Should authors also be marketers?
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash
The days of an author tapping away at a typewriter in their cold little forest cave excluding themselves from social interactions are well behind us (well, maybe not, Michael Pollan has a writing cave). Authors know that in order to help our books find readers, we must engage in some semblance of promotion. For self-published authors, marketing is one of the many hats they must wear, and although traditionally published authors do have the benefits of a marketing team, this doesn’t mean they can hide in their caves, hatless.
To say marketing is imperative would be a gross understatement. How do readers buy books (or any products for that matter) they don’t know about? Marketing is a dynamic field of skill and strategy and one for which I am not professionally trained.
I have a very rudimentary understanding of the 5 P's of marketing—Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People. But start talking analytics, conversion rates, B2C (Business-to-Consumer), ROI (Return on Investment), SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and all the other acronyms and my mind turns to static. I’m certainly willing to learn the intricacies if the publisher deems it important for me to know, but my preference is to let the experts do what experts do so I can write stories.
However, this dream of simply writing and never having to pop my head out, wave hello and chat about my books every now and again belongs in the cave with the typewriter (and Michael Pollan, who seems to be doing okay, mind you). Writing the book is only one part of an author’s job. Finding and connecting with readers is another.
That can take many forms:
engaging on social media platforms,
visiting bookstores and meeting booksellers,
doing podcast interviews,
writing topical articles,
supporting other writers,
attending festivals,
speaking at author/library events.
This post by Emma Gannon helped me immensely when my debut came out. I was so worried about boring everyone with my constant book promo, but I knew the window was small so it was vital I struck a balance between:
saying very little and hoping the word would magically spread and
saying too much, too often and risk being muted!
Spammy sales posts shouting ‘buy it now’ make my skin itch and no doubt irritate most potential readers. This is not marketing. It’s yelling into the abyss.
My second book, The Eleventh Floor, is coming out on 31st January 2024. It’s exciting! There is much flurry behind the scenes as the talented HarperCollins team come up with ways to creatively spread the word. This time around, instead of seeing marketing as an intimidating ordeal for which I am not equipped, I have reframed it as storytelling in a different format. As an author, we hope our stories resonate with readers and so any opportunity to share some insight into how the book came about is a great way to market without feeling like we are marketing.
Brilliant content …
That being said, quirky little grabs for book promotion purposes are definitely not my strong suit. Case in point: I thought it would be fun to have video footage of someone pressing the 11th floor button in a lift. As I don’t live in a multi-storey building and rarely go anywhere that has that option, I asked my mum to film this inspired content when she went on holidays to Queensland. You can see the result of that here. We can count that as a slightly different story than the one I set out to tell!
This about sums up my writing themes!
Ultimately, successful marketing—just like successful books—boils down to connection. I’m interested in building relationships with people who love stories that are set in domestic spheres. Readers who feel rage and frustration at things that women have typically been silenced for: non-existent work/life balances, our ongoing safety, the mixed messages about our appearance and the roles we are expected to uphold in society. I love a reader who is keen to sink their teeth into darker stories, someone who doesn’t shy away from difficult topic matter.
I know when I meet these readers, the shared interests and passions flow. We recommend books to each other, we get excited and outraged together. When this happens, it doesn’t feel like marketing at all.
How (or where) have you discovered new authors and new books?
KOx
