Life in the Slow Lane: The Tortoise Marketing Track
When I was getting ready to publish my historical fiction series, I was scared to death at the thought of the dreaded marketing plan. Previously, I’d had several books published by respectable mid-level publishers. The books got great reviews, but I had no idea that I needed to promote the books myself, and my few attempts at marketing failed miserably. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to quit my day job.
“I suck at this!” I told myself over and over again.
This time I decided I would at least try to learn something about how to promote books. I took some online classes, went to conferences, talked to other writers. I discovered that in order to be successful, I had to have a newsletter and a website and that I should spend 100 percent of my time promoting my book in the month before it came out. Also I needed to be on Instagram 24/7. Finally, I needed to have a brand, whatever that is!
A newsletter? Who would I send it to? I didn’t have any readers yet! It had been a few years since I’d published a book and I hadn’t kept track of my readers. I did shell out quite a bit of money for a fancy website, but honestly, I’m not sure if anyone even looks at it. But it’s there just in case they do. (And with a little photoshopping I look ten years younger in my headshot so there’s that.)
As for spending a hundred percent of my time promoting it? I was already scheduled to put out a second book in the series in a couple of months so I was spending 95 percent of my time finishing that. Then there was a third book that needed to be written.
Fortunately, I had saved money specifically for this purpose. After getting my website, I paid a marketer more than three grand to send my book out to his newsletter subscribers and to work on my Amazon page and ads. Did I get my money’s worth? In the short run, probably not, but in the long run, the answer is yes. For one thing, I learned so much about Amazon ads and keywords and QR codes, and his promotion did jump start my Amazon reviews. There are certainly less expensive ways to do this, but I liked the one-on-one personal service.
Have I made my money back for the website and the promotion jump start? No. However, there is a slow, but steady stream of income from all of my books combined, and in the meantime, I’m trying out different low-cost promotional strategies.
Now that the first three books in the series are out, I do finally have a newsletter. And I must say, I LOVE IT. I love connecting with my readers and potential readers. I keep the newsletters short and sweet and tell my subscribers a little about what’s going on in my life. A few of them actually email me back, which just delights me. (I got many of my subscribers through promotion services that offer free books and contests to readers who are willing to follow the writers.)
Of course, everyone’s always screaming about platforms and social media. I’ll admit, I am no social media genius and probably never will be. Instead, I have decided to do what I enjoy on social media and not worry about the rest. So I have a Facebook “writer” page and that’s how I let my friends know what I’m up to. (I should post funny memes about being a writer or whatever, but that’s so much work and I have more books to write.)
I’m also on Twitter. Unfortunately, most of my followers on Twitter are other writers trying to sell their own books so I don’t expect many sales from Twitter, but what I do get is a community of other writers with whom I enjoy discussing all sorts of topics.
Finally, I have discovered that I love TikTok. It’s fun and easy to make a simple video of my book or my dog. I don’t even check to see how many followers I have because I don’t care. I just enjoy posting my videos and seeing other people’s. I have connected with a few booktokkers, but let’s be honest, they’re all madly in love with Colleen Hoover, and while I admire her tremendously, my books aren’t necessarily going to attract the same readers. As for Instagram, I don’t do it except for the occasional cross-post because I don’t get the appeal of it. I know, weird, but I just don’t.
A friend recently said, “Anything you do is like breathing. Only 20 percent of what you inhale is actually oxygen. Similarly, only 20 percent of what you do in most endeavors actually works. So concentrate on enjoying the 20 percent.”
As for this writing journey, I’m taking the long view and doing the race at my own pace. The tortoise can be my brand. In fact, I’m strolling rather than racing. If I ever have a breakthrough, won’t that be lovely? If not, I’m enjoying the scenery.
Originally published at https://trishmacenulty.com.
