The Importance of Marketing in Writing and Promoting Your Book
SUMMARY
Marketing any product or book is essential, but what are you really marketing? Although most of us are not trained in marketing, we must learn it ourselves. When it comes to writing, we need to think about marketing before writing, and we must have a promotable book or film. As writers, we are not just promoting our books but promoting ourselves. Marketing is constant, and we must keep our ultimate product (ourselves) in front of the public. Repeatedly writing great stories that have people returning to your brand and doing great marketing produces an endless circle.
EXPANDED DISCUSSION
You can have the most excellent product or the most beautiful book in the world, and if it is not marketed and marketed correctly, it will, at best, sit there or, at worst, wither and die. Most of our disciplines are not initially marketing unless we are in the marketing department. Most of us have received no formal training on the subject as we did in our areas of study or apprenticeship. Most of us come to a point in our career where we have something to sell and wonder what we should do now. Self-learn. That’s the only way that we can do it. The other option (sticking one’s head in the sand and ignoring it) certainly is no option.
When we start writing, we think that if we write a great book, it will be discovered, and we’ll suddenly have a huge following. Not so. It’s one thing to write your story. It is another thing to get it read. I have found, and my own experience proves, that if we think about marketing before writing, we have a much better chance of seeing a genuine return on our writing investment. Marketing then does not come as an afterthought; it happens concurrently with the idea for the story. I usually ask: who would want to read this, and how would they find it? Answers to those questions must come to me before I write. I must have a promotable book or film. You do, as well.
As I’ve said before, a writer never only promotes his book. He seldom promotes his book. A writer is promoting the writer. It is marketing that is constant. Even when everyone has read all your books or seen all your movies, and there is nothing else from you out there for them, they still need to be reminded about you because the public’s attention span is shorter than a baby carrot. As a marketer, you need to keep the ultimate product (you) constantly in front of the public. But before that, in this constant circle, you must keep repeatedly writing great stories that have people returning to your brand. Great products. Great marketing. These two things produce an endless circle.
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