Marketing for Authors
As writers, we spend hours, days, years, months spilling words onto a page, creating stories, and revising. This is the art form we love. What we are not prepared for is the marketing. Well, some of us may be, but I don’t think all of us are. Marketing is a huge part of our success.
In this day and age we need a plethora of tools to promote the story and capture our readers. We need a website, and an author’s newsletter. We need to be on Instagram, Twitter, Book Tok, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. We need to generate a following and invite people to join our mailing list.
How do we do this?
First off, know yourself, to be successful in marketing make two lists.
Demographics: age, favorite books, movies, hobbies, family, friends, likes and dislikes.
Psychographics: book topics, themes, interests, what you are reading, watching and music you like.
Start writing down what you talk about, your passions! Know your whys! Why do write in the genre you write? Why do your characters act a certain way? Why is there a common underlying theme? Your WHY is what motivates you.
All of this goes into your newsletter, your blog and on your website. Make a schedule and keep to it. Send your newsletter out and invite people to follow you. You want people to google your name, find you, like you and want to know you.
Look at it as a grand adventure. This is our story brought to life. We have created the baby. We have found the throne and now we need to get the baby to the kingdom. In order to do that, we need to leave our solitary tower and journey through the land of marketing to the castle at the end. We will be beset by monsters, demons of our own. Fear of failure. Fear of not knowing what to do. Fear of not being smart enough. And we will face our inner judge who tells we are worthless, dabblers in the craft and should quit. We will despair and want to give up and some of us will. But remember the hero’s journey. Turn to those around you who have made it to the kingdom, listen to them, learn from them. Drink their knowledge and guidance like a magical elixir.
In order for our dream to succeed we have to believe in ourselves. We have to know we can conquer the world. We can do this.
Written by Gina Grissom