Welcome to the blog of Ariele Sieling, author! If you would like to learn more about her, click here to sign up for her newsletter. She also offers publishing and marketing consulting services. Click here to learn more.
Another version of this article was shared on the Revision Division Vault.
We authors are at war. We have at our disposal the books we write, our author network, and a few tools that may or may not work, depending on the day or the time or the mood of the universe as a whole. We are fighting for the attention of a few—10 or 100, maybe 1000 people that love our work, our words, our stories. But we have to compete for their attention against life in general, the entire internet, all of television, and every other book that’s ever been written (just to name a few things).
In addition, each of us is just one author, with a finite number of tools, a finite number of hours, and a finite number of dollars to use in the war to reach the hearts and minds of those people who are going to love our books. But too often our marketing feels like we are just flinging paint against the walls and hoping to paint a picture.
So how do we decide exactly where we are going to spend our time and dollars? What do we invest in?
How do we build one, holistic, marketing strategy that we can use to keep us on track, moving forward, and overcoming all odds in this crazy world of modern publishing?
The short answer is: I don’t know. But I do know that a lot of the “strategies” that are out there, aren’t really strategies. They are tactics. Single activities. Once-in-a-lifetime strokes of luck. I might not have a solid, single answer, but I do have some suggestions.
If you’d like, I’ve created a template that you can use to walk through the process along with this blog post.
1. Decide your endgame.
Whenever I ask people, “what’s your goal as an author?” I usually get back the same answer from everyone: I want to make money. I want to pay a few bills. I want to send my kids to college. I want to be able to quit my job. My response to that is: Yes. I know. That’s what we all want.
The truth is, your endgame can be anything you want. And if money is what you want, build your marketing plan around it (and maybe try becoming a lawyer or investor instead of an author lol). But there are a lot of other ways to be successful as a writer, and I think it’s worth considering the bigger picture.
So, what else do you want? What impact do you want to make in the world? What lifestyle do you want to live? Why did you start writing in the first place? Where do you want to be in five or ten years? If you were to die without having ever made a cent on writing, what do you hope you will have achieved?
Here are a few examples:
I want to have one TRUE fan that loves everything I write.
I want to create resources for teachers to help improve the XYZ part of children’s lives.
I want to leave my story behind for my grandkids.
I want to check off an item on my bucket list.
I want to increase diverse representation in literature.
I want to write a TV series.
I want to run a personal training/SEO/cooking/consulting business.
I want to start a movement.
I want to write body and sex positive books.
I want to help people solve a problem in their lives.
I want to inspire teenagers to pursue the sciences/arts/cooking/etc.
I want to tell the stories of a particular group of people.
I want to help other people achieve their goals.
Now, when I said earlier that your endgame can be anything, I meant it. It can be the same as someone else’s endgame or it can be so unique and crazy that everyone else thinks you’re insane. You can have one or two or three endgames. You can change your mind about your endgame five years from now. Or maybe, your endgame is simply this: I want to write books every day.
Whatever your endgame is, it will determine the choices you make as you piece together your marketing strategy. Every marketing activity you participate in, every marketing choice you make—it should always point back to this.
2. Determine your objectives.
As I said, we are fighting a war. So what do you need to accomplish in order to win the war? That depends on what war you’re trying to win, what your endgame is.
Objectives should be reasonable, specific, and measurable—you need to know when you’ve accomplished it. But again, they can be anything you want.
For example, if my endgame is to conquer Canada, my objectives might look like this:
Invade Saskatchewan.
Win Saskatchewan.
Invade Nova Scotia.
Win Nova Scotia.
Or maybe it would look like this:
Overwhelm Canada with bears (or alligators since they probably have their own bears).
Win the hearts and minds of the Canadian people until they ask to be invaded.
Slowly move the US/Canada border north until they are completely encompassed and maps list them as being part of the US.
Convince enough US citizens to move to Canada that we’ve basically occupied them.
