Self Promotion Just Like The Pros

I read this post at The Magic District blog and thought it captured the essence of marketing, whether done by the Big Boys on Madison Ave. or Bob C. Author on his Mac. I touched on this topic here, looking at the efficacy of book trailers. Really, that’s the tip of the iceberg.

I worked for about 5 years as the person in charge of sales and marketing for a small whitewater rafting company in WV. When we were bought in 2008 I got to sit in on marketing meetings with our sister company, which was much larger. The saying that came up frequently was that 20 percent (or 25 or 50, the number’s not important) of marketing doesn’t work, but no one knows what 20 percent that is, which means we were dumping 80% of our marketing down the toilet.

Sure, this is oversimplified, but there is a kernel of truth in there somewhere. Unfortunately, the guidance is not clear because there is not one answer. Throw in the fact that we are trying to predict how people will respond to things and it gets even harder. Other times, we convince ourselves to use marketing methods because either that’s the way it has always been done, or it’s new and shiny and cool (which is more than I can say for me).

So where do you even begin?

Having a web presence is a great start. Getting involved with the writing community in forums, commenting on blogs, posting your own comments, posting links on social media — it all helps. I would argue that these are probably the most effective ways we can market our work. We have a built in community (facebook friends, blog subscribers, twitter followers) that we have demonstrated that they are willing to hear what we have to say. Is it perfect? No. Is it easier for an author to have some control over publicity than 20 years ago? Yes.

Of course, you can tweet and update statuses and blog until your fingers bleed, but at the end of all things, you’ll still need that polished manuscript and a dynamite query. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to mine.