Professional Development for the Professional Writer

I attended another workshop on marketing and promotion last Saturday run by Holly Roberts, USA Today Best Seller author. We can never get enough of this stuff, right?

In the fall, I attended one at our local Historical Novel Society meeting. I paid nothing for this one and gained a purse full of gold from Marylee McDonald’s stellar presentation.

I buy books on marketing and promotion. I read articles on marketing and promotion. I take classes when I can. Since this is not an area I feel confident in, I seek the information from knowledgeable others. As a professional writer, I have a responsibility to keep learning and growing. It’s my career, so I must assume the bulk of the responsibility for my success while being grateful for support from my publishers.

Every source says first write a good book. Well, I try. I do the best I can, but when I compare myself to Louise Penny, Jaqueline Winspear, Diane Mott Davidson, and others, I can see that my writing is not at that level. Yet. But I’m working on it. Honest.

However, the marketing thing can take over your life. At last Saturday’s Holly Roberts’ workshop, I learned so much about how to create a compelling ad, what I need to do on Facebook, and more. With four Facebook author pages, I need to up my game and post more content on each.

Okaaaay!

To figure out, maybe, how to be more efficient while being more effective with marketing and promotion, I am “attending” a Facebook group’s marketing strategies week-long focus beginning next week. For free! Maybe this one will be the magic bullet. Care to join me? Check out the 12-Minute Book Launch Challenge for yourself. 

I’ll be writing a limited series of what I’m learning/have learned about marketing and promotion. Come back next week for tips on building your mailing list and how to use it.

What are you doing that’s been effective for marketing your books without sucking up your whole life? Please share below.

Facebook: Are you struggling with the book marketing energy-time drain, too? Commiserate with Sharon Arthur Moore at http://bit.ly/2F6ntIO

Twitter: Are you struggling with the book marketing energy-time drain, too? Commiserate with @Good2Tweat at http://bit.ly/2F6ntIO

Promotion or Marketing? What's the Diff?

I am not in anyone’s mind a business person. I have struggled with learning the business end of this writing profession of mine, and sometimes I didn’t do that gladly. I have been known to whine, complain, belly ache and be a general PITA** about business issues.

I am so naïve I used to dump anything that was remotely connected to promotion and marketing into the same unsorted-items folder. Other people’s ideas that I would figure out at some unspecified future date.

Well, the future is here, and I am only marginally better informed than I was. So feel free, all you promotion pros and marketing mavens, to join into the discussion in the comments section below. I am here to learn at your collective knee.

I realized pretty early on that dumping everything into one computer file didn’t make sense. Especially, since the items were unsorted, there was no way to find and use anything even if I knew I needed to. First job: I sorted into two separate computer files: book marketing and book promotion.

Ta Da!

Except … I had to make double copies of some articles because I wasn’t sure which was which! Sigh.

And I’m not alone. Some stuff labeled by business professional as “promotions” are sometimes “marketing”. But while I have an excuse Mad Men do not. I’m not expected to know. And that’s scary in itself.

Here’s what I now understand to be the difference between promotion and marketing--1) the amount of information provided and 2) the intent seem to be the major delineating factors.

Okay. Here’s my understanding:

Promotions announce information about availability, access, and news. “The print version of Mission Impastable was released for sale by Oak Tree Press January 23, 2014.”  “Streetwalker came out from Sizzler Editions as an e-book on Amazon on August 1, 2013.”  “Mission Impastable got a 4.5 rating from Manic Readers.”  “I posted about how I wrote Mission Impastable at Sarah’s Reading Blog today.”

There is no pitch. No direct appeal for sales. Promotion merely tells or reminds the reader that a product is available.

Marketing has a different intent and provides much more information. I want you to buy my book, and sooner is better than later. I am offering you value-added to convince you to buy. “With Mission Impastable you get a two-fer: mystery + cookbook.” “Buy Mission Impastable today at ”  “This weekend only, get Mission Impastable for 99¢”

What confuses me is when promotion are marketing are conflated. I don’t know the term for that. Am I promoting or am I marketing? Announcing reviews with a buy link seems to be both. Things like book trailers with buy information are marketing because they’re trying to hook you into buying. Announcing a great review seems to be marketing.

I will do another post on some of my promotional and marketing ploys next time. This topic is rich with options.

I’m sure a business person could straighten me out, but for now . . . I’ll just keep on truckin’, and whether it is promotion or marketing, in the end, doesn’t really matter. Labeling my activity as promotion or marketing doesn’t sell books. But I hope whatever I’m doing, does!

**PITA: Pain in the Arse