Jen's Writing Journey

Did you miss part 1? Read it here.

Last month, I shared ideas for creating a business system and using custom promotional pens and other promotional items to build your author brand. How can you use these to market your book, not just yourself?

You can create your business system around your book or other product instead of just around your name. Try ordering your custom envelopes with a copy of your book cover or just the nameplate with some info about your expertise. And order your pens engraved with your name, your book title, and a vanity URL.