Marketing
What do I, as an author, owe to myself? What do I owe to my publisher? To my readers?
I think about this often as I promote my debut novel, Waiting for the Night Song, while simultaneously revising my forthcoming novel, The Last Beekeeper, and drafting what will hopefully become my third novel.
To whom do I owe what?
I wrote Waiting for the Night Song with no expectations. I created a story I needed to tell, not knowing if I would ever sell it. I wrote the book for myself. After landing the elusive book contract, I incorporated changes based on suggestions from my editor. At this point, I was still writing for myself — sort of.
New expectations started lining up.
I wanted to please my editor and my agent, both of whom took a gamble when they signed me. I wanted to make them proud. I wanted my book to succeed commercially. But mostly, I need this book of my heart to be mine, to be the book I had envisioned for so many years.
It was still my book, right?
Ideas, many of them bad, started sneaking into my head. Should I add more surprise twists? Books with twisty plots were topping the charts, so I added a poorly-conceived plot contortion, for no reason other than I thought readers wanted it.
I quickly deleted the ridiculous subplot because it didn’t serve the theme of my book, and this book was, after all, for me.
To be clear, my editor and agent have never pressured me to change my writing in ways that didn’t feel right for my story. They make suggestions, not demands. But after years of writing just for myself, I now feel the burden of writing for other people, as well.
I started to wonder: Was Waiting for the Night Song still mine?
Every time I contemplated a change, I checked in with the little voice inside my head that shouted: Is this really what you want?
Waiting for the Night Song launched in January 2021. As soon I got the first copy in my hands, I took a long, hard look at my beautiful book, and I can honestly say, yes, it is the book I wanted to write.
But as soon as it hit the shelves, a new player came into the picture: readers. Early readers, reviewers, influencers, book clubs, and they all had opinions.
When I Zoomed in to virtual book clubs to chat about my book, I occasionally faced tough questions. Did that character really need to die? Are you pushing a political agenda?
At first, I assumed a defensive position when anyone challenged my authorial choices. Didn’t they understand I wrote this book for myself? Of course, my writing includes my worldview. But I soon realized that the day I released my book into the world, it no longer belonged to me, at least not completely.
My book did not belong to my agent or my publisher.
It belonged to my readers.
Every reader who invests time and money in reading my book owns a piece of the story. They read my words through the filter of their own lived experiences. I believe the scenes I wrote play out differently in the minds of each reader.
Some readers appreciate the choices I make for my characters. Other readers […]
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This has been on my brain for some time, and what better time to write about it than the holiday season. Here goes…
I believe we’re forgetting to say our thank you’s. I also believe that because of our on-demand society, we’re forgetting that human beings don’t function like an app. While you can get a good Barolo in the hour to enjoy with your dinner ordered from Seamless, your marketing team may not deliver as quickly when you text them at 11 pm for an update.
So spend some time this holiday season saying thank you to those that have given you a referral, plugged your work, given you a compliment, provided sage counsel, or just lent a good trusting ear. And as you begin 2022, don’t allow your attachment to desire overcome business etiquette. Be patient with responses. Be gracious with requests. Remember that there are boundaries when it comes to the workday. Be mindful of how you’re communicating. Be mindful of why you’re communicating.
Now, let’s unpack some PR and marketing questions asked in the Writer Unboxed Facebook group:
How can you persuade yourself that marketing is necessary, that contrary to how it feels, marketing does not drain the soul from your body?
You don’t have to persuade yourself that marketing is necessary. You already know it is. And you may never feel comfortable doing it, but it’s important you make peace with it. I was reading an article today written by a client Elazar Aslan, co-author with Joe Loizzo of Boundless Leadership: The Breakthrough Method to Realize Your Vision, Empower Others, and Ignite Positive Change, he writes that clear decisions start with clarity of the mind. What could distort our lens is ignoring your reality.
You can’t ignore what’s part of your work even though it’s not the preferred part of your work. This might be TMI, but when I came home from the hospital after my second C-section, I made sure I had stool softener in my medicine chest. Find your stool softener.
What is the most efficient way to do marketing vs. what do people think is necessary but isn’t?
