So How Should I Market My Book?
My post yesterday has left a number of people wondering, so if I’m not supposed to pay for advertising, then what am I supposed to do?
And that’s a good question. Also important to remember, however, is that when it comes to these issues there is no “one size fits all” solution. People sometimes come to me, and others, asking for a sure-fire route to success. An answer that works for everyone, in every situation. And there is no such thing. Or, not understanding my advice, or feeling as though it might not pertain to them, they immediately discard it. Neither of these approaches is best. No third party, however well-intentioned, can swoop in and save the day. We all have to take responsibility for our own success by knowing who we are, what we’re about, and what we’re trying to accomplish. In writing terms this translates into what we’re writing, why we’re writing it, and who we’re writing it for. These are questions that no one else can answer for you; and that their advice seems unsuitable to you doesn’t mean, necessarily, that it’s bad advice or even that it is unsuitable to you. It might merely be advice more meant for another author in a different situation.
The best step any of us can take, as authors, is to commit to being proactive. If a certain piece of advice seems confusing, or inapplicable, then ask. Don’t assume. Ask. It’s not up to an author who’s never met you to somehow dispense the advice that’s just right for you. That’s magical thinking. Moreover, even if they do just so happen to dispense that advice…in what kind of time frame? Waiting for the universe to come to you is a nice idea, but not a practical one in terms of achieving success. If you have a specific problem, then blog about it. Discuss it in a forum. Ask a trusted friend, whose own success you admire.
Also, keep in mind, too, that no amount of getting your name out there–however you do it–can guarantee anything. Yes, some things are statistically proven to be more effective. But when it comes to you, those statistics mean absolutely fuck-all. Why? Because a book isn’t a product, like a coffee maker. If people like a certain brand of coffee maker, say a Keurig, then maybe they’ll like a coffee maker that does the same thing in half the time for half the money. But when it comes to books…this is a purely personal, purely emotional connection. It’s a lot less like hawking a coffee maker and a whole lot more like falling in love.
And predicting who’s going to fall in love…it’s about as logical as trying to predict the results of a coin toss from the last coin toss. As in, you can’t. All you can do is hedge your bets by trying to present yourself as the best candidate possible. Which means doing certain things, and not doing others.
As far as what not to do, do not, and I repeat DO NOT become a sales-bot. No high pressure sell! More and more, Twitter has become a repository for the truly senseless when it comes to this issue. Do not do this, or this. Do not do this, either.
DO give your book away for free. I shared an excerpt from our forthcoming self publishing tome yesterday. I still maintain that this is absolutely the best advice either I can give, or you can take. Letting people actually read your work is the single best thing you can do to get your name out there. It’s the ultimate “free lunch,” no pressure–not sales, but information technique. People can read your book, or not. They can love it, or hate it, or forget about it. No interaction with you is required, and neither is any commitment–on your part or theirs.
Are you going to see this tactic employed with traditional publishing? No. Which is unfortunate, since these days 98% of traditionally published authors are also responsible for marketing their own work. Which is why I rejected a traditional publishing contract and told the Big Five to go suck an egg. Among other things, I didn’t want to be hamstrung by being a) responsible for getting my name out there while b) not free to experiment with different ways of actually doing that. Traditional publishing is, as a whole, concerned about its bottom line. These aren’t charity organizations. Your traditional publisher won’t take a lot of the risks that can result in overall better sales, and better long-term career establishment, because while YOU care about your long term career they care about their short term bottom line. They have no financial incentive to take risks, and to potentially lose a fair bit of money, in the hopes that you’ll some day be a breakout success. You, on the other hand, have all the incentives–financial and otherwise!
These people are not looking out for you. They are not “invested in your success.” They are invested in their own success and will help you to the extent that helping you benefits them. Imagining that they’ll take a risk on you because that’s what’s “supposed to happen” is magical thinking, and dangerous. Don’t bet your career on some complete stranger’s supposed goodwill toward you, a complete unknown.
No amount of telling people, “I have a great book” is going to distinguish you from all the other thousands of people claiming the same thing. There’s something in the order of fifteen million books for sale on Amazon right this minute. Trying to establish name brand recognition without a product is putting the cart before the horse. People only care who you are after you’ve given them a reason to care. Telling them “care who I am” is not giving them a reason. Which is why the first thing you have to do is make your writing available, and for free.
