Book Marketing Without Feeling Cheap, Sleazy, or Inauthentic
Are you a writer who hates marketing? Join the club. Not the “I’m too good for marketing and my writing is so precious I shouldn’t have to stoop to telling people about it” club.
I’m talking more the “Marketing is a time-consuming and soul-sucking practice that I force myself to do because I want to introduce readers to my books” club.
What Writers Say About Marketing
Most writers hate marketing. The majority of authors I talk to say one or more of these things about it:
- “Marketing is the bane of my existence.”
- “I don’t want to market. I want to write books.”
- “I feel so slimy and sales-y telling people to buy my books.”
- “I tried marketing on social media. No one bought anything.”
- “I’d rather poke myself in the eye with a hot fork than do marketing.”
Yikes.
Clearly, we writers need a better understanding of what marketing is, what it isn’t, and how we can actually make it an enjoyable, creative, and dare I say? fun task.
You already know what you hate about marketing. It probably brings up a mental image like this:
Let’s Try Something Completely Different: Instead of Marketing…Outreach
I hate marketing too. In fact, I made a conscious decision several years ago to stop marketing my Vermont-based suspense and cozy horror novels. Instead, I decided, I was going to reach out to readers in a new way.
My plan, which I cleverly named, “outreach” involved:
- Making authentic connections
- Doing outreach tasks that fit me and my personality
- Focusing on my strengths
Whereas marketing your books feels pushy, yucky, and inauthentic, outreach around your books can feel really good, comfortable, and fun.
Let’s look at three simple ways to start doing outreach for your books, instead of marketing.
How to Do Outreach for Your Books
- Experiment
Experimenting is so fun. Because you’re just playing and seeing what works/doesn’t work, the pressure is off. You can set all the parameters around your experiments too.
Decide how much, or little, time, money, and creativity you want to spend. Then get started with a big ole brainstorm.
Create a massive list of every single thing you’ve heard of doing, have any interest in doing, dream of doing, or would like to explore to tell readers about your book.
Remember, that’s all marketing, er, outreach is. It’s simply letting other readers know about your books in a way that feels good.
After you’ve got your big brainstorm list, go through it and choose 1–2 from the list. These should be the most sparkly, interesting, exciting options for you.
Commit to trying out these 1–2 things for the next 90 days. Three months tends to be a good time frame to conduct this type of experiment. Try not to switch to another item on the list mid-stream, unless you are really desperate.
After the 90 days is over, assess your results. Consider both your metrics — how many newsletter subscribers you got, how many books you sold, how many invitations to book-related events you received, etc., — as well as how each felt to you.
Next, decide if you will continue with those same 1–2 items from your list or choose new ones.
2. Join forces This one can be tricky for introverts, but it’s important to get together with similar authors.
Not only is this a great way to help spread the word about each other's work, but it can also be really nice knowing you’re not alone in this book-selling journey.
There are several ways you can work with other authors:
- Try newsletters swaps
- Join group book promotions
- Offer to promote their work on your social media pages and ask if they’ll do the same
- Create or join a mastermind group of authors
- Join groups of authors on Facebook, Discord, or other platforms and brainstorm ways to work together
- Attend book-related events and make friends
- Participate in book-related shows, art shows, and/or other events
- Act as a panelist with other authors at a community library or writer’s conference
3. Be True to You This last step is key and may take a little more time and introspection. Looking back over your life, what’s worked for you in the past? When you’ve tried to start a new habit or quit an old one, for instance, how did you do that?
Along those same lines, what have you done that’s made you feel really good in the past? Try to use those “feel good” efforts in your book outreach.
For example, let’s say you know that you’re an uber introvert. Well, starting a YouTube channel or trying to land a TEDx talk may not be your best bet. But what about beginning a podcast for other introvert writers? Or reading parts of your book on it? Or asking to do a blog swap with an author similar to you?
We all have our innate strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths as much as possible. This helps you find new, unique, and great-feeling book outreach tactics you can try.
And if they fail? So what! Just swap out the failed attempt for something new and give it a try.
Resources for Book Outreach
Two books really helped me switch my mindset from “book marketing” to “book outreach”.
The first is by Lauren Sapala and is called Firefly Magic. It’s a great, great book with straightforward, easy-to-implement suggestions specifically for authors who hate marketing.
The second is by Colleen M. Story, and is called Writer Get Noticed! This book focuses heavily on using a strengths-based approach to writing and telling others about your work.
Remember: you wrote your book for a reason. By not getting the word out about it, you’re depriving readers of the information, escape, or entertainment they’re looking for. Imagine if your favorite author had never published his or her book?
Joy Choquette writes for a living from her home office in Vermont…where she fights writer’s block by spending time with her family and reading. Check out her suspense novels which “turn pages, not stomachs” and are all set in small-town or remote parts of Vermont.
A proud member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (affiliate link) and International Thriller Writers, Joy’s novels have been read on four continents…and counting.
