Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

TWO QUESTIONS TO BOOK MARKETING SUCCESS OR FAILURE

By: Jan Bear

When I get into conversations about book marketing with authors, I often get one of two reactions:

1. My book is out, so it’s time to start marketing.
2. I’m a little embarrassed to be talking about book marketing, because I don’t have a book out.

Occasionally, it’s “My book has been out a couple of years and I’m not happy with the sales, so I guess it’s time to start marketing.”

Guess who has the best chance of succeeding at marketing her book.

The second one.

But wait. How can you possibly start marketing your book before it’s published?

Depends on what you mean by marketing.

It’s true that you can’t sell your book before it’s ready.

But marketing is about more than selling. Marketing is about understanding and making connections with the people who will read and buy your book. It’s about creating a book that they will want because it serves them.

But if it’s about creating a book that will serve your audience, that means you have to start before the book is finished.

If you’re really, truly writing “just for yourself” (and there’s nothing wrong with that) you can give yourself a copy when you’re finished and call it good.

Most times when authors say they’re writing for themselves, they mean they want it to be true to their vision and integral to who they are. They also want to share that vision with someone else.

That makes a book a work of communication, not just a long and loving gaze into a mirror. And communication involves shaping your message to the person you’re talking to.

After you know what you want to accomplish, you need to know who you’re writing to, what they need, what they want, how to communicate with them.

Ideally these two steps begin with your first idea for the book. You refine and clarify the answers to these marketing questions as you write the book.

Organic Book Marketing

Writing a book is a huge undertaking. The first draft can be an elusive fish, sliding in and out of your consciousness as you try to wrestle it onto paper. I get that.

So I’m not asking you to tweet your progress (do that if you like) or offer the book for sale (although some people do that successfully).

What you need to do during the first phase of writing your book — from idea to solid first draft — is to explore two questions:

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To read the rest of this post, click here:

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• Doing the twist… | Man On Ledge http://ow.ly/QYZTa "IF a novel contains a good twist, do you want to know about it beforehand?"
• ProBlogger Podcast: Turn Blog Surfers into Loyal Readers by Building a Sticky Blog - @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/QZ3RP
• Two Questions to Book Marketing Success or Failure http://ow.ly/QZQZH
• Four Don’ts (Plus One Do) for Authors on Facebook | Fix My Story http://ow.ly/QZU1d
• Tips on Writing a Book - How to Write a Book From Outline to Finish Line http://ow.ly/QZVaZ
• Why That Ebook May Cost More Than The Hardcover | Thought Catalog http://ow.ly/QZZfV
• Pub Hub: My Pitch Don’ts for the Fledgling Conference Goer http://ow.ly/QZZx5
• Let's Schmooze - Doug Eboch on Screenwriting: Three Traps to Avoid in Love Stories http://ow.ly/R00zJ
• Writability: On (Not) Waiting for Inspiration to Write http://ow.ly/R04Xg
• Plane Crashes and Writing: Six Sources of Common Ground http://ow.ly/R06eY
• Kindle Unlimited Scores a Knockout - The Wayfinder - Hugh C. Howey http://ow.ly/R0ImJ
• Q&A Show On Self-Publishing And Book Marketing With Joanna Penn | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/R0IGG

Happy writing and running, Kathy