If you are an author then you are also a marketer. Long gone are the days when you could just upload your book to Amazon and it would sell itself. Increasingly author life is one of entrepreneurialism. You are responsible for not only writing but also the marketing of your book and balancing both is an ongoing juggling act. So before you self-combust from overwhelm at all the tasks you have ahead of you, here are our tips for mastering the balance between writing and book marketing.
If ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ is your mantra for book marketing then it’s time to replace that with ‘Just do it’. You know it needs to be done, yet day after day it’s there at the bottom of your to-do-list and you haven’t started on it. We all have tasks we procrastinate on, jobs we should be doing but search for any excuse not to. We tell ourselves we’ll do it when we are in the perfect mood, the right time of day, when we have oodles of time for the task. Well that time is now! Let’s get rid of that guilt and get started on your book marketing.
Our authors’ answer to their most overwhelming struggle was unanimous: Market Saturation. Their secret weapon? Instagram, Book Bub, email newsletters, and bloggers were amongst the most popular. We also chatted networking and approaching publishers with many authors stressing the need to consider all publishing options before going the traditional publishing route.