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In classes and conferences we’re taught to be better writers, but it’s up to us to get our work out there and learn how to be writers in the world. If you have an intention or desire to publish a book, submitting to literary magazines and contests can be a good place to start down the road. As with any undertaking, it helps to have credentials and to that end, validation of your work and getting your name out there are always a plus. Winning a writing contest, fellowship, or grant looks really good on a cover letter. Having your work chosen and published gives you street cred that you really can’t get anywhere else.
Here’s one thing I’ve learned about getting published: you’ve got to get noticed to get noticed. To that end, here is a basic guide to submitting, entering contests, and applying for fellowships:
1. Buff it up– Be sure that your work is as polished as you can make it.
2. Gather information– Part of choosing where to send your work is knowing your market. Almost all print magazines and online journals request that you familiarize yourself with their preferences and style before you submit. Fair enough, right? You could spend a fortune buying copies, but many have excerpts on their websites. Make a list of those that sound right for your style and whichever piece you are planning to submit. Duotrope and New Pages have a weekly newsletter listing calls for submission, including themed submissions and contests. Authors Publish newsletter also offers a free weekly lists. Entropy, The Master’s Review, and Literistic all have submission listings. Submishmash is the weekly newsletter of the Submittable entry portal, featuring submission opportunities. Also, writer’s magazines such a Poets & Writers and Writer’s Chronicle have good databases.
3. Make a list of markets -Remember that each piece you write may fit into a different market. Some publications pride themselves on featuring debut writers, some only want well-established authors. Whatever magazine you choose, be sure that your piece fits their style. In addition to litmags, consider widely distributed magazines that aren’t exclusively literary but publish fiction and poetry, like The Oxford American or Garden and Gun. Look at their websites and at the physical mag if you can. Most of the websites have a tab for “submissions” or a blurb in the back pages or masthead. If they say “no unsolicited submissions”, don’t waste your time unless you sat next to the editor at a dinner party and he asked you to send something.
4. Tier your targets– Duotrope has a really nice feature where they show you the percentages of acceptances by specific magazine as well as where writers who submitted to one place also submitted. Send to the top first, then wait before sending out round two because what if you send out fifty submissions at once, and immediately hear from someone at the bottom of your list with an acceptance but then, the next day The […]
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image by SEWphisticate
Self-promotion isn’t the most famous naughty s-word, but it can still feel like a bad word to today’s authors. I hate self-promotion, you might say. I’m so sick of talking about myself on social media.With more and more options to reach readers directly comes an expectation that authors will do more and more to reach those readers themselves, often without publisher assistance.
So! How do you sell books without a single self-promotional tweet, post, or video?
Simple. In most cases, you actually shouldn’t be promoting yourself. If the goal is to sell books — or at least make people you don’t know personally curious enough about your book(s) to take action — you are not the product. “Buy my book!” doesn’t work if the reader doesn’t know you or know anything about the book in question.
Instead of self-promotion, think of the path to getting your book in front of readers on social media as a railroad track, with two parallel rails: be yourself, and take yourself out of the equation.
Be yourself. There are lots of names for this, and most of them sound like awful corporate-speak: curation! Branding! But let go of the labels. Being yourself on social media doesn’t mean sharing every last little thing. You’re not going to see Instagram posts from me about taking my car to the mechanic last Tuesday or the ancient celery I just found in the back of my produce drawer. But it means posting or talking about the things that interest you, especially where those things overlap with the books you write. If you’re spending some of your time on social media connecting with people who enjoy reading the books you like to read, chances are that when you have a book of your own to talk about, they’ll enjoy hearing about that too. Which leads to…
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In an earlier post for WU, I wrote about the process of writing my audio-first novel for adults, A Hundred Words for Butterfly, and how it had differed from other novels I’ve written, because of the fact I specifically created it for the audio format. Well, this week the novel has been officially released by its publisher, Spineless Wonders Audio, and is available now for purchase on lots of different platforms, including Google Audio, Kobo, Nook, Libro, Authors Direct, and others. Audible will also follow shortly. It’s been an amazing and exciting process, seeing and hearing the audiobook take shape as narrator (Sarah Kennedy) sound engineer (Echidna Audio) cover designer (Bettina Kaiser) and producer (Spineless Wonders) worked on different aspects of the book. It’s an absolutely wonderful production, making my story, characters and setting come to warm and evocative life, and I hope listeners will enjoy it and take it to their hearts. (You can watch a lovely trailer for it, which features extracts from the narration, here). But today what I want to write about for this post is highlighting the absolutely brilliant marketing strategy that was devised by the Spineless Wonders team, in consultation with me, to create as much buzz as possible around the book in the lead up to its release. And I thought my observations might be of interest and inspiration to other authors, and not necessarily just in relation to audio novels.
