Writer Biz #6 - The ‘M’ Word

Ahh, one word sure to strike fear into the heart of an author. M-m-m-marketing. These days most authors are expected to promote their own books. Let me put it another way. Unless your last name is Roberts, Brown, King, or Evanovich to name a few, you’d better be promoting your books.

Take a quick moment, and think about it. If you don’t promote your books, who will? Who knows your story better than you do? Who could possibly be more passionate about your story than you? Who knows what audience your story is intended for, better than you do? Wait. Were you caught up on that last one?

If your answer to the last question is, Well, everyone, silly. Everyone reads. Or maybe the answer is, I wrote it for women. They like love stories. Let’s not forget this, Everyone reads vampire stories, right, Edward? No, Dorothy. They don’t.

We need to chat. For clarification, I’m talking about primarily about eBooks. If you’re a print author, you’re welcome to tag along. The point is, eBooks are electronic books. We have the whole internet to promote on, right?

If you’ve chosen the eBook route to publication, like me, maybe you share this feeling. It’s like someone threw me into the middle of the ocean and said, Okay, honey, swim for it. Some days it’s like someone has thrown the internet at me, and said, Here little girl, go sell your book.

Allll-rightey, then, where do I start?

With a plan. Over the next few sessions we’ll talk about marketing plans and what they are, and what they can, and can’t do for you. Now don’t get stressed out. It’s not hard, and you don’t have to create thirty stone tablets or anything.