Confessions of a Reluctant Marketer

You may think that marketing your books is a scary prospect, but actually marketing is essential to your career as an author. And if you uncover your style of marketing, then ultimately you will sell more books.

When my first book came out in Spring 2008, Overcome Writer’s Block, I barely marketed it. When my second book came out July 2009, Writer’s Adventure Guide, I did the minimum and quickly focused on other things, like earning a living. I was overwhelmed by all my book marketing options, and chose actions at random. Probably not the most effective.

Then, I attended a lecture by Patrick Swertdfeger, the author of Webify Your Business 2.0, and learned about social networking. He made the tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.com seem like so much fun. I realized something. That marketing my books could be fun, if I did the things I liked. And what I liked was using social networking. These tools capitalized on my strengths: writing, connecting with others, and chatting.

So, I have a question for you. We know we need to get the word out about our books. So, what is fun for you about marketing?

Find it and we become reluctant marketers no more.

c. 2010 Beth Barany