November 1, 2024
Real talk: to be a career writer, the journey is not just about crafting beautiful, compelling, and mind changing stories, it also includes navigating the world of marketing. Ugh I know right. Blah.
On your journey you hear about all these techniques that worked wonders for other writers and then they totally fall short for you. What’s the friggin’ deal? How do you forge your own path to success without getting discouraged when these marketing tips don’t work for you?
Look at these taco packets.
I was in the store with my father the other day and he was never ever ever going to buy these day-of-the-dead hipster taco mixes, he didn’t even consider them, he wanted the familiar orange packets, but I on the other hand felt like how could I NOT buy one of these?!?
You need to know who you are targeting when you are marketing and go at them hard.
So, who is your audience?
And no, ‘everyone’ is not an answer.
I am going to give you permission right now to always embrace your individuality. You have a unique voice and style, and your target audience won’t necessarily be the same audience as another writer using a specific technique even if you write in the same genre. Everyone has their own author brand, and that brand will speak to your audience and not to others. AND THAT IS OK. If you are trying to target another authors audience, doing the exact same things as them, but their values, strengths, and relationships with their readers are ultimately different than yours, you won’t be able to make that marketing style work for you.
Exploring different platforms will help you here because your audience might not give a poop about a well worded Threads post but for some reason will fall in love with your writing when it’s on a blog post. But you won’t know that until you try it. Embrace that the building of an audience takes trial and error and time.
You have to personalize the experience for YOUR readers.
Stop throwing your net wide hoping to grab some readers and really niche down. Find a meaningful approach that allows you to stand out from a crowed genre. Be yourself. Let your uniqueness shine through your posts. If you are doing big batch creating just to be putting something out there to fight the algorithm, your readers will not find value in your posts. One post curated just for that audience is going to catch a reader’s eye over a hundred surface level posts or ChatGPT content.
You may not have all the time in the world to dedicate to marketing your books so make it really count when you do.
- Go on podcasts and be interviewed.
- Post your speaking engagements and availability on LinkedIn to demonstrate you are a thought leader in your genre.
- Make your SEO on your website stronger for organic search.
- Gain subscribers for your newsletter and actually send out emails.
Consistency. Consistency!!!! Consistency!!!!!! Yes, you might have a day job and a family and are in a volleyball league, etc. but if you want your career to grow, you have to put in the work. We all want to think our books will sell themselves, and on a rare occasion, they do, but the rest of us have to do this annoying thing called marketing.
Remember to take advice from people making progress. You don’t have to only seek out advice from $100k-a-year authors. If you see another writer growing their platform steadily, that’s someone you should be talking to.
This is not an easy business. It can feel like a competition sometimes. It can feel like people are taking away your audience— look at allll these taco packet choices! But if your audience can disappear so easily, you aren’t doing enough to hold them steady. Find out what they want and give it to them. Then keep giving it to them. And help them find something they didn’t even know they wanted. I didn’t plan to buy any taco mix, but then it was in my cart. Anticipate their desires.
If you need more of THIS in your life, consider enrolling in Book Release Boot Camp.
So…What are your strengths?
What are your stories strengths?
What are your selling strengths?
What are you really really good at talking about?
What are your favorite ways to engage with fans and makes you feel good to do?
Put your energy there.
Stop trying to make things work in the present that haven’t worked for you in the past.
Try new things.
Explore.
Book Recommendation:
Easy to follow copywriting book for people who hate copywriting.
A shout-out to:
This newsletter is sponsored by Talking Shrimp, a newsletter for creative professionals longing to write better and be more of themselves in their copy and their business. Learn more about Talking Shrimp here.
