How to Make a Living With Your Writing: Market your books
You cannot publish a book and just expect it to sell. That’s not the reality of life in the 2020s, regardless of whether you go the traditional or indie route.
There are so many millions of books and a multitude of other options for consumers including TV, film, gaming, music and podcasts. You need to draw attention to your work somehow.
Marketing is the act of promoting your books, products, or services and although many authors resist it, marketing is an integral part of the writing life and therefore critical if you want to make a living this way.
There are lots of different ways to market your books and build your author platform, which I cover extensively in How to Market a Book, so this is just an introduction.
Marketing is a mindset
Most authors don’t even want to think about marketing but it will be easier, and perhaps even fun, if you change your mindset.
Marketing is sharing what you love with people who will appreciate hearing about it. It doesn’t have to be scammy or sucky, or forcibly ramming your book down people’s throats in real life or on social media.
Think about your audience and consider how you might serve them through entertainment, education, or inspiration, then work out the best way to reach them in ways that also leave you creatively satisfied. You have a great book, so how can you make sure your target market have a chance to read it?
Marketing is a skill
You can learn marketing in the same way that you can learn writing or business skills. You just have to want to do it. Keep an open mind about what you might enjoy or what might work for your book/s and try different things.
I started podcasting in 2009 because I felt isolated and I wanted to talk to other authors around the world as well as learn and share tips about the writer’s journey. I really didn’t know what I was doing and for the first interview, I held an MP3 recorder next to the phone which I put on speaker. Yes, this was an actual landline, back in the days before Skype and Zoom went mainstream and way before podcasting became big enough to attract useful services.
But at least I started, and over a decade later, I have two podcasts which form the basis of my book marketing, and which provide other income streams which I cover in Part 2.
I love podcasting and I consider my shows to be part of my creative body of work, as well as bringing in money and selling books. I certainly didn’t know what the future would hold when I recorded that first episode back in 2009, but I enjoyed the process, so I kept doing it!
Take care of the basics first
The basics of book marketing are simple, but not easy!
Write a great book and understand where it fits in the ecosystem so your book cover resonates with that audience. Ensure your book description draws people in and use appropriate categories and keywords so your book can be found in the stores.
Set up a professional author website and email list so you can build your relationship with readers. Over time, you can use this list for launches, building an Advance Reader team, and for advertising.
Once you have these basics sorted, then you can consider the myriad other ways to market your books, but without these, you will find marketing difficult over the long term.
Use your books to market your books
If you have multiple books and you control your intellectual property, you can use different methods to sell more. Many fiction writers use free days in Kindle Unlimited, a free first in series if publishing wide, or at least periodic sales promotions, to drive more readers to the rest of the books.
My ARKANE thriller, Stone of Fire, has been free for many years on all stores and continues to bring people into the series of 11 books (and counting). I also have Successful Self-Publishing as a free first in series for non-fiction.
If you write in a series, regardless of genre, your books are linked together on the stores, which helps people to find them, and you can list all your books in the back matter so people are aware of them.
You can also bump up your backlist by doing new covers, updating your sales descriptions and relaunching with price promotions and other marketing.
Market in a way that suits your personality and lifestyle
The most effective marketing involves long-term actions that, over time, build up a readership that continues to bring you income and helps you to make a living with your writing. But if you want to do anything for the long term and enjoy it, it needs to be sustainable for your life.
Like diet or exercise, you can do anything for the short term, but if you hate it, you will soon fall off the wagon and might end up in a worse situation than before. So while you might try all kinds of different marketing tactics, settle on those that you enjoy and can do for the long term and ignore the rest.
I use the same methods for my fiction as J.F. Penn and non-fiction as Joanna Penn. These have developed over more than a decade, so don’t worry, you don’t need to have everything in place when you’re starting out. I’ve tried pretty much everything over the years, but I’ve settled on these methods as they work well for me. Your preferences will probably differ.
I use content marketing through my two podcasts, The Creative Penn and Books and Travel, which also have transcripts and images on the show notes for effective search engine optimization (SEO). The shows have a call to action to join my email lists. I offer a free thriller at JFPenn.com/free and my Author Blueprint at TheCreativePenn.com/blueprint.
I have free ebooks on all the stores, Stone of Fire, ARKANE thriller book 1, and also Successful Self-Publishing, and I promote them both with paid advertising and email marketing. I’m no longer a heavy user of social media, preferring to rely on email marketing, podcasting, and paid ads, which I’ve found deliver a much better return on investment and are more sustainable for my lifestyle.
There are many marketing options, so you need to find what works for you, but be sure to revisit your choices and try new things over time.
Learn how to market your own books before outsourcing
Most authors don’t want to do their own marketing, but if you outsource too soon, you will end up out of pocket. For example, I’ve seen authors with just one book pay a PR company thousands of dollars as a retainer, only to find they get one interview in a small magazine that results in few sales.
Better to spend that budget on a professional book cover, email list set-up and some basic paid ads which will drive sales or at least free downloads which result in reviews, while you write the next book.
There are lots of books and courses on marketing by authors with experience. Learn the basics first and once you have enough books, and you’re making enough revenue to justify outsourcing, then look for the best return on investment for your marketing spend.
You can find free courses on marketing and professionals to help you at the Reedsy Marketplace, TheCreativePenn.com/reedsy
Questions:
• What is your current attitude to book marketing? How could you improve your mindset?
• If you have a book or more out already, do you have the basics in place?
• How could you use your books to market your books?
• What kinds of marketing are you interested in learning more about? What might work for your personality and lifestyle over the long term?
• How could you improve your marketing skills?
• When is a good time to outsource your marketing? Is it the right time for you?
Resources:
• How to Market a Book — Joanna Penn
• Strangers to Superfans: A Marketing Guide to the Reader Journey — David Gaughran
• How to Market a Book: Over-perform in a Crowded Market — Ricardo Fayet
• My author website tutorial — www.TheCreativePenn.com/authorwebsite
• My email list set-up tutorial — www.TheCreativePenn.com/setup-email-list
• 101 Course for Authors by Mark Dawson, including the basics you need in place for successful self-publishing — www.TheCreativePenn.com/101
• Ads for Authors course by Mark Dawson, including Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub Ads — www.TheCreativePenn.com/ads
• Your First 10K Readers course by Nick Stephenson — www.TheCreativePenn.com/10k
• Reedsy Marketplace and free courses — www.TheCreativePenn.com/reedsy
