of your time now on marketing, on promotion and many things that do not involve the latest scene with your character facing the conflict you threw at them. You will have to invest time, and yes, likely money, to get your name out there. Competition is fierce in publishing and those who promote will be those who make it.

Take-away #2: That book marketing isn't about the latest new thing.

This is one that is often hyped up at conferences, workshops and by those you bring into your writing chapters as real experts. These are the people who claim that if you use their approach, you will make it! I call you know what on that one. Just because there is a new gimmick out there in technology DOES NOT mean that your book will sell. Just because your best friend who writes New Adult Dystopian stories is rocking it on TikTok does not mean your Inspirational romance set in Willow Prairie, North Carolina where your heroine gave up her legal career to open a muffin and stationary store (yes I made it up) will do well on that same platform. Marketing is about audience analysis. Marketing is about researching and adapting to your readers. New is not always better. 

Take-away #3: That book tours are only a part of book marketing and that digital marketing makes up the bulk of it. 

I am in no way going to say book tours are bad, but as this person found out, there is a lot more to this. Digital marketing is where people are at now. Everyone lives on their phones. Yes, digital is a big element of your marketing plan, but you still have to remember something...

PEOPLE WILL ONLY KNOW ABOUT YOUR PROMOTIONS

IF

THEY ARE ALREADY FOLLOWING YOU!

If readers do know know you, they will not discover you. If you are a new author, or someone with a small following, you have to figure out how to increase that audience. Just posting more is not going to get you new readers. All you are doing is preaching to the choir and filling up the phones and computers of the people who already know you.

To be successful will require you thinking outside of the box!