In the previous posts in this series I've focused on specific methods of marketing your book, but it's also useful to step back from time to time and make sure you are staying in the right frame of mind. This motto will see you through:
"Write like an artist,
market like a businessperson."
Why is this so important? An artist often takes rejection personally. A businessperson tries to learn from it in order to make the sale next time.
If you are in the artist's frame of mind when you find that one or more of your marketing methods isn't leading to sales of your book, it's easy to take it personally. You may decide marketing isn't worth doing, or resentful that of all the "friends" you have on Facebook very few seem to be friendly enough to spend money on your book.
Instead, step back, take a deep breath, and step into your businessperson's alter ego. Then ask yourself:
* What's not working?
* What might be some reasons it's not working?
* What are some options for fixing it?
* If it doesn't seem fixable, what can you do instead?
For instance, let's say you build a Facebook fan page for your book but nobody is visiting it. It's not working.
Why? Well, what mechanisms are you using to attract people to it? The most damaging motto that people have bought into is "Build it and they will come." No, they will not--not unless you give them a good reason!
How to fix it? How about putting something on that fan page that is of interest to your target audience and that they can't easily find elsewhere? If you can't think of anything, visit some of the more popular fan pages and see what they're doing and brainstorm how you can adapt their methods.
If you decide you can't fix it, what can you do instead of a fan page? A podcast? An online radio show? There are many options and figuring out which one to use often is a matter of trial and error. If you stay in the businessperson's mindset, that process will be much less painful.
(There is a chapter on traditional marketing and one on guerrilla marketing for writers in my book, Your Writing Coach. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. I also do a very limited amount of consulting for authors who need help working out their author platform strategy. If you're interested in that, email me at [email protected] for details.)