Five Marketing Tools for Authors Who Hate Marketing
By Grace Wynter | February 9, 2018 |
Disclaimer: Hating marketing is not required to use these tools. In fact, if you enjoy marketing, you’ll have a blast using them.
I’m active in several online writing communities, and one of the most frequent things I read about is how much authors hate marketing. It’s usually accompanied by talk about art and creativity, and once in a while someone tosses this suggestion across the virtual meeting room: all you have to do is write a great story and they will come.
Except, thousands of writers have written thousands of great stories and no one, except their parents and their Uncle Bobby in Poughkeepsie, ever came. The hard truth is—whether your path to publishing is via the traditional, indie, or hybrid route—if you want a sustainable writing career that involves receiving income and reaching as much of your target audience as possible, you’ll need to do some marketing. If your target audience is Uncle Bobby in Poughkeepsie, you’re probably that one writer who won’t need to market.
Mention marketing to many authors and the conversation comes to a screeching halt. Marketing can seem like a complex equation that includes long and short-term strategies, talk of ROI, and aliens. Okay, maybe not aliens, but for some, marketing can feel otherworldly. But in its simplest form, marketing is just this: it’s the stories we tell about our stories. How, when, and how often we tell these stories become our marketing plan, whether we ever intentionally create a plan at all. If you’re a writer and you’re on social media, have a website, blog, or even just talk about your work with friends, you’re already marketing. So here are five inexpensive and relatively easy-to-use tools to help optimize the marketing you’re already doing.
Facebook Shop Template
Most of us know we can create an author page on Facebook, and while recent changes to the platform’s algorithms make Facebook pages feel even more inaccessible, it still makes sense for authors to have one. For starters, it can be an effective way to communicate with fans, especially if you use it to create a private Facebook group. But one underutilized benefit of the author Facebook page is the ability to sell books from the platform. You’ll need to start by making sure you set your page up as a shopping template. Written Word Media has a great post that walks you step-by-step through optimizing your Facebook page as a sales funnel. You can find that tutorial here.
Creative Indie’s Slide Deck
On his Creative Indie website, Derek Murphy has developed a PowerPoint slide deck that can be used to create personalized promotions, book launch announcements, and ads. The deck doesn’t require high-level skills and is free to use. I used the deck to create the image below, using a JPEG of the Author in Progress book cover. You can access the slides and Derek’s instructional blog post here.
Lumen5 Video Creator
According to KPCP’s Internet Trends Report, in 2017 video content represented 74% of all internet traffic. Lumen5 is a video creation platform that allows anyone to create social videos. What makes Lumen5 fabulous—yes, I said fabulous—is that it allows you to create videos from blog posts you’ve already written. Told you it was fabulous. Just drag and drop content, then add your own photos and you’ll have a video in minutes. Lumen has both free and paid versions of its product.
Freepik
Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images (Buffer). Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without (Buzzsumo). Image is queen in the land of social media, and that’s why sites like Freepik can help authors gain entry into the royal court. And if you’re handy with Photoshop or other graphics software, Freepik offers many more options for creating promotional images. I used a Freepik vector image and Photoshop to create this post’s featured image.
Linktree for Instagram
If image is queen, Instagram, with its 800 million active users, has its eye on the throne. The photo-driven platform simplifies storytelling by restricting its content to images. But if you use Instagram you know that unlike Facebook and Twitter it doesn’t allow links in posts, and you’re only allowed one link in your profile. Fortunately, there’s an app for that. Linktree is a free tool that allows you to drive traffic to your various social media platforms via one optimized bio link.
Bonus tip: Whenever you share images and information on social media, include hashtags. Hashtags are like categories in bookstores, grouping posts by subject matter and directing people to content they’re interested in, whether they follow you or not.
Do you plan on adding any of these tools to your marketing toolbox? What are you currently using to share stories about your stories?
Featured image credit: Freepik
[coffee]
Grace Wynter is an author, editor, and workshop facilitator. She has an MBA from Georgia State University and a Professional Certificate in Editing from the University of Chicago. She has conducted workshops for organizations such as Writer Unboxed, Wake Up and Write!, Sisters in Crime, and the Atlanta Writers Club where she is also a freelance editor for their biannual Atlanta Writers Conference. Her editing clients include traditional publishers such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, and Hachette, and an array of indie publishers and self-published authors. Grace is the community architect behind Tessera Creatives, an online directory that connects authors and publishers with skilled, culturally competent freelance creatives who provide services for the publishing industry.
