
When I first began writing I wanted nothing to do with marketing. Marketing was for people in the advertising business, sales people, people who owned LARGE businesses. I was just getting started and I wanted to write for fun. Who cared about marketing?
Sadly, business doesn’t go anywhere if you don’t market. I (or you) may have the best books in the world, but if no one else knows about them, people won’t buy them and read them and share them. And what’s the point of writing if others don’t read what you write?
In the golden days of publishing, you sold your book to a publishing house and the publishing house took care of the marketing. They assigned you a publicist, you went on tour, they created advertising and press releases and promoted your book in the bookstores. Alas, the age of high technology and social media has arrived, along with self-publishing. Publishing houses only want you if you’re a big name or certain to create lots of sales. And if they take on your book, they expect YOU to market the hell out of it, which means doing your own publicity and advertising.
Marketing is not my thing. I’d much rather sit back and watch someone else take charge. But even if I hire a marketing person, I still have to promote my books. And as a publisher, it’s important that I know how to support my clients and what to recommend. So, it’s time to learn how.
My chiropractor (of all people) led me to a Social Media expert named Matthew Loop. If you go to his website (http://dcincome.com/blog/), you can sign up for his newsletter and get his FREE Blogging Success Blueprint. He strongly (urgently) recommends that everyone have a blog, and that your blog be a Wordpress blog. Several years ago I tried my hand at Wordpress and hated it. It confused me, frustrated me, and irritated me to no end. So I gave up and went to Weebly. Weebly is fun, easy to use, and it’s worked so far, but Google doesn’t love Weebly. Google loves Wordpress. And in the vein of being a good marketer I’m thinking —seriously—of switching to Wordpress. Sigh. Double sigh. Triple sigh.
If you’re writing just for fun, you can ignore everything I’ve said. But if writing is your business, or if you’ve written a book and don’t know what to do with it, then join me and learn how to market. Step 1 – get Matthew Loop’s Blogging Success Blueprint. I really like what I’ve read so far. I think you will too.