Christine Feehan's Blog - Posts Tagged "budgets"
Marketing - Yes You Have To
I’ve heard some authors say “We shouldn’t have to do any marketing.” I’ve been at this for over 20 years now and I’ve always had to do my own marketing. I didn’t have a marketing team that did something for me in the beginning of my career. I could barely use a computer and I could hardly afford a computer back then. I knew very little about marketing. My very first books I doubt were marketed at all. Or they had very little done for them. I think it was pure luck that those books went anywhere.
Then, when I moved over to Berkeley there was little they did unless you were a big name like Nora Roberts. And Nora deserved it because she was fabulous, and I never begrudged her getting a lot of marketing. So, I’d sit around with friends, other authors and family and bounce marketing ideas around.
I was lucky to have innovative friends and if you are lucky enough to have that take advantage of that gift.
I did a lot of research because I realized just how important marketing is. And I’ve now given talks about marketing, so I’ve come a long way.
Now, I have a team, both my personal team and the publisher has a marketing team for me. There were challenges learning to work with the publisher’s team only because I’d never had to before, so there was a learning curve as the two teams started working together.
My personal team had always just experimented. If it worked, great. If it didn’t work, oh well. And sometimes you’d spend a little money on something and get a huge return. Sometimes you’d spend a lot of money and get nothing. I’m not sure that part of it has changed. You have to take chances.
I am a shy person as a rule so I started by going to the smaller conventions. That helped. So you can start small if you’re like me.
I was lucky to be surrounded by people who were willing to share ideas with me, and I’d share with them.
You do what you can do within the budget that you have. You try to have a group of innovative people that are willing to brainstorm with you. And you come up with fun, interesting, low-cost things you can do.
Then, when I moved over to Berkeley there was little they did unless you were a big name like Nora Roberts. And Nora deserved it because she was fabulous, and I never begrudged her getting a lot of marketing. So, I’d sit around with friends, other authors and family and bounce marketing ideas around.
I was lucky to have innovative friends and if you are lucky enough to have that take advantage of that gift.
I did a lot of research because I realized just how important marketing is. And I’ve now given talks about marketing, so I’ve come a long way.
Now, I have a team, both my personal team and the publisher has a marketing team for me. There were challenges learning to work with the publisher’s team only because I’d never had to before, so there was a learning curve as the two teams started working together.
My personal team had always just experimented. If it worked, great. If it didn’t work, oh well. And sometimes you’d spend a little money on something and get a huge return. Sometimes you’d spend a lot of money and get nothing. I’m not sure that part of it has changed. You have to take chances.
I am a shy person as a rule so I started by going to the smaller conventions. That helped. So you can start small if you’re like me.
I was lucky to be surrounded by people who were willing to share ideas with me, and I’d share with them.
You do what you can do within the budget that you have. You try to have a group of innovative people that are willing to brainstorm with you. And you come up with fun, interesting, low-cost things you can do.