Okay so, clearly military strategy is not my thing. But let’s take a closer look at author marketing strategy instead. If my endgame is to increase diverse representation in literature, I’m going to focus my time and efforts in two areas: first, I have to write books with diverse characters (so I’ll create a separate strategy for that, but that’s writing, not marketing). Second, I have to get my books into the hands of people that want to read about diverse characters.
So who do I think will want to read my books?
Objective 1: Determine my target audience.
Once I know who to focus on, then I need objectives to keep myself on track and moving in the right direction.
Objective 2: Get 100 pairs of (new) eyes on my books every week.
Once I know for a fact that lots of people are seeing my books, I have to draw them in.
Objective 3: Create a sales funnel.
Once they’ve been drawn in, I have to keep them around.
Objective 4: Create audio/visual experiences that enable my readers to invest more emotional energy into my books and my worlds (and make them want to buy later books in the series).
I could go on like this for a while. These objectives are HARD to write. Impossible, sometimes. And honestly, I’m not sure there are right or wrong, good or bad objectives. It’s all about what works for you.
Let’s try another example. Say your endgame is that you want to provide resources for teachers to help kids learn math.
In this scenario, you already know your target audience: teachers. And getting 100 teachers to look at your books every week seems like a bit of a stretch. Besides, in order to get buy-in from teachers, you don’t just want them to see your work, you want the opportunity to get up close and personal with them—you want them to experience your work.
Objective 1: Build a network of teachers that are interested in your product.
Once you’ve found the teachers, you have to convince them to at least try your work.
Objective 2: Create a sample product that you hand out for free for teachers to use.
Teachers are now actively engaging with your work. How do you get them to buy the curriculum?
Objective 3: Approach principals and superintendents and offer discounts for bulk sales.
Now you have your books in a few schools. How do you get them to keep using it, and wanting more from you?
Objective 4: Schedule school visits, workshops, and conferences to connect teachers with ongoing support and resources (that you provide).
Objectives are the things you need to accomplish in order to reach your endgame. You can have as many or as few objectives as you want. Maybe you start with two or three and add more as you go. Maybe you write down a few, hate them, and try something else later. Whatever works for you and for your endgame. After all, once you’ve started moving forward, you’ll probably keep moving forward. It’s the first law of physics!
3. Develop your tactics.
Tactics are different than objectives in that objectives are what you are trying to accomplish and tactics are the actual actions that you take. When I really, truly understood the difference between objectives and tactics, that’s when my marketing completely shifted. Most of the things people tell you to do to market your book are tactics. When someone says, “The best way to get book sales is to post in Facebook groups!” —that’s a tactic. When someone says, “The best way to get book sales is to do book signings!” —that’s a tactic.
But, there are bajillions of possible tactics you could use. So, the best thing to do is to write your objectives FIRST and then choose tactics that are going to move you in the direction you’re trying to go.
Let’s pick an easy objective to begin with: Get 100 (new) pairs of eyes on my books every week. This is something most marketing plans probably have in common (if not 100 eyes, then 10 or 50 or 500). Basically, you need to reach your audience.
So, what tactics can we brainstorm to get 100 eyes on our books every week?
Post on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.
Make a Youtube series about your book or topic
Put your books in Free Little Libraries
Donate a copy of your book to your local library
Go to comic cons, book signings, craft fairs
Set up paid ads (Facebook/Amazon/Bookbub)
Start a word of mouth campaign
Put out new books
Get people to sign up for your newsletter
Go on a blog tour
Pay for impressions
Do a giveaway
Post on Wattpad
Make book trailers
Get a short story in an anthology
Build a website/Google ads
Make a video game
Win a writing contest
Get on a podcast/start a podcast
Do radio/TV interviews
Pin images or set up boards on pinterest
Pay for a billboard
Put flyers on cars
Make a banner and have it dragged behind an airplane
For this particular objective, I could brainstorm hundreds of ideas. Pretty much anything you do out where people can see you will get at least one or two pairs of eyes on your books. The next issue becomes how to choose between all of the possible tactics.
