Before I get started, I wanted to mention that my crit partner Susan Bischoff is giving away a signed copy of Hush Money in celebration for having broken the 1000 sales mark only 12 weeks since release! Congratulations Pot!.
I’ll admit it. I might have done a little bit of whining this morning. About what? you might ask. About that age old “I’m a writer and I don’t wanna market, I wanna write, damn it, can’t someone else do it?” It doesn’t matter whether you are traditionally published or indie. Unless you’re Nora Roberts or Stephanie Meyer or Stephen King or Dan Brown, you’re gonna have to do marketing. I have never met a single writer out there who had aspirations to be a marketer. No writer ever said “I want to sell stuff!” We want to tell stories. We want to share them. But the dirty, time-sucking, get your hands dirty by selling our work is not on the list of aspirations.
I’ve been gearing up the marketing machine for an end of the year push on Forsaken By Shadow, as well as prepping things for the release of Devil’s Eye. Which means that I have a pile of interviews, guest blogs, promo text, and assorted other things on my plate that are sucking up writing time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am beyond grateful for all of these opportunities to get my name and the name of my book out there. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all who are helping me.
But really, I just want to crawl in my cave and write my story, thanks.
Sound familiar? Are you overwhelmed with these same kinds of feelings? Are you lost on HOW to market yourself? How to create your brand?
Let me point you to the Indie Book Collective, a little group that I helped found with indie authors Cristyn West and Rachel Thompson. We are all about the marketing, in a “You can give a man a fish or you can teach him how to fish, so he can feed himself” sort of way. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you’ve heard me mention the IBC, but it occurred to me that I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here (not that I remember, anyway). We launched back in September and have been growing like gangbusters. We aim to be the hub, the community, where indies (and other traditionally published authors who have little to no marketing support from their house) can go to educate themselves, share their triumphs and sorrows, ask their questions, and learn how to market effectively (so that you can get back to writing). You’ll have the chance to learn from our experiences and from those of other members. And you’ll meet some great people along the way.
3 thoughts on “Need Help With Marketing? Join the Indie Book Collective”
1. Thank you very much. We got Chinese take out last night. I was feeling celebratory, but not enough to actually go sit down somewhere. Watched IronMan 2, finally. Was it my imagination, or was that plot kind of weak?
2. I don’t think you were too awfully whiny. It’s a reasonable complaint, especially from someone who lacks adequate writing time as it is.
Major congrats, Susan…that’s quite an achievement! 🙂
Ironically, I’ve joined the collective, and had no time yet to go check out the forums. Which I need to do since I’m looking for other indie romance authors to cross-promote with for my January release. It’s on my list of “to-do’s” this week. Along with the zillion other things that are writing related but not writing (though that’s there too).
All that to say, I feel your pain. I think as long as it’s not too publicly whiny, it’s good to whine/moan/complain about marketing occasionally…gotta let it out somewhere!
Mazel Tov Susan!
I just joined the collective. I am so glad to hear about it. For me, the big thing is finding enough time to do everything. I’m trying to balance marketing with writing freelance articles to support myself and writing for pleasure.
Anyway this post encourages me.