Book Marketing in Ten (Thousand) Easy Steps

More on how every little connection ripples outward

Most of you know how I feel about marketing and promotion—and a warm welcome to those who don’t yet know my opinions—which is that it’s all about making personal connections. For authors like me who were published by an independent publishing house, or those of you who publish your own books and run your own indie presses, the technique of trying to gain readers purely through advertising a lot to massive numbers of people, like you were selling socks, is almost always doomed to fail. You will run out of money long before you break into the bestseller lists.

How we all find, attract, and keep readers for our books is not unlike how we find, attract, and keep readers here on Substack: we attempt to build a brand and then try to spread the word of course, but mostly we build our list of subscribers by reaching out into our own communities, and giving them something of value. Sometimes that manifests in subscribing to those writers we admire and respect, and whose writing bring us joy. Sometimes we demonstrate the very generosity we want to see in our writing community by sharing and recommending other people’s ‘stacks and posts.

This last week was all about community for me. In spite of losing two important and beloved people in my life (I’ll be writing about them both in future but I am simply not ready to yet), I found joy and optimism by communicating and participating and simply showing up for my online and real-world communities. Of course I sent and received emails and texts about the people I lost to those who were also grieving, and had a couple of wonderfully weepy phone calls with friends and family, which was to be expected, but some other experiences came as very pleasant surprises.

First, Russel and I joined a small group of people protesting the many shameful actions of the current administration. What a thrill to find myself surrounded by thousands of peaceful like-minded folks who were willing to give up a beautiful weekend day to share their anger at the loss of, or the potential loss of, so much that I hold dear. Signs and t-shirts proclaimed love and caring for immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks, national parks, libraries, our neighbors and allies near and far, our democracy itself, and the federal programs that form a safety net that helps so many in this country every day. I left energized, hopeful, and full of optimism.

On Sunday I attended a favorite writers group and was able to shut out the nonstop drone of terrible news in the financial world by discussing terrible news in the publishing world. Actually, we mostly talked about the process of writing, and discussed the book projects we are working on. Though we did commiserate about the ups and downs of living the authors’ life right now, including how hard it is to get any writing done when you are constantly being bombarded by “breaking news.” But even more than the good conversation, it was the real-world connections we made—the smiles, nods, ideas, and support we gave each other—that gave me such a huge boost.

I also got to hang out with boating friends a few times this week, at a yacht club meeting, a lecture, and a dinner, not to mention some chance meet ups along the dock. And virtually too, as I found the opportunity to exchange messages with old and new sailing and cruising friends, both down in Baja and in the US and Canada.

You are no doubt asking by now what this has to do with marketing and promoting your book. Well, it’s simple, each one of the many groups I am in—both virtually and IRL—are avenues down which I may travel now and then, or daily, meeting new people, making friends and finding out about other groups, events, meetings, classes and gatherings. I don’t do this because I want to set up book events, but I am much more likely to be asked to do an event when I am already participating in a group or on a forum. My support for libraries, service clubs, and writing classes have definitely opened up doors for me to present my book to members of those groups.

Almost everything you do as a human being in this new connected world offers you an opportunity to market yourself, both as a person and as a creative artist, if you care to. And if you are an author, you have options that writers simply didn’t have in years gone by. In the old days, almost every author was required to have a publisher (book, magazine, or newspaper) in order to be seen by readers. They needed the publishers marketing and promotion and distribution departments to be able to reach those readers and find new ones. Now, we need only the drive, energy, and let’s call it chutzpah to be able to reach our readership, and if our book is good enough, we will.

Obviously, I’m not suggesting you become one of those annoying “HI, BUY MY BOOK” kind of people who bring nothing but a sales pitch to every interaction, both online and IRL. I’m talking about making connections out of genuine interest, and seeing where those connections will take you. Where I’ve had the most success in my life—working at Sunbelt Publications, writing about sailing and Baja California, and teaching at the Southern California Writers Conference and San Diego Writers, Ink—I was doing something I loved and believed in and sharing that joy with others.

That’s how we attract people into our lives who are interested in knowing more about us, and isn’t that what marketing is all about? And if you are putting out a product or a message that’s worthwhile, you’ll find that those interested parties will want to support you and your work. And letting them know how to do that is promotion.

The problem, of course, is that all of this takes a lot of time, or a lot of money. If you are marketing yourself and your books (or whatever) on a shoestring like me, you need to put in the hours instead of hiring someone to do it for you. (Preferably, you will hire people to do certain aspects, so you’ll present a truly professional product.) And you want to start implementing this approach well before your book is done. In fact, you should be thinking about and planning it as early in the process as possible; even your book pitch needs to be directed at a specific demographic—yeah, that’s marketing, too.

Tomorrow, I’ll be teaching “Marketing & Promoting Your Work in Progress” a new online course for San Diego Writers, Ink, in which I’ll discuss my own process of book marketing over the last two years, and help authors brainstorm their own strategy. I’ll cover social media platforms and highlight which promotions worked best for me and other authors I know, in terms of generating book sales. The 2-hour class will be perfect for those who are still working on their manuscript, or those who’ve finished a first draft but don’t know what to do next. My main audience will probably be authors who are aiming to be published by an indie or hybrid press, or self-publishing their book, but it would also be useful for those planning to go through the traditional agent-to-publisher process. (Part of selling a book to publishers is knowing how to market it, so literary agents welcome clear input and workable ideas.)

In other news, Womancake just published one of my favorite essays I’ve written so far; sort of a memoir in books, but focused on travel books and books about finding a new place, all written by women in midlife or older. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it—maybe you’ll discover something new to you, or be reminded of a favorite book or author. I love the way Alicia used this old photo of me in front of the NYC public library for my latest column; read it on Womancake’s Substack page, which is chock-full of goodies.

Next Friday I’ll be sharing my review of The Memory Collectors, a new book from Dete Meserve, a favorite author of mine who sent me an ARC to read back in the fall (yes, reading and reviewing books is all part of making literary connections). I loved it and have been meaning to review it here long before this. It’s coming out May 20th and you’ll definitely want to get it.

hasta pronto!