It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time for another action-packed installment of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
(If you’re new to the IWSG, or just interested in more information and/or a complete list of participants, click on the above link.)
This month’s co-hosts are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner, Sandra Cox, and Louise Fundy Blue.
This month’s (optional) question asks, “Being a writer, when you’re reading someone else’s work, what stops you from finishing a book, throws you out of the story and/or frustrates you the most about other people’s books?”
But I’m going to skip that question in order to ramble incoherently talk about a subject about which I know nothing but how much I don’t want to do it.
Marketing.
If you happened to have read my last post, you may remember that one of my goals this year is to attempt to make some kind of monthly attempt at marketing.
This goal came out of an exchange with my sweet babboo (I have no idea if I’m spelling that correctly. But, fortunately, neither does Auto Correct…) that happened toward the end of last year. I received a message from one of the Evil Social Media sites telling me I could use their Evil Social Media Business Service to help my business.
I snorted in derision and said aloud, “That shows what you know, Evil Social Media Site. I don’t have a business.”
To which my sweet babboo (Ha. That time, Auto Correct changed it to ‘bamboo’) responded, “Yes, you do.”
Which was followed by a moment of confusion followed by the realization that I do, in fact, have a business.
Needless to say, I do not excel at marketing.
Among other things.
So this led me to ponder whether I should maybe possibly kind of put forth maybe just a tiny bit of effort in the marketing department. But here’s the thing…I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS. Just thinking about doing it in any way, shape, or form makes me feel physically horrible. Just the idea of saying something like, “Hey, I wrote a book” to someone feels physically horrible.
I seriously cannot stress enough how goddamn horrible I feel.
For a while, I thought it might get better, easier, if I kept at it. If I kept stepping out of my comfort zone, I would grow more accustomed to it. That…didn’t happen. It only felt worse to the point where I took every event off my schedule even before the pandemic would have done it for me.
When my sweet babboo (No, Auto Correct. Not Bambi) asked why, I told him I needed to feel not horrible for a while.
And that was that.
Which is why my goal is to attempt to make an attempt at marketing. I’m going test the waters and see how it feels (I’ll go out on a limb and say…horrible?) and go from there.
I don’t know how to do it or where to start or anything except (again) how much I don’t want to do it, but it’ll be an experiment.
We’ll see how far I get.
Again, just a guess…
What are your goals for the year? How do you handle marketing? Any advice for me?
Thanks for stopping by today, folks. I’ll try to do better the next time.
Stay safe and well.
Find ways that don’t make you feel uncomfortable. There are sites both free and paid that will do the work for you.
I’ve found that just word of mouth, through early reviews and fellow bloggers spreading the word, does the best job.
I wish I had good advice. I’ve read good advice and attempted to follow it. I have a newsletter now and plan to keep it going this time, but…yikes, marketing.
If you find out the secrets to magical marketing, please let me know.
I hear ya!!!
I’ve decided that my best marketing is going to be Writing The Next Book. I’m going to spend most of my time doing that. I did it for 2020 and it makes me happy.
I’m also going to apply for a BookBub featured deal (ack!) and get some paid newsletter slots. I did one last year (Fussy Librarian) and it was effective.
And that’s probably it for me aside from the occasional tweet/post.
In summary … marketing is hard & I’m not very good at it!
Whooboy. I’ve given up on any sort of marketing attempts. Maybe, if it makes you feel so horrible, find someone to do the marketing for you. Have them manage social media and go to events with you to say “hey, did you know she wrote a book?” Got any friends like that?
Marketing is such a pain and I don’t do it nearly as much as I should. I’ve done plenty of webinars that taught me how to do some things, like Amazon Ads, but I haven’t put any of that knowledge to use. I will say advertising on Fussy Librarian was worth it so you might look into them, especially if they still have the freebie deal going on for authors using them for the first time.
I have to do it for 3-6 books of different genres every year. Want to trade?
Well, I’m eager to learn from what you do. It might be helpful for me someday.
Marketing is not my favorite area…although I do love meeting all of the kids and people at events. Still, pushing my own books for sale purposes pushes my comfort zone pretty hard. If only books would market themselves.
Direct marketing is usually ugly and painful–whether someone is trying to sell to me or I’m trying to sell to someone else. My tactic has been to channel the part of me that is a teacher, and look at “marketing” as sharing knowledge. I post about my whys and wherefores, including links to my work, but very seldom making the focus of a post HEY BUY MY BOOK! That’s probably indirect marketing at best, but it leaves me feeling less yucky and more like I’m just sharing what I love.
I don’t want to do it either. I gave up marketing. I feel you. LOL. Let me know if you come up with a solution 😉
P.S. I don’t think anyone wants to do it?!
You make me laugh at the same time I’m in complete agreement with you. Happy New Year.
Ah yes, the blinding fear of how to do it and what to do and what if it doesn’t work and how do I even begin? I wish I had some answers for you. Alas… I think I’d say figure out one thing you like to do, and see how far that takes you.
If you learn anything or find anything that seems to work, do let us know. I hate marketing too, but unfortunately you do have to do it if you want to sell books.