Is Book Marketing Creative?

Creative dollar signUm, yes. Book marketing is creative, imho (in my humble opinion).

I’m preempting my semi-regular Saturday series on Spark Your Creativity Through Numbers to chat about creativity and marketing and then get to it!

What is there to say? (I’m itching to get to work. LOL)

Like any creative process, marketing our books goes from first spark to implementation. Here’s how I see it! Let me know what you think!

  1. Spark of desire: I tap into my desire to share my novel, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, with the world. I nurture on the back burner while I go about my daily life. I’ve planted the seed and know that on Saturday I’ll get to it. I’ve placed my spark in the ground by giving it a place and time to flow (ie., be implemented), which brings me into the next step.
  2. Brainstorm: I’ve asked myself: How do I want to market my novel? I’ve asked others who’ve done it to see what worked and what didn’t for them. Then I’ve made my decision on what to do for now.
  3. Planning: I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my resources. In my case, that’s book review sites and places to guest blog, and appropriate forums.
  4. Nurture spark: I do this by paying attention to opportunities I’ve already decided are important, and file them in a special folder during the week, telling myself all the while that I’ll act on them on Saturday.
  5. Implementation day: Set up work space through ritual: I don’t know about you — I have to get stuff done before I can dive into my actual intended project. (Okay. I don’t have to; it’s just how I roll right now.) I check my email, address other commitments like posting at my online school for writers and checking in with my members, and making sure I have my yummy to eat and drink here at the cafe where I’m working (or clearing my desk at home.) I post my daily blog post, if I haven’t yet!
  6. Then to work! I brainstorm today’s intended goals then to work! In this stage, I communicate my requests for book reviews or interviews, or draft communications intended for my audience. I sink into rapport with my intended audience and hallucinate that they are in front of me eager to hear about my kick ass heroine, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, and her originator: me!

There! Hope you enjoyed an insight into my process-oriented brain!

To me, this process is so creative; I’m drawing on all my resources for an intended outcome. I flow from spark to result in what feels to me to be very organic. To me, that’s creative and satisfies both the meandering element of my creativity as well as the results-oriented part.

Note: Book marketing is actually, at the end of the day, about generating book sales, which is the result I’m after. The experience I really want is to see my book in the hands of readers transforming their lives! And to hear them tell me, “Wow! Beth, you’re book was awesome! I told my friends all about it!” 🙂

Is book marketing creative for you? I’d love to hear what you think about this topic! And thanks!

Be well, be creative! It is our birthright and our salvation!

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Post updated: May 7, 2019

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MORE OPTIONS

If you want to lay the foundations for your book marketing, you could start with our course, Branding for Novelists here.

If you’d like to peruse more marketing articles on the blog, start here.

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  • Ezra Barany says:

    Nice strategy, Beth!

  • Bobbye Terry says:

    I shared but couldn’t get twitter to connect from here so posted the link from my handle. Good thoughts, Beth. I think what we do as marketers requires a lot of creativity if we’re going to be successful.
    Bobbye

  • Beth Barany says:

    Ezra: Thanks!

    Bobbye: Thanks for the RT attempt. I can get Twitter to work at all for me today! The creativity we do while marketing our books feel outward focused versus the creativity we use to write our books which feels inward focused.

    Beth

  • Stuart Land says:

    Thanks for sharing this advice, Beth. It’s helped already.

  • Great post, Beth. Marketing is definitely part of the creative process. Each “campaign” needs to be tailored to a book because every book is a little different. We, as writers, need to figure out how to play the angles and this is where creativity comes into play.

  • Kat Duncan says:

    Yes, I agree. Book marketing is creative. You have to think of how to position your work in the market and draw attention to it. There are many new areas to explore. Making it feel like a creative effort helps to keep it fun and interesting. Great post…

  • Beth Barany says:

    Thanks Kat! Love that — Making it feel like a creative effort helps to keep it fun and interesting. — that’s the game I like to play!

  • Beth Barany says:

    Shelly, yes, figuring out all the angles draws on our creativity, making marketing a playful exciting process, which leads to sales! Woohoo!

  • Beth Barany says:

    Stuart, you’re welcome1 I’m so glad it’s helped already! Welcome to the world of book marketing and sales!

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