April 25, 2011

After returning from a writers’ conference a couple years ago, I had so many notes and hand-outs and worksheets dealing with marketing that I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start. My brain froze.

Oh no! Marketing block!

Too Much of a Good Thing

Has this ever happened to you? I had collected terrific ideas on branding, making book trailers, blogging, writing a newsletter, collecting addresses, multiple ways to reach your publisher’s sales force with material that would actually help them sell your books, tips on upping sales on Amazon.com, making e-books, and much more.

As I sorted through the material when I got home, I could feel my blood pressure rising. Where to begin? How to prioritize? How to do it all on a shoestring budget (and a short shoestring at that)? And where would I find the time?

Hyperactive Marketing

I developed marketing ADHD. When I was setting up my second website for an upcoming series, I remembered that I needed to register another domain name, so I did that. I decided then to submit an article to a writer’s website, which reminded me to convert a manuscript into an e-book to sell.

Flipping through notebooks and scribbled pages for the information, I wanted to burn it all instead. I didn’t sign up for this! All I ever wanted to do was sit in a quiet room and make up stories and write them down. That’s all.

Instead, to add to writer’s block, I had marketing block.

One Solution

I think I found an answer. It’s a two-pronged approach using scheduling and organization.

I bought a three-ring binder and dividers with eight colored tabs, and labeled the tabs according to the types of marketing I needed to do. I have tabs for “website work” and “blog work” and “Amazon.com” and “sales and marketing” and “social networking” and “selling online.” In the front of each section is a “to do” list for that topic, followed by the “how-to” information I need to do it.

The other prong–scheduling–comes into play on my daily/weekly calendar. I have a couple hours at the end of the day when my brain is tired. I blocked off that time for marketing. At the beginning of the week, I read each “to do” list in the marketing binder and decide what is most pressing, then prioritize it and write it on my daily calendar.

De-stressed!

As I organized and scheduled various short tasks, I could feel the marketing block melting away. I would work on each project a bit at a time, in a regular manner.

To be honest, I’d rather not have to market. I’d rather be writing all day long. But expectations of authors have changed, and in the end, it may be a good change. Writers have griped for decades about having no control over how much time and energy is being spent marketing their books. Through personal marketing in a variety of venues, we can now make a difference.

And–using my “inch-by-inch-it’s-a-cinch” method–we can do it without driving ourselves nuts.

7 Comments »

1. 

   As I find the whole marketing/promotion thing totally overwhelming and agree with you that I’d rather just be writing, I sincerely hope that your next book is going to be Marketer’s First Aid, with lots of helpful step-by-step instructions to make our own binders with the how-to info we need!!!

   Comment by Susanna — April 25, 2011 @ 6:59 am

2. 

   Susanna, thanks for a great idea there! I don’t think I’ll write a whole book, but I should write another short e-book with instructions. Marketer’s First Aid–great title!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — April 25, 2011 @ 7:56 am

3. 

   I second Susanna’s suggestion, Kristi. Thanks for this post. It’s worth a try!

   Comment by Jane Heitman Healy — April 25, 2011 @ 8:05 am

4. 

   Ditto to Susanna’s suggestion! And might I add: separate suggestions for fulltime writers and those who write and work fulltime at other jobs. Their is also the issue of one-size does not fit all. It seems that a writer will be more successful at promotion when he/she uses techniques that are in alignment with his/her 1) values and 2) personality type. Thank you again, Kristi, for the great service you offer to the writing community.

   Comment by Anne — April 25, 2011 @ 12:28 pm

5. 

   Thank you for this post, Kristi! I hate marketing and avoid it. Like you, I wish I could just spend my time writing. Besides, when I think of all the marketing I should be doing, I feel overwhelmed and depressed. But your binder idea inspired me! I will try it and see if it helps.

   Comment by Rebecca — April 25, 2011 @ 3:47 pm

6. 

   I love that idea, Susanna! Kristi, I hope you do it, because I could sure use it. I am all thumbs when it comes to marketing, and am still figuring out just what I should be doing. In other words, I have no idea…

   Comment by Andrea B. — April 25, 2011 @ 9:25 pm

7. 

   So glad you’re going to do it Let me know when it’s out

   Comment by Susanna — April 26, 2011 @ 4:42 am

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