Book Marketing and PR Part XIV: We Are All Marketers
By Ann Marie Nieves | October 14, 2024 |
By Ann-Marie Nieves with Randy Susan Meyers
Today’s post by Ann-Marie Nieves of Get Red PR features her perspective on marketing and the opinions of Randy Susan Meyers, her friend and client.
Will it be dueling points of view or simpatico? Read on to find out.
We are all marketers.
I know you don’t believe me. I know it feels safer to say, I can’t do this because I’m not a marketer.
You can continue to say…
I can’t.
I won’t.
I’m not.
It’s my publicist/marketer/publisher’s job.
But it’s your story. It’s your brand. So it’s your job too.
And letting the value of marketing rest solely on someone else’s shoulders is not enough to sustain you.
This advice isn’t exclusively about accepting that you need to get involved with spreading the word; I’m not saying get over it.
I’m asking you to open your arms wide and embrace your compelling story.
A few weeks ago, author Randy Susan Meyers wrote about choosing joy in marketing. Here’s how she fully embraced her story:
From Randy:
Years ago, I heard the words that guided my career regarding (for me) the most vexing and challenging part of publishing a book—marketing and publicity:
Wisdom from literary agent Sorche Fairbank, speaking at a writer’s conference, became my mantra when facing the after-the-writing part.
Nobody will care about your book as much as you—not your agent, editor, husband, wife, mother, or father.
Nobody.
My literary agent, Stephanie Abou, became my other source of wisdom on taking responsibility for spreading the word—how to do what my publicist and marketing folks could not.
She urged me to, starting that day, move beyond relying on my writer circle and spread the word among friends (from past and present), family, alumni from any school I’d ever attended, camps, and houses of worship. Please do not rely solely on folks you are on contact with on social media.
I pretended I was throwing the largest giant wedding, bar mitzvah, and christening and prepared the most extensive guest list in history.
I even included old boyfriends. Hey, everyone’s curious about their exes, right?
Trusting my agent, I moved beyond my natural inclination towards quiet privacy and tracked down email and physical addresses. I designed postcards, wrote emails, and crafted a message that (I hope!) shared my news with a ‘letting you know’ tone that I might use to share any fun, good news. (I’m getting married! I became a grandma! I joined Habitat for Humanity!).
People responded with warm excitement. Nobody scolded me.
Okay, that’s a lie. One FB alumni group member scolded, “This isn’t the place for selling things.”
But he was always a jerk.
There are miraculous things only publicists can manage and things they can never do—and vice versa.
Now, with my sixth novel releasing (The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone), which covers relationships during the political and social upheaval of the sixties and seventies, through to how those times flavor present-day connections, it’s especially inherent upon me to reach out to decades of family, friends, and neighbors.
Thus, I must use the above approach and:
Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser’s.
And know which work belongs to me.
What hard thing will you try this week? Let us know. We are here to cheer you on.
Ann-Marie Nieves (she/her) is the founder of Get Red PR, and an award-winning communicator with experience across a broad range of industries in both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business sectors. She has experience within all communications platforms including public relations, advertising, marketing, copywriting, website development, community relations, and social media.
Randy Susan Meyers, author of six novels, including The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone, has been featured in People, The New York Times, The LA Times, Washington Post, and more. Her books, translated into over thirty languages, earned an Indie Next Pick and were highlighted by Kirkus as among the ‘10 Best Books of the Year.’ The Massachusetts Council of the Book selected three of her novels as ‘Must Reads.’ Her books have been translated into over thirty languages.
Drawing from her experience with troubled youth, criminal justice, and bartending in Boston, Meyers writes about domestic drama, societal issues, and cultural nuances. A Brooklyn-Boston hybrid, she treasures family, friends, books, and NY bagels.
Thanks for this affirmation of what I thought I should do! You’re right–no one will care about my forthcoming book as much as I do!
Good luck, Carol!
While in the middle of a rewrite of my WIP, I will review the work of others and post those reviews on my blog and FB. I do this hoping that by spreading the word, writers will get the readers they deserve. Thanks for your post.
That’s fantastic, Beth! Keep it up.
The members of my small critique group have purchased a table for a conference at the end of this month. We hired a local artist to make a banner, made a flyer describing more about our books and ourselves, and we’ll have our books there to sell. We’re excited!!!
I’m excited for you! Take plenty of pictures for your respective websites and social media. Let me know how it goes.
This last weekend, I went to a conference held by a group I just joined this summer — Women Writing the West. I went expecting to know no one; turned out I did know one woman. But the rest? I know them now! So welcoming. Stretching my wings beyond the mystery community, where I’m fairly well known, was scary and exciting.
This week, I’m resting my social and marketing muscles. After the thank you notes and followup up emails. :)
Good stuff on the thank you notes and follow-up emails. Leslie – I’m glad you’re stretching your wings.
I so totally love that approach – send out the message. And yet, it isn’t me. I’m waiting until … someone who will do all that for me. I wrote it and I totally believe in it, and yet, I never was a salesperson. I just don’t have that skill.
Jean, I encourage you to think differently.
The hardest thing I have done, and keep on doing, is contacting professionals to explain who I am, what I write, and what I want – and having them turn me down, often with no explanation, and several times, after a couple of emails or actual Facetime visits, by ghosting me.
When I finish the third volume of my mainstream trilogy, Pride’s Children: LIMBO, I’ll try again. Meanwhile, the other two, which have been award winners, will have to wait – I don’t have the energy to market when writing, and, while marketing can be done by many, the writing is mine alone.
It’s perplexing, and, if I didn’t have a pretty solid grasp of what I’m writing, might have me wondering if it’s me. I don’t think so, and that’s never been cited as a reason for not continuing an exploration of the professional’s possible help. I haven’t been offered a proposal nor turned one down. Just crickets.
It would be kinder if I had been turned down for a reason. Maybe I’m just too hard to market the traditional ways, as there is rather little I can contribute directly.
Alicia – good to see your name. I hope you are well. I agree with you.