Author Entrepreneur: Do You Make The Time to Succeed?
The Torah Codes by Ezra Barany
Welcome to my Friday series on Artist Entrepreneurship, tailored to Author Entrepreneurs. Whether you think you’re in business or not as an artist, if you’re wanting to or are already selling your work, you’re in business!
Many authors think that the writing and publishing is the hard part. But actually your work is just getting started. Are you making time to market, connect with your readers, or even communicate to your readers and tell the world that your cool book is available or soon will be?!
If you just take a few steps regularly — 15 to 30 minutes a day — you’ll find more readers, create more opportunities for people to tell their friends about you and ultimately sell more books!
Authors, we can learn to market our books if we learned how to edit them! Same skill set: keep our audience in mind and tailor our communication to them.
Start today with one of these activities: Just 15 to 30 minutes a day can make an accelerated difference in your career.
Everything Counts! And Count Everything!
- Assess what marketing you’ve done to this point, and count EVERYTHING!
- Count how many friends, family, Twitter pals, Facebook friends you have.
- List all the blogs you visit and regularly comment on.
- What book talks/ signing do you go to?
- What writer’s groups online and in-person do you belong to?
- List the forums you visit and participate in.
Get the idea! I’m sure I’ve left some groups out. Fill in the blanks.
Prioritize
Which one of these groups / place / organizations do you think you can spread the word easiest in? Which is most fun to play in? Which do you feel is worth it? Which is largest?
See what I’m doing? I’m asking a bunch of assessment questions to determine the priority. Only you know which of these groups deserve your primary focus.
When I did this assessment and gut check, I decided to focus my promotional efforts of getting reviews, doing articles, and Twitter! Oh and Kindleboards and Independent Authors Unite on Facebook.
Take Action
Our plans are only as good as our actions!
What can you get started on today? One of my business coaches told me something he learned from NLP. That anything can be learned if you break in down into manageable chunks. What is the smallest easiest action you can take to get moving on your book marketing today?
In Conclusion…
One of my clients asked her friend to read her book and give her a testimonial. The book isn’t even published yet! Another client told her niece about her book, and her niece got excited and told another and now we have a small committee brainstorming for the success of my client’s book. A third client was talking casually as his synagogue’s dinner about his upcoming book and learned of a great opportunity to reach 1000s of readers through a specialized Jewish book club. (Yes, that’s my husband! The Torah Codes is releasing end of March!)
Magical things happen when we tell our world about our books! Reach out — ask for help — let the universe receive your gift: your book!
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About the Author Entrepreneur: Beth Barany works with authors to help them put their book in the hands of their readers. She can be contacted through her blog, the Writer’s Fun Zone, or her site: www.bethbarany.com.
Hi Beth. Great advice – couldn’t agree more. It’s crucial to build your platform and readership.
You can’t buy loyal followers and fans of your writing – they are priceless and well worth the time in finding and engaging with them through writing platforms, social media, blogs etc.
All the best
Adam Charles
iWriteReadRate.com
Some indie writers complain about having to promote. Most authors need to split themselves into artists and businesspeople. You’re an artist while you write, and you’re a businessperson at your dayjob.
In my mind, spending a couple of hours a day promoting myself is a much better day job than 9 hours in a cubicle!
Thanks for stopping by Adam. I appreciate it!
Alan: Yes, way better than a cubicle job. My office is wherever I and my laptop are. Today a cafe. Tomorrow my home office. Maybe the next day another city!