The Reason NOT to Market Your Book

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci

You’ve weighed the pros and cons of the different ways to publish your book. You have checked your wallet, your time, and your temperature. And, after all that, you’ve decided to take the offer from a traditional publishing house. Terrific! Wait. You’ve decided to drive your own career, and dive into self-publishing. Terrific!

Now it’s time to sit back while readers bust down virtual and wooden doors to buy your book. The servers at amazon are maxed out, sizzling with downloads of your book. They’re not? Oh … We see.

You have chosen the one reason not to market: You don’t care if your book sells. You have poured out your heart and filled that opaque-lettered light with your tumbling flow of story. That is enough for you. Read no farther. You are exactly where you want to be.

But most writers want readers. It is not about pride or vanity. It is not about calling yourself an author. It may have been at first, but after you’ve worked so long and hard, it has become about a relationship with readers. You want feedback, discourse. You want to feel as if your words haven’t hit a hollow wall.

So, the only reason NOT to market your book is if you don’t care about having readers. For the rest of us, marketing will become part of our business lives. If you don’t think of writing as a business, think again. When your book is finished, selling it becomes a business, and you will determine the size.

Here are a few simple stats to mull over:

1) 85% of those in the marketing departments say that the most important reason to get involved with social marketing is to create exposure. Do you want exposure for your book?

2) 74% of marketing people report that social marketing has increased traffic to their website. Do you want people to find you?

3) 59% of the people who use social marketing to grow their audience are spending six hours, or more, per week. Do you want to spend that much time? Probably not. Can you market smarter and save that time? Yes.

We’re going to try and make marketing easy, and we’re going to aim our marketing tips to writers and readers.  Following is an introduction to our upcoming series about how to market while maintaining your soul.

Seven Fundamentals That Will Carry You Safely through the Wilds of Selling Your Book:

1) Use your own voice when you write, and for gods’ sake do not take yourself too seriously. That gets boring, and fast. Everyone has a unique personality quirk, even if that quirk is being a cantankerous SOB. Use what you’ve got. Sometimes writers use their writing voice. If that works for you, go for it. Experiment with the number of visitors you get when you use your own voice compared to the number of clicks when you use your writer’s voice or your main character’s voice.

2) Be mindful of links. Create plenty of links that connect to different parts of your own website. People often ask new writers to exchange links. What happens? You are opening a door for your own readers to head to another site. Your goal is to keep them on your site, at least until you’re well-established. You only get them for a few nano-seconds anyway. Why send them elsewhere? Exception: A paid ad on Facebook, to boost a post, is considered an outbound link. I disagree. They are a good financial value, and they are, after all, about your book.

3) The buzz word in advertising these days is, “Be a storyteller!” Okay, do that, but do not digress. Your story must relate to solid and valuable content. If possible, connect it with an attractive offer. And keep those stories short.

4) Current buzz word part deux is CTA. What the heck is that? It stands for Call to Action. When it comes to writers, here I disagree. Generally. If your call to action is woven inside a story, and you would like to give away a book or a consultation, that’s okay. Your book is your product, but it is not a can of beans and it should not be marketed the same way. Treat it as a book. And be clear in any advertising using social media that your contacts know what you want them to do when they’ve finished reading your post. (It also makes it easier to craft a post when you have an end goal, doesn’t it?)

5) SEO is important. Search Engine Optimization looks for you. Help those crawlers find you. One of the actions SEO likes is the ‘share’ button on Facebook. SEO reads it, and it ranks your Facebook site higher than if you got a ‘like’. So … Give your readers something to share. If you give them valuable information, they’ll share without you asking them to do it (which is kind of tacky), and you’ll have given them something worthwhile. Works for everyone.

6) Social media is a river of communication. If someone is kind enough to give you the gift of their words, respond. If they comment on your blog, respond. (They are allowed to disagree. This creates juice.) There are several blogs I’ve commented on. If I don’t get a response after the second time, or the second post I make, I don’t comment again. It’s very easy just to thank a person for their comment. Be polite.

7) When people share your web presence and content, it is gold. Respect its importance. A recent Nielsen Survey showed that 33% of people believe what a writer/business says about themselves. On the other hand, 92% of people believe what their friends or colleagues say about a book.

I will tell you a few ways these trustworthy stats translate for a writer: Do not use your personal site as a pulpit for your latest series or book; do not offer to trade links or likes with someone—it is demeaning and they will be useless; never, never buy reviews. Yes, people do this. There are charlatans who make between $5k-$50K per month writing phony reviews so a writer can stuff her amazon.com page. It is certainly not against any laws. It is certainly unethical.

Bottom line? Do trust that your work, when marketed to your target audience, will find readers. That will be apparent with everything you put into the virtual atmosphere.

Next Week: But how do I start? There are so many social marketing sites out there!

No worries. We’ll give you the inside scoop.

–Meredith Blevins

About the person writing all this stuff:

Besides writing fiction, and a short effort with Rodale Press, Meredith Blevins is a travel writer who has won the International Magellan Gold Award twice, and the Magellan Silver once, for best website marketing and best web content. She also won the Talk of the Town award in 2012 for overall social marketing in the travel industry. She has bested Travelocity, Disney Adventures, and Am Ex.

Her only astonished explanation? Creativity beats bucks any time.

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