In Australia, Spineless Wonders are known and highly respected for their innovative and dynamic approach to publishing, and their marketing strategy for all their books and events has always been focused on imaginative community engagement. And as we worked on our plan for the marketing of A Hundred Words for Butterfly, that engagement became more important than ever, because a large number of Australians, including but not only in our two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, were (and still are) in lockdown due to an outbreak of the Delta strain of Covid19. (All of us working on it were in that boat). So it was even more crucial to come up with great ideas for activities that would offer people something fun, exciting and creative to do even when they were stuck in lockdown. After much discussion, we decided on three main themes/prongs for these.
First was writing, as represented by the #100words4butterfly writing competition, asking people to submit 100-word stories, poems, etc, inspired by four clever prompts linked to motifs in the book. (Prizes included a copy of the audiobook, plus entries published in a special digital magazine.) This comp was framed and run directly by the Spineless Wonders team and attracted lots of entries and great social media engagement, encouraged by striking marketing assets.
Second was a focus on the beautiful and fascinating Northern (or French) Basque country, which is the setting for most of the book. For this, I created intriguing blog posts and videos around what the Basque country, which is where my mother’s family comes from, means to me and my family. These were then shared on […]
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As a debut author not long ago, I was desperately uninformed about who’s who in the publishing world. I knew I’d be working closely with my agent from day one, and ultimately the editor who acquired my debut. What surprised me was that in the months leading up to my book’s release, this circle of key players grew wide (and fast!) No longer were only my agent and editor on phone calls. Soon, these were joined by publicity, marketing, sales…quite overwhelming, to say the least. At the time, I didn’t understand what each team was responsible for, or how they differed from one another (even now, I struggle to understand the difference between publicity and marketing!)
It takes a village, as they say, and my objective today is to summarize each of the (very) important players in the traditional publishing village. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are roles behind the scenes that aren’t listed here, such as finance, distribution, etc. However, I tried to include the players with whom an author is most likely to interact.
Core team: Agent & Editorial
Your agent and editor will be the individuals with whom you work most closely before, during, and after your book’s publication. Below is an overview of these roles.
Agency team
A lion tamer at Bertram Mills Touring Circus, Ascot, 1936. Photo by Edward G. Malindine
Certainly our work is the most important component of an author event. With that in mind, most of us choose what we’ll read with care, incorporating the anticipated audience, reading time allowed, and how much backstory setup is required for a particular passage. Maybe we practice reading aloud and timing ourselves. I know I do.
As a person who has issues with anxiety, I need to feel prepared. Yes, a large part of that is about what I’ll speak about or read. But I also pay more attention than I probably should to my personal presentation.
Below are some of the tricks I found during the pandemic launch of my debut novel. I used these all again for the launch of my second novel, two weeks ago. Note: Many of these are for virtual events, because #covid.
“Pointless fluff!” you might scoff. Perhaps. But for me, using these tools helps me feel prepared, and that takes the anxiety level down a notch.
Sound your best! Publishing Guru Supreme Jane Friedman recommends corded Apple earbuds with mic for good sound if you don’t want to invest in or wear a full-on headset. Keep a glass of water handy in case your voice gets scratchy. I once replayed a recorded interview where I had my volume turned way up and I was irritatingly louder than the interviewer throughout. You might ask your host to run a sound check with you ahead of time, or else ask someone you trust to tell you if your audio equipment needs to be upgraded.
Be aware of ambient noise. I have twice done live radio interviews from my closet, while three power mowers droned away outside the house. Will the air conditioner kick on while you’re talking? Turn it off. Might your landline ring from the table beside you, then broadcast a voicemail? Unplug it. Will your roommate walk through behind you, wearing skivvies, and shout that your puppy just made a mess on the carpet? Put a sign on the door.
