BadRedhead Media

How Do I Market My Book, Anyway?

You’re still confused about how to market your books, your blog, or your business.

You’re busy with your day job, family, and writing.

You’re tired, overwhelmed, and want someone to do it all (whatever ‘all’ means) for you, but you can’t afford it.

Sound familiar? 

It should, because I hear it every day from authors on social media. Nobody is reading their books, yet they don’t have time or the knowledge or the desire or the budget to market them. They blame readers, Twitter, Facebook, or even Amazon and Google, for not…oh, geez, there’s every reason out there. I even read a post on Medium the other day by a poet who rejects the notion of ‘buzzwords’ like branding and book marketing completely, saying it’s all bullshit. People should just inherently know to buy her book because the writing should speak for itself.

Your Book Is A Product

In an ideal world, sure, I agree that our writing should speak for itself. Readers (aka, consumers — another notion many authors reject) don’t live in that ideal world. Readers live in a world that throws millions of bits of information at our brains every second, and somehow, we have to discover those pearls (word of mouth, social media, blogging) and then, make a buying decision.

Which means, as authors, how do we stand out?

If your book isn’t a product, a piece of merchandise you want someone to purchase, with money…what is it then, exactly? Yes, yes, it’s art that we have lovingly creative and poured our soul into (believe me, I have five books out, and Broken Pieces is sitting #1 on the Women’s Poetry paid list on Amazon — I feel you, I do). Ultimately, for visibility for our art, doesn’t that require visibility, exposure, and sales?

Now, I’m not saying that we write solely to make money, because I don’t, and hopefully, you don’t either. We write for the love of it, the reward, because we were born to. To tell our story. Making money is a great side benefit, if it happens (and if that’s your sole motivation for writing books, I cry for you… inside, where nobody can see, because of my badass rep and all).

If you don’t want to make money on your books, cool. If, however, you’d like them to be more visible, then you need to brand yourself — you, the author — and start developing your marketing (whether that’s author, blogger, or business) platform.

Let’s Start Together

Let’s start together with my totally free 30-day BadRedhead Media Book Marketing Challenge! Learn more here, sign up, and receive one tip, everyday, for this month — only via newsletter! We start tomorrow, February 1!! 

I’m here to help you help yourself. 

Let’s do this thingy.

 

Learn more about Rachel’s customized services here. See you tomorrow, challenge-takers!