Simple! You vet them.
Vetting Marketing Tactics
Not all tactics are created equal. Some are interesting or fun ideas, but will get you nowhere. Some are a huge time suck and some cost way too much money. For example, getting Beyonce to come perform at your book launch party is a great way to get new eyes on your books.
Lol.
So, here are my tips for vetting:
Brainstorm as many ideas as you can. No idea is too crazy. No idea is wrong. Let your brain go wild.
Check back in with your endgame. Cross off anything that doesn’t point directly back to that.
Cross off anything that is literally impossible. Although, I would pay a lot to see alligators performing a spoken word pop-up version of your self-help manual.
Cross off anything you can’t afford. [Note: you SHOULD have a marketing budget. Even if it’s only $10 or $20 a month.]
Cross off anything that is going to make you have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Seriously. If you hate doing something… DON’T DO IT.
Cross off anything that you’ve tried that you know for a fact won’t work. Note on this: try to be a little objective about this one. Before you completely eliminate an idea, ask yourself “why didn’t it work?” Could it be that you did it poorly? Or that you did it the day the world ended? Or that you did it but forgot to include a link to your book? Only cross it off if you know for a fact it won’t work. I know for a fact that spamming my book in FB groups does NOT work on scifi readers. So I don’t do it.
Even after working through this list and crossing off possibilities, you’ll may still have quite a few options left. So the next step is to prioritize.
Prioritize anything that is directly and obviously related to your endgame.
Prioritize anything that you already have the skills to do. [In fact, I highly encourage you to try to be creative—make a list of skills you have, like gardening or accounting or music or art, and see if there are ways you could use those skills to market your books.]
Prioritize anything that will help you push forward more than one objective. For example, if you have five objectives, and creating a Facebook group is a tactic that will help you achieve 4/5 of them—do that!
Prioritize based on your time and/or resources. If you have money but not time, prioritize things that might cost money but take some of the work off your plate. If you have time but not money, prioritize things you can do but that aren’t expensive.
Let’s talk through another example, with the endgame being to help teachers teach math more effectively to their students.
Here is your objective: Offer bulk sales discounts to schools.
Here are some tactics to consider:
Reach out to teachers you know, and ask if they can put you in touch with their principal
Go to teacher or administrative conferences and network with principals/superintendents
Send out cold emails or make cold phone calls to principals/superintendents in your area
Pay for a vendor table at a local event, a school event, or a conference
Pay for Google/Amazon/Facebook ads targeted at principals, teachers, and superintendents
Make videos of you demonstrating your technique, and post on Youtube (with the appropriate keywords attached)
Build a website and post a blog with information about the technique, math, or related content
Start a podcast where you talk about your technique and other related techniques
Hire alligators to do a spoken word performance of your math technique outside the house of principals from your target area
If it were me, I would never cold call because I hate talking on the phone. I probably would make a video series, because I have the skills to do that. And I would probably be a vendor at events, because I like talking to people face to face. I would seriously consider the alligator performances, but probably end up crossing that off the list as it would be too expensive.
Whatever tactics you choose should always point back to an objective, which should point back to your endgame. If you do this, you’ll never sit around wondering, why am I even doing this? You’ll know exactly why. As you get more involved with this sort of planning, you can start to add layers—hire people to do some of the work for you, improve your methods of measuring what tactics work and don’t work, learn where is best to invest actual dollars. And you won’t get so caught up when a tactic fails, because you’ll have a plan, and know exactly what to do next.
And hopefully, before long, your marketing plan will be chugging along, and carrying you with it.
4. Get started.
Don’t wait until you have a perfectly thought out, perfected marketing plan. Seriously. Don’t wait. Start now. The longer you wait to get started, the less time you’ll have to enact all parts of the plan. We all have limited hours, days, minutes, so don’t wait.
