Hello again! Happy Monday!
I understand there has been some discussion (not quite controversy, but almost) about my decision to put my “author marketing and education” on hold. In fact, there was some discussion on my Facebook page over the weekend that included several people encouraging me not to give up on author education. Thank you for all of your kind words and thoughts. That is so nice of you!
Here’s the thing, though. I think when I started out on this “I’m going to teach authors about marketing” thing five or so years ago, I was under the (somewhat misguided) impression that authors ACCEPTED that they needed to learn about marketing, and that they knew this was a need.
I was wrong about that. I have now realized that authors in fact do NOT see this as a need, and as such, they kind of resent me every time I try to teach them something. This was actually an interesting lesson for me, and I thought I would share it with you.
As it turns out, you need to get inside the mind of your “ideal reader” or “audience avatar” BEFORE you put pen to paper. I had assumed that all authors were like me (if you’ll recall, I self-published a book and used marketing to sell so many copies, Simon & Schuster bought it). This, as I slowly came to accept, is just not the case. Most authors I have encountered over the past five or six years are introverted and just want to write, and marketing themselves and their work is something they are never going to WANT to do.
So, that’s fine. I have accepted the fact that I didn’t do enough research and/ or talk to enough people at the beginning of this endeavor, and that I made an incorrect assumption about the attitude and disposition of my target audience. Let’s use this as a learning experience, shall we? I promise you, I am not sad about it.
With that in mind, here is this week’s book pick, How to Achieve Anything You Want: Set and Prioritize Goals, Attract Wealth, and Live the Life You Always Dreamed, by Gerry Marrs. I like this book because it is motivational without being as “in your face!” about it as some other books of this genre. I am a big fan of personal development books in general, so I’m happy to add this one to my list.
If you do happen to be interested in book marketing, can I highly recommend that you take a look at this excellent presentation by Rand Fishkin from MOZ? It is about using SEO and startup tactics in book marketing, and I think it might turn on some lightbulbs for you.
And with that, let us go forth into this sleep-deprived Monday (thanks, Daylight Saving Time!) and conquer our respective worlds.