When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, Grace resides in Atlanta, Georgia. You can connect with her at GraceWynter.com.
“The hard truth is—whether your path to publishing is via the traditional, indie, or hybrid route—if you want a sustainable writing career that involves receiving income and reaching as much of your target audience as possible, you’ll need to do some marketing.”
This hard truth just about ruined my career more than once. I was very, very reluctant to hawk my work. It seemed so anti-creative, so craven.
I’m no longer that person, but I still struggle to know how to market effectively. Thanks so much for this post, Grace.
Marketing gets a bad rap, and I understand why. When its executed poorly it can seem “craven” or crass. But, I think as storytellers we’re in a unique position to make marketing our own because at its core, marketing *is* storytelling. And it can be creative when done well. That said, I’m probably a little biased because marketing was my concentration in grad school. ;-) Thanks for reading, Barbara, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Grace, Linktree for Instagram sounds interesting. I might look into that. I don’t post a lot on Instagram because I can’t link my ReadingFictionBlog posts, which is a main source to attract readers to my website where they can see my book covers, stories, reviews, awards, etc., and get acquainted with my writing. I do see book sales from visitors at my blog. I have to say though marketing effectively is an ever changing landscape. I’ve tried Facebook groups, Goodreads groups, Google+ groups, Twitter, Pinterest. I agree with Barbara, authors must do some kind of marketing. So far for me, the two most productive sources are my blog and Amazon Ads–which have definitely increased readership, sales, and great exposure for author platform.
Paula, I’m just now dipping my toes into the Amazon ads waters, and holy cow! I’ve got a lot to learn, but I find it all very exciting, and I’m looking forward to coming up with the combination of tactics that work best for me and my brand. Thanks for reading and sharing your experiences with marketing!
snort…only someone with a marketing degree could say their excited about diving in with Amazon ads.
Really
So, for me personally, as a book consumer: FB author page – don’t have one; video – avoid it like the plague (if there’s text I can read instead, I choose it 95% of the time); Twitter – I check in two to three times a week, and can’t remember the last time I loaded an image there (outside of retweets); Instagram – not there (tried to join a couple of times, but it’s a platform that seems to exist solely for phone/tablet use, which I would very rarely access).
So for me as an aspiring author, yes – this is going to be a challenge. Guess grampaw better change his curmudgeoney ways. Thanks for the heads-up, Grace! I’ll try to stop shouting at youngsters on my lawn now.
Hey there, Mr. Get Off My Lawn! LOL
I hear you. As a reader, I choose reading stories over videos every time, and Instagram took a lot of getting used to because I don’t do most of my reading and browsing via my phone. So, I’m shouting on my lawn right next to you. But… I’ve found that the bulk of my readers are opening my emails via their phones, the vast majority of my sales are in ebooks, and these youngsters aren’t going anywhere. So, I meet them in the middle. I post long-form content *and* videos and images. I try to post on Instagram and Twitter weekly, but post on Facebook almost daily.
I think if we remember that part of what our readers and fans want to hear from us is about our process and why we write what we write. They care about our characters and their lives. Take heart in the fact that fans will consume that information however you present it to them, even if you shout it at the top of your lungs from your front lawn. :-)
and my friends laugh about my flip phone…
This is exactly what I needed to read! I have a book coming out April 1, and am bewildered by the whole marketing process. Thanks so much, Grace!
Loretta, I understand feeling overwhelmed. But remember, you don’t have to do everything all at once, you don’t have to do everything at all. Do as much as you can, when you can, as often as you can. Optimize the things you’re already doing then work to incorporate additional tactics along the way. Most of all, try to enjoy this moment. You’re about to become a published author! Congratulations!
Grace, what a treasure trove you’ve offered us today! I am not a lover of tech but I’m learning to just say yes to it and see where it takes me. When the time comes, I’m going to try all of your suggestions because after all the hard work of writing a book, I’m determined to help it fly.
Thanks, Susan! And yes, learning to say “yes” opens up doors we never thought possible. I look forward to hearing about how these marketing tools work for you.
Thanks so much for the info about Freepik. I use Pexels and Pixabay for graphics for my blog. This is a great addition. Much appreciated!