Spend some time with your camera. First, be sure it’s quality and that your image isn’t grainy, thanks to old technology. Second, do not ignore camera angle! An adjustable laptop stand is great to set your screen and camera at eye level. If you don’t have one, prop up your laptop on a sturdy stack of books. If you use an external camera, be sure that is at eye level. Nobody wants to look up your nostrils, trust me. Try not to look at the screen while you’re speaking, look at the camera lens. Also, be sure there isn’t a big smudgy fingerprint over the camera lens on your laptop screen.
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I’m going to start today’s post with one of my favorite business words, “expectation”. Yes, I know, I speak of this word often as it comes up sometimes daily for me.
Considering a new marketing effort? Ask yourself, what is your expectation?
Jumping onto a new social media platform, ask yourself what is your expectation?
Just got a nice plug for your book on a great big website, ask yourself what is your expectation?
Good chance your expectation: a) will lead to disappointment as it’s more than the effort was intended to give b) doesn’t equate with the effort whatsoever c) is not realized because you don’t understand what you’ve committed to.
So be sure you’re asking questions. And if you don’t know what questions to ask, say so.
Today, I want to talk social media. With the practice of marketing on social media everyone has an expectation, an opinion, a gripe… But right now, we’ll talk about Facebook groups. I love them and I praise the dedicated readers who have started them. And I praise the savvy and well-meaning authors who have essentially shared their fan bases with other authors. And I say to the authors who have written off Facebook because they dislike it (I get it!), want to focus on one platform (your time is important!), and/or don’t know what they are doing on Facebook (there are people who can help!), please know that Facebook groups can be like that secret club you had when you were a kid. Yes, you’re older now, but isn’t there magic in communicating with people who all love the same thing?
As per my usual, I asked a couple of my friends and trusted colleagues in the industry for some help in answering the questions I’m being asked these days.
1.What would you like authors to know about outreach to group administrators for coverage in their group whether that be group takeover, cover reveals, Facebook live, etc.
Want a cover reveal- Absolutely! But you can’t spring a cover reveal on the admin and want it posted the next day. And please make it easy–Facebook group admins don’t get paid. So please size the graphics for Facebook and Instagram for them. Share the group’s posts if you’re able. Most group admin will also post to their FB pages and Instagram.
If you ask a group for a cover reveal and then never mention the group in your own social media, you took advantage of the group and its reach.
Participate. The authors who participate in Great Thoughts’ Great Readers routinely are the ones who get the most reader interaction. Post your #fridayreads. Comment on other author’s Facebook Lives, takeovers, and interviews.
Cross-Posting…for the love of books, please do not post the same content in various book groups. First, Facebook will mark this as spam. Next, many readers are in many groups. If you put the exact same post (even if you think it is thought-provoking and fabulous), in more than one group, you will not get great interaction. -Andrea Peskind Katz, founder of Great Thoughts’ Great Readers
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We wouldn’t need the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” if people weren’t always doing exactly that. The cover of your book is important! It makes a huge difference to how the book is perceived at every stage of the process, regardless of how your book is published or distributed. And making the most of the cover reveal is something any writer can do.
Fresh off my own cover reveal (about which more later), I thought I’d share a few tips that you can use as guidelines while you’re planning and executing on sharing that powerful first look at the cover of your upcoming book.
Here are three things you’ll want to do:
Plan ahead. When the final cover of your book hits your inbox, it’s tempting to just splash it all over social media immediately! But once it’s out there, it’s out there. Take the time to figure out how and when you want to reveal it and who should be involved. If you have a publisher, they might already have a plan; talk to them and to your agent. We’d all love to have our covers revealed on EW.com, with a built-in audience of millions, but those opportunities are few and far between. Your publisher might tell you to go ahead and let the cover loose on social media, or they might snag a slot with a site like Book Riot or Tor.com. Whatever happens, you’ll want to…
Coordinate. Now this is where the road starts to fork. Coordination will look very different if you’re a debut historical novelist with a cover reveal at a third-party outlet, an experienced self-published romance author pointing traffic to your own website, or a traditionally published author whose imprint is particularly good at coordinating social media promotion among its authors in the same genre. When the cover reveal for my upcoming epic fantasy novel Scorpica went live recently at Tor.com, I was thrilled to have the third-party reveal to get my cover in front of tons of readers of my new genre! But to supplement that, I came up with a couple of easy Canva graphics and emailed them to friends asking them (very nicely) to amplify the reveal on their social media. In some cases, asking your author friends to post on social is the entirety of the reveal, in which case you give them the full cover and ask them to post on a certain day. You can also do this with book bloggers or Bookstagrammers; the important thing is to coordinate it ahead of time, make sure everyone understands the timing, and also…
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Shaking off our pandemic-induced ennui and embracing what looks like a permanent empty-nester status, the ToolMaster and I are currently surfing a massive wave of decluttering. It’s the sort of purge I’ve craved for years. It’s also quite daunting.
