Book marketing is a skill: it takes knowledge, effort, and persistence to really be successful.
Heather Hart.
Marketing and Writing Two Vital Jobs of a Self-Publishing Author
Marketing and writing, you need one just as much as you need the other. Because every author is different there are no right answers when it comes to how much time should be spent marketing or writing.
Writing and Marketing, The Balancing Act
Like most writers you have a life outside of writing, and that means you have to juggle your everyday tasks alongside your writing.
It can be quite a challenge getting your new book ready for publishing, while you're thinking about writing your next one. But every book you publish needs to be marketed. Marketing and writing go hand in hand which means your brain needs to switch between the creativity of writing to the promotion of marketing.
Each book that's created has its own category, and isn't necessarily going to fit in with your last marketing endeavour, so requires a fresh look.
Yet more challenges head your way.
That being said, we are going to look at some tips that will help you make better decisions when it comes to the problem of when to start marketing your book, and how to overcome those challenges.
Accomplish Your Publishing Goals With These Book Marketing Tips
There's no doubt about it, the more time and effort you put into your book marketing campaigns the better off you'll be financially.
Marketing Your First Book
Finding your voice is going to be the hardest part of your journey as an author, because this will help you realise what you're selling to your readers and who you are as a writer.
This is where author branding comes into play. If you know what kind of brand you're offering straight off the bat then go with it. If not, the other route is to see where your writing leads you and follow your instincts.
A lot of writers start out thinking they know who they are when they begin, but quickly realise that writing is all about learning and evolving, and becoming a better writer with each book.
My advice would be to take your time, and not jump in. It took me a while before I discovered where I was going wrong, and how to develop my own writing style and brand. The same goes for my book marketing.
Use Social Media to Practise Your Marketing
Social media is a great free tool which can be used to find your feet as a book marketer. Using your analytics to see which posts and books are the most popular.
If you know what your audience wants, that's half the battle, and the only way you're going to find out is by posting frequently.
Marketing Or Writing Which One Is More Important?
The simple answer to that is that they're both important.
You need to write to create books to sell, you need to market your books to sell them. You can't have one without the other.
Create a Marketing/Writing Schedule
Once you've tested your book ads you need to start creating a schedule that will become a regular routine. Fitting in the time for both writing and marketing can be a delicate exercise, and will require a lot of thought.
Prioritising Your Time
Writing is like any other job, it needs time to grow. You need to put the time aside to fit in writing even when you don't feel like it.
Using Your Brand to Sell Your Book
Branding is a key part of marketing any book, question is have you got one yet?
If you haven't, don't panic you can read more on branding in my book Author Branding: Learn How to Establish Reader Loyalty and Market Your Books.
Making yourself known to the public and filling in your Amazon author page is a good start. Creating a professional picture for your social media, making a product page on your website to sell your books, setting up social media accounts, the list goes on, all of these things are essential for your author branding and will help you sell more books.
Writing/Marketing is a Full-Time Job
You'll quickly discover that you never seem to have enough time to complete all of your tasks. But it does help to have a schedule set up, something you can look at to make sure you complete all of your weekly tasks.
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