Thanks, Karen! I use Pixabay, Canstock Photo, and Unsplash for images, but I love that Freepik includes so many vector images.
I suggest unsplash.com too
Thank you, Grace! Generous, useful and timely information.
My pleasure, Ann! I hope these help you in your marketing efforts.
I’m going to take a look at all of these tools you’ve mentioned. I’m on these platforms, but I’m not suing them effectively for marketing. Part of my problem with marketing has been less but-it’s-art thinking and more I-can’t-possibly-ask-people-for-money and other-issues-from-childhood. Obviously, I ought to be over that by now.
Thanks for putting this together, Grace.
Marta, that’s such a common mental barrier we face as creatives. As Barbara said above, it can feel “craven” to ask for money. But try to think of marketing as an extension of your stories. It’s not so much asking for money, it’s asking to be seen and to be heard, and all creatives deserve that, including you.
I was on your Facebook page just yesterday and wondered how you’d managed to set up a shop, so thank you for that!
If you don’t mind me asking, how do readers respond to seeing a store there? Is it like a newsletter pop-up or scroll box in that people might complain but it’s still effective? (Like a previous commenter, I have struggles around legitimacy, so this could be a while coming on my page.)
Hi, Jan. The shop shows up in the left-hand column of your page and is pinned before page posts. I haven’t had any complaints or had anyone leave the page. That said, as you know, Facebook organic page discovery is pretty low, but I think it’s a good idea to have it there for people who reach your page looking for their next read. And I know for a fact that people have ordered books through those links. I think it’s about casting nets wide and making it easy for people to buy from us whenever they touch one of our properties.
Great roundup, Grace! I had looked at CreativIndie’s deck a while back but forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for the suggestions.
It’s a combination (and I haven’t figured out the right one yet): marketing and all related skills + putting the information in front of the right readers.
I’m writing a mainstream literary love story with a disabled main character (of three) – and when I attract Romance readers, they invariably don’t like it. I understand perfectly – I don’t write Romance, don’t follow the conventions, don’t have a Romance cover…
And the indie techniques which have worked so well for many Romance writers, including where they advertise, do nothing for me.
So far all the offers/services I’ve received or checked out within a reasonable budget don’t fit. I’m still looking, as I think I have a great story, and there has to be a way…
I have bookmarked your first three tips – will see if I can shoehorn my book and myself into one of their suggestions.
I’m another one who struggles with promo. I FB, Tweet etc. but with very little faith that my efforts will make any difference to my sales.
However I do recall that I bought Eloisa James’s “My year in Paris” book (I forget the actual title) solely as a result of the tweets she posted while she lived in Paris. Each tweet was a tiny bundle of Parisian gorgeousness in 140 characters.
She wasn’t shrieking “Buy my book!” which is, I think, the thing that makes so many of us cringe. But she was giving us stories, little vignettes, special moments, observations, 140 characters at a time. And I ate them up — and a year or so later bought the book.
These words resonated, and reminded me of those tweets and why they worked for me: “in its simplest form, marketing is just this: it’s the stories we tell about our stories. ” Thank you.
Grace, YOU CHANGED MY LIFE. Lumen5? That software makes even me look like Fellini. And I never ever would have heard of it if it weren’t for you. If you’d like a shrine erected in your honor, just say the word.
Here’s what I did in just one afternoon because you were kind enough to share good information.
https://www.facebook.com/StaceyKeithAuthor/posts/169219040364058
Okay! So, I’ve added Linktree to instagram, and that seems good. And I’ve just finished my first video on Lumen5. It’s just a beginner sort of thing, but I am happy about it! Woo! Thanks!
Yes! I’m going to try them all! Thanks!
And remember – if you’re going to use images, write image descriptions! It’s important for accessibility.
Nice tools. Lumen5 looks stunning if it works. Can’t wait to try.
I’d add that Facebook groups work well but can be hard to grow. Esp. for a new author. So if the author has few friends that write in the same genres then I’d partner up to create a group for that genre and build fans there. Potential to go to the much bigger audience, and no need to invite too many other authors so it doesn’t turn into a pitch fest. This could be run in addition to your own group too. But this bigger one would serve as market research, bring book sales AND fun (talking books you love with others).
I had no idea there was a Facebook shop template. That’s a good one.
This post is like drinking an answered prayer. Whew.