We are both crafty, DIY types with multiple hobbies that require an infrastructure of tools and equipment. Our past careers required a substantial investment in books and paperwork, most of which will be required should we choose to practice again. In my case, I’ve also acquired a vast mountain of writing-related possessions. (Not that you’d know anything about that.)
Also, from an environmental perspective, we dislike the idea of discarding valuable items, even if currently unused. And Covid-19 only cemented our desire for thriftiness and self-sufficiency.
Still, pushing against all the reasons to hold onto our belongings, there is the undeniable craving for serenity and order…
To Keep or Discard? The Method.
Faced with competing urges, we knew we needed to settle on a good decision-making process. We found it in Marie Kondo’s approach.
You might be familiar with her work via the international bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, or the Netflix series, Tidying Up.
Essentially, she categorizes objects into five categories (clothing, books, papers, miscellany, and sentimental.) You begin by gathering all the items in one category in a single location. It’s important to tackle the categories in the prescribed order as they become progressively more difficult.
Then, picking each item up individually, you observe your body’s reaction to it. Those items which “spark joy” are kept and stored with the respect they deserve. Those which don’t are thanked for their past service and released back into the world, even if never used. (They’ve taught you the helpful lesson that you don’t actually love them or their ilk.)
Suspicious of the Woo?
Kondo’s “sparking joy” trademark phrase reportedly comes from her time as a Shinto shrine maiden. If it strikes you as too precious or spiritual, I’d still urge you give it a try. As the saying goes, your body doesn’t lie. We’ve found this a handy test to circumvent rationalized hoarding and parted with things we wouldn’t have otherwise. We’ve always felt freer for the decision.
But Jan, you ask, what the heck does this have to do with writing?
I’m close to being one of the least natural book marketers in existence, and my shy, introvert tendencies have only become more exaggerated with the pandemic. I haven’t sent a newsletter in a year and a half. It’s been a struggle to post anything online to my social media accounts. The enforced solitude has paradoxically made me crave even more solitary writing time, rather than activities pointed outward.
All the same, the decluttering process has reinforced marketing lessons I’ve encountered elsewhere, but never really understood.
May I walk you through a few items in the clothing and books section to illustrate, then summarize?
For example, what did I choose to do with Item #1, this sexy wardrobe element?
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The forthcoming launch of any book is a heavy lift, rife with news to announce, people to call, and updates to publicize.
But if you’re launching a debut? It’s an especially daunting endeavor because, well, you’ve never done this before! And the pressure is high: a splashy, big hit debut can make an author’s career. But conversely, a debut launch that doesn’t meet author or publisher expectations can be difficult to stomach, and this puts additional weight on second or third titles.
How is a debut author to know what, exactly, should be on his or her “task list” in the months approaching their big book launch? No doubt, authors publishing via the indie route will have more on their plate, but even traditionally-published authors are expected to take on much of the heavy lifting these days.
Below, I’ve pulled together a “playbook” for debut authors. Consider it a list of ideas for debut authors in the year leading up to their launch.
By all means, take this list with a grain of salt: there may be items on here that don’t apply to your specific circumstances or a suggested timeframe that needs to be reworked.
9-12 months until launch
6-9 months until launch
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So I went to see Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins story at TRIBECA Film Festival the other night, and Jackie’s daughters discussed how their mum and the late actor Roger Moore (James Bond) would send funny fax messages back and forth to each other. I found this greatly amusing. If only I had a fax machine to fire up. If only there were people left with a fax number that I could send ridiculous messages to? Instead, we have text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Facetime, and every once in a while that land-line phone will ring and the sound will entirely confuse you.
And because I have clients all over the country and sometimes all over the world, I hear a dinging sound all hours of the day, sometimes several a minute, and if mercury is in retrograde, all of the platforms and my various Apple products will ping and flash at once and then the internet will go out.
So in this post on Book PR and Marketing Questions Answered, I’ll discuss communications etiquette so that we can keep track of work streams. I also fielded some questions from the Writer Unboxed Facebook Group, so I’ll talk about local-market PR, book blog tours, and what it means when you get the holy grail of press for your book. As usual, I had a little help from my friends and industry colleagues.
As a book influencer, how do you want to be approached by a publicist or an author?
Please treat influencers professionally. We do the very best we can to promote books, and we are in your corner. Ask the influencer how they want to be approached. I prefer email. I cannot keep up with messages on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Business hours, please! I routinely get Facebook and Instagram messages from authors all weekend long. Many send a second message asking if I got the first. No, just no.
When you do contact an influencer, please tell them the name of the book, genre, publisher, and publication date. Rather than saying, “I need your address as I am sending you a book.” Ask, “Could I send you a copy of the book?” Some books do not appeal to every influencer, and most influencers are inundated with books. For example, I don’t read scary thrillers or horror. So I would likely say no if I were offered books in these genres.
Also, note, if you as an author or your publicist send the book right around publication day, you cannot expect instant coverage. –Andrea Peskind Katz, book influencer and founder of the Great Thoughts Facebook group and literary salon
In the day and age of texting and DM’ing, do you feel like you have to discuss with your clients how you want to be communicated with?
I think establishing those preferences at the start of a working relationship/campaign is really important and helpful to everyone. In most cases, when that’s clarified upfront and everyone is on the same page about the best and most effective way to communicate, there aren’t issues moving forward. I also think it’s useful for setting boundaries for everyone (ie: if you don’t respond to messages […]
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For many authors, generating social media content ideas is a necessary evil: we all know the importance of keeping up a platform so we can engage with readers and the book community, but maintaining social platforms is yet another to-do item on an already long list.
I’m here for you, friends.
Below are 100 social media content ideas for every stage of your writing career. There are 25 items listed for each of the four stages. Whether you’re an aspiring author, have an impending book launch, just launched a book, or your career is in-swing, I hope you’ll find the below ideas useful.
The content suggestions listed are best-suited to three platforms in particular: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. That said, these ideas could also be used in your author newsletter, on YouTube or TikTok channels, etc. We all have a favorite platform (mine is Instagram) but no need to recreate the wheel: once you’ve created a piece of content, use it widely across platforms (and reuse down the road, if applicable!)
Let’s get right to it.
Career stage: Aspiring Author
Content goals: Form connections with other writers, develop an organic following
Content ideas for the aspiring author include:
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One of my favorite vintage bookstore finds is two volumes (out of three) of a 1742 translation by Rev. Philip Francis of the complete works of Horace. It’s interesting not so much for the translations (Francis turns Horace’s simplicity into contrived eighteenth-century rhyming heroic couplets) but for the technique Francis used to get it published. At the beginning is a list of subscribers – famous and/or rich people who paid a fee to be publicly seen as supporting the author. Among the viscounts and bishops is one “Deane Swift, Esq.” That would be Jonathan Swift, of Gulliver’s Travels.
Of course, writers today don’t have to persuade subscribers to pay for publication, selling their work on the same model that PBS uses to fund Masterpiece Theater. But from what I’ve seen of my clients’ experiences, being a successful writer nowadays involves a lot of skills that have nothing to do with actual writing.
Editing, for instance. This comes in roughly two different flavors – conceptual editing, which critiques how well your plot and characters work, and copy editing, which deals more with correct spelling and usage. (Full disclosure, conceptual editing is what I do for a living.) A lot of writers hire this out, especially the conceptual part, since it’s all but impossible to fairly critique your own work.
But good editing can be pricy, and many beginning writers on limited budgets have to learn to do it for themselves. There are <ahem> a lot of good books on what to watch for as you rewrite. Critique groups, where writers trade critiques on one another’s manuscripts, can be a help. But editing, especially copy editing, is a very different skill from writing, and it’s one you may have to teach yourself.
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