By Kristy Tate //
I’m a big fan of Jody Moore’s Podcast, Better Than Happy. Jody’s a successful life coach, and this podcast episode, an interview with Neill Williams, is tailored to life coaches, but much of it hit home for me as a book business owner, as well.
My big take-away was when she said (and I’m paraphrasing) “Working on your business (marketing) is different than working in your business (for her—coaching, for me—writing.) The working on your business is more important than working in your business because without working on your business, you don’t have a business. Working on your business pays for the joy of working in (writing) your business.” For coaching, this is obvious, because if you don’t book any clients, you don’t have anyone to coach. It’s gentler for writers because if you’re writing but not selling, you still have books, you just don’t have readers.
I never thought of marketing this way before, that marketing pays for the joy of writing.
This podcast was all about creating a business in ten hours a week. For me, that’s two hours a day for five days a week. What can you do in two hours a day? I made a list of thirty tasks—that’s one a day for a month.
Disclaimer: For those of us who spend very little time marketing, two hours a day might be too big of a leap. I would suggest deciding on what you can do—10 minutes? 15 minutes? That’s the beauty of being an author-preneur.
- Remove THE END from all books
- Write a reader magnet
- Post newsletter sign-up call to actions in the front and back of all your books.
- Use Bookfunnel promotions
- Arrange newsletter swaps
- Post freebies and bargains on Facebook sites
- Create sales graphics on Canva
- Create A+ content
- Book ads
- Post book excerpts on social media
- Arrange a blog tour
- Create box sets
- Create book trailers
- Create Tik Tok videos
- Send a newsletter
- Write a blog post
- Take your book on a photo shoot and post images on social media
- Interview a fellow author
- Ask to be on a podcast
- Scope out speaking opportunities (and book)
- Scope out in-person events (and book)
- Attend a book event
- Write a book review on a book in your genre and post on social media
- Read a book excerpt at an assisted living center
- Leave your book in a Little Library
- Volunteer to speak at a book club
- Make e-books into paperbacks
- Experiment with Amazon ads (take a course/read a book)
- Experiment with Facebooks ads (take a course/read a book)
- Experiment with Bookbub ads (take a course/read a book)
KRISTY TATE is the Social Media Director for O.C. Writers and a USA Today bestselling author. To date, her newsletter subscriber list is edging toward 15,000. www.KristyTate.com.
Excellent point and point of view, too, about how marketing pays for the writing fun. ‘Tis true I’d rather be writing than pitching–but how else are we to connect with our readers? So thanks for the reminder; that helps get the ol’ motivation going when I’m not feeling buzzed about the business side of things. 🙂