On Amazon, taking advantage of Amazon’s free promotional deals. On your website, which you should update early and often. And where you should pay very close attention to this advice. All websites are not created equal. Don’t be 1997 fabulous and don’t write drivel. Your writing here is an entree into your work. It’s yet another answer to the age-old question that all good marketing should answer: what’s in it for the other guy?
For example, let’s take our upcoming Self Publishing Is For Losers. The title being, obviously, a jab at the lingering myth that self published work is somehow less. Just the other day I got a review on one of my books, commenting that it was “surprisingly good.” Because, you know, all self published work is (supposedly) drivel. And that’s a viewpoint that we, as authors, also have to get over. But I digress. I could sit here telling you, day after day, right here and on Twitter, that this is a great book and you should buy it and blah blah blah. What would that accomplish?
Since it doesn’t work on me as a reader, I can’t imagine it would work on anyone else. First, my idea of “great advice” might not be yours, and if you’re anything like me then you’ve received a lot of “great advice” over the years that was actually terrible. Second, there’s more than one way to skin a cat–and more than one kind of good advice. The best advice in the world on, say, growing heirloom tomatoes wouldn’t be terribly useful to me as I’m not much interesting in gardening. I pay someone else to keep my yard looking nice! And third…most people really are not sheep. Even if the claim piques their interest, ultimately they’d like the opportunity to decide for themselves.
So by making excerpts available here, as well as consistently discussing various facets of both the writing and publishing process, I’m giving you a preview–in more ways than one–of the kind of advice my book will contain. Of the kind of advice that my book on how to write a book already contains. I’d rather have you buy my book–any of my books–because you’re interested in what I have to say than have you buy it, feel like you were misled about the contents, and be disappointed.
Which is the same approach you should take to fiction: your goal isn’t willy-nilly to sell your book, but to connect your book to the right audience. That being, the people who already want to read it. Which brings us back to my “falling in love” analogy. Take a page from He’s Just Not That Into You and stop beating a dead horse in terms of trying to convince people that they “should” like your book. They will or they won’t. Tricking them into buying something they don’t want is only going to end in bad reviews and tears.
So apart from social media, blogging, and of course sharing your work, what else can you do?
Those three are the cornerstone. Everything else is, to quote an old professor of mine, just gravy. The crucial point to remember, here, is that building a meaningful following–i.e. not just followers on a Twitter account, or “likes” on a Facebook page, but people who will actually care whether you’ve published your next book–takes time. A lot of time. Expecting results overnight is one of the things that leads authors to act stupid and drive away what followers they have. Or, indeed, spend money they don’t have to spend.
Another great thing you can do is connect with other authors. Unfortunately, all too often these kinds of interchanges turn into a gigantic pissing contest. People aren’t so much interested in learning from each other as they are in offering (often useless) critiques in order to prove something to themselves about themselves. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m not that impressed when I, as a sometime modestly bestselling author, get a boatload of “you’re doing it wrong”-style advice from someone who hasn’t yet completed a manuscript. Or a short story. I don’t think, “wow, I’m so impressed, that person must really be able to write.” I think, “that person is a buffoon.”
It’s sad, too, because authors can help each other. We can learn from each other and we can promote each others’ work–which, all too often, we don’t. Blurbing other authors’ books, reviewing those books on your website, offering other authors advice…these are great ways to connect with them, their fans, and potentially new fans for both of you. Because the more you have to say, particularly online, the more opportunities there are for people to find you.
Which brings me to my last point: be an interesting person. Be someone whose whose website, whose contributions to the world at large, people actually want to read–irrespective of whether they ever actually buy a book. On this blog, I talk a fair bit about writing and publishing-related matters, yes; but I also talk about myself. My family. My views on the world. There are people who come here solely to read about my adoption-related posts, because that’s a topic that interests them. They could care less about my actual books, or the fact that I’m an author at all.
Is this throwing pennies into the pond? Yes, of course. But it all is. The idea that there’s some special way to develop, as Bruce Lee said, “laser-like focus” and be so aware of the world around you that you just hone in on all the sales overnight is a myth. You’re a writer, not a comedian or a fitness personality or whatever. Ultimately, people are going to buy your books or not buy your books based on whether your books are any good. Everything else you do is in service to that: making it as easy as possible for people to decide, for themselves, whether your books are any good. For themselves being the key thing here. If “buy my book” were all it took, then a whole lot of people would be a whole lot more successful than they are.
