Marketing & Books
The most obvious conundrum of authors marketing books is that the two skills require rather different personalities. I write. I write all day long, nearly every workday. So did my father. So did his father. I never new my grandfather, so I can’t tell you about that. I did know my father.
My father would get up at a normal time, likely just late enough to avoid the chaos of kids in a kitchen and rushing to meet Joe the Bus Driver for Route #7 (yes, same bus, same bus driver, same bus route through my entire primary education years). Father paced his bedroom smoking a cigarette. Then he headed downstairs to type. Then he’d write for five or six hours, quitting after lunch. He took no phone calls. There was no email. In an office lined with book, he wrote books alone and in the quiet.
Thus, I sit. No cigarette, as in never. And No booze, as in as rare as birthdays.
I have a novel dropping in two weeks. I’d like it to sell a goodly number of copies. What do I need to do? I need to get social, as in social media. In the first days of July, I had no social media presence. As we come towards pub-date, my Meta accounts are able to reach out to 20,000 folks. I have a mailing list that approaches 5,500 folks (35% of whom open and read my email). On GoodReads, I have over 8,500 showing some interest in “The Little Ambulance War of Winchester County”. That is a chart that shows an upwards trend.
It took work, and training, and effort, and work, and training, and focus, and strategy and, well, work.
I don’t like the work. But I think I found a way to make it better. Read on. Better is better.
I admitted to my life-time friend that I don’t even understand Instagram. I asked her “what is the point of looking at these pictures? What is it telling me to do?” She explained me to me, as she has done so often in our lives. She pointed out that I am not wired that way.
“You look at the picture. You find something of interest then you write something nice to say. You need to engage with others this way.” Then I write something short, in vernacular English, with icons to show that I am actually hip. I love cue cards! “Thank you”, “Please”, “May I”.
You don’t know me yet, but maybe you know someone like me.
“Why would I look at picture of book covers all day?” I have the same question about food. Or gatherings with people holding drinks next to a pool, a slide, a midway ride, or the afternoon tide. I love books and bookstores. I’ve seen a book and I’ve seen a bookstore. A little thumbie or smiley or something on the safe-to-use list is good.
Nobody needs to know that I look at pix thinking, “Don’t want to be there,” or “Yuck”, or “So much noise”. I live on a large, isolated place in Vermont, 100 acres/40hectare. I stand in my near yards seeing only the bits of Vermont we own.
I am not actually laughing-out-loud, wait, I am not even laughing, but I’ll “LOL” that. And I know to write: “Love to be there with you”, when in fact I am supremely happy at home. I don’t want to go there and do that, thank you. You go do that fun.
I can be trained! Yay for me and my friends who can explain me to me and such. I can go from zero to 50 in 60 days, 50K that is.
That work is not the same as writing a novel or writing any of my other stuff. That’s intense focus, with classical music. I eat at the same time each day. I eat the same breakfast day after day. Spousal unit makes me the same salad every day. Certainly not IG worthy!
Wanna know what writers enjoy doing? Writing.
Starting in September, I am going to endeavor to use my strengths to strengthen my marketing positions. Two fundamental axioms exist:
- Writers write.
- Readers read (or listen).
From September, I am going to write short stories that I will get edited and publish as both an audio and electronic media. For a bit, I’ll offer them free, then maybe start asking for a few pennies.
The thing about readers is that readers read.
What do readers want? Good stories to either read or listen to.
This aligns with the Willy Sutton economic model. While Willy allegedly said: “I rob banks because that’s where the money’s at,” I think it applies to readers too.
Readers read.
Writers write.
Let’s get together and call ourselves an institute (Sorry, Paul Simon).
I love great stories, great characters and good writing. In a bookstore, I can open a page, any page and read. I’ll know. You’ll know. On my mobile phone, I get a thumbnail of a book cover, the publisher’s distilled summary which the hosting website truncates with a “read more” that allows you to unfold the rest of the publisher’s words. I am miserable at finding books to read from writers who write well via the most common digital platforms.
Read my work or not. I’ll keep writing.
Stay tuned for novel-adjacent short stories presented via my publisher Catalyst Press. I’ll write ‘em. The team will edit ‘em. Then I’ll record them, then you do you. Maybe you listen or read along.
Yes, I’ll keep playing the social media game (execute happy responses via cue cards). But please let me write a full sentence.
Aiken.