A couple of extra thoughts on book marketing for authors:
It’s work. It’s hard. I hear/see a lot of authors complain about how it’s not working, or ask for the easiest ways to market their books. If you want to be a career author, then you have to be all in on the marketing as well as the writing, whether you’re trad published or indie.
If you go through this whole thing, get to the end, and think, “I don’t want to do all this. I just want to leave a legacy, or cross an item off my bucket list, or leave behind a book of memories for my grand kids,” then do that! Don’t worry about all this other nonsense. Write the book you want to write, and give it to your grandkids. Or cross it off your bucket list. Or donate it to your library. Put in exactly the amount of work you want to put in, and not a bit more.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, consider this: do one thing at a time. We all have lives. We have jobs or school, families and illnesses, volunteer work and chores at home. We can’t do everything. So start by picking one thing. And do that one thing. That’s enough. And when you feel ready, pick a second thing. It’ll figure itself out. And don’t feel like because everyone else is doing this, that, or the other thing, that you need to be doing that too. Just focus on your endgame, on your plan. And be consistent.
This system I just wrote out might not work for everyone. It’s not a hard and fast system. It’s just an idea, a suggestion, a guide. Do what works for you, ignore the rest. If anyone ever tells you that their way of marketing (or writing) is the only way, or the best way—they’re wrong, and just trying to pull one over on you. Do what works for you. The people that go viral are the people whose approach to marketing is as unique as they are, as unique as the content they produce. Be unique. Take your natural creativity and apply it to your marketing.
5. Get started. Seriously. Do something.
Every time I share this blog post or give a workshop or presentation on this topic, there is always someone that comes up to me/messages me and says, “Okay, this is great and whatever, but what am I supposed to do?” Which is of course annoying because I just wrote 3k words (or gave a 1 - 2 hour presentation) telling you exactly what to do, step by step. But I think I know what they mean. They mean, “please just give me one thing that I can do today, while I’m working on building out this wonderful, beautiful, and absolutely exceptional plan you’ve just outlined for me, Ariele, a thing that won’t be a waste of time.”
So, I have four suggestions. If you need something to DO, do one of these four things. And if you’ve already done these four things, then just build the damn plan already! ;)
Build a website. Pay for it. Building a website is so easy these days that there is literally no reason not to do it. Weebly, Wix, Squarespace (that’s what I use), whatever you want. Just do it. Minimally, it would be helpful for your website to have: information about you, links to your books or information about what you’re working on (if you don’t have books), links to your social media if you have them, and contact information—a form, an email address, your choice.
Set up an Amazon Author Central account. This is for those of you that have a book available on Amazon. Include a photo, a bio, and make sure to claim all of your published books.
Choose one social media platform and learn how to use it. Use it as a user, not as an advertiser. Learn the ins and outs, tips and tricks. And use the tools it offers. Don’t skip hashtags because they’re ugly. Use them! Don’t skip stories because you don’t like your face. There are lots of other things to video (plants, your dog, the sunset).
Set up a newsletter. Remember there are laws about newsletters (more info here) so use a service like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or MailerLite. And commit to sending out an email once a month, or once a quarter.
Final thoughts on marketing:
Writing is for you. Publishing is for you too. Marketing—is for your reader.
Marketing is work. Complaining doesn’t make it less work. It also doesn’t make it easier.
You don’t have to ever market if you don’t want to. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
If you want your marketing to be successful, be consistent. Keep at it. And keep learning new things.
And above all: write more books.
Sign up for my newsletter, email me any questions you have, comment below if you have any thoughts. If you don’t like the system, forget about it and find a different one. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings :) .
Don’t forget your towel. And good luck.
Additional Resources
How To Market A Book by Joanna Penn
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini
Write. Publish. Repeat. by Platt, Truant, Wright
Let’s Get Visible by David Gaughran
…there are a lot more.