From the insane world of Tamela Buhrke comes a new kind of author marketing.
When I mention marketing strategies to most writers, their faces squish up in a most unattractive way, then the whining commences. Finally, I’m given a litany of reasons why marketing doesn’t work; how it takes too much time away from writing or is something the publishing company will do.
It makes me giggle... a little hysterically.
Here’s the deal. If you have a book, then you already have a marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy might be that you depend on your publishing company to do all the work. Your marketing strategy may be to tell your friends and relatives about the book, then let word of mouth sell you book. Maybe you posted a website? Maybe you are on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com? Those are all pieces of a marketing strategy.
So people who don’t like or believe in developing marketing strategies are still marketing. They just aren’t marketing effectively.
The good news is that, for those of us who are eager to put our books in front of more eyeballs, there are better strategies to help us market. One strategy that works well is to build yourself something that I like to call the marketing machine.
What is a marketing machine?
A marketing machine is a way to multiply your efforts. It is created by building a dedicated team of market-savvy authors. They are not professional marketers or promoters. You do not pay them. Instead, they are authors that are in the same or similar genre. They have books available for sale (books you've read and enjoyed) and are dedicated to promoting their books—and yours.
Why would they market your books? Because you are going to market their books, in return. By building a marketing machine, all the members of the team help market each other. The team rises together. The effort of one is multiplied through the team. Plus, marketing ideas can be shared and tested. A marketing machine is a great way to quickly build your platform and sell more books.
There are several components to a successful marketing machine. They include:
- Building & Brainstorming
- Create a Blogging Crew
- Forming Social Media Allies
- Joining Author Marketing Networks
- Promoting Reviews
Your goal is to build a team that works together to market each other. This is why I had you building your board of directors first. You will want to mine the best people from your board to build your perfect team.
Join me for the next five weeks as we go over the ins and outs of building your marketing machine.
9 comments:
Thanks for the info, Tamela! I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series!
EJ
Thanks EJ!
It should be a lot of fun! I love putting together marketing teams. They make things move so much faster.
This makes such good sense. If it's all about starting the buzz, then a marketing team (especially one that works on a barter system) is a powerful tool. I like this series a lot, Tamela. If I ever get published again, I'll be a lot more savvy than I was before.
Sorry to say, I agree. But, it's took much work. *Whine. Whine*
Great idea, look forward to finding out more!
Thanks Tamela! Who doesn't need help with their marketing plan? Can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Pat, you are a fantastic writer. I look forward to many years of your books & blogs.
Kay, you crack me up! Whine away, just keep tweeting.
Paula & Johanna I hope the series benefits you both.
Marketing is one of the things I'm really looking forward too when I get published. I mean, the whole point of writing down these thoughts I have is that I think other people would enjoy them. How will I get to share them with others if I don't market?
I have a great group of published author friends who support each other and are exactly as you describe: a marketing team. They host each other on their blogs, promote each others books on all the social media, etc., and they live all over the world. Unfortunately for me, they're YA authors. :) But i can at least see how that machine works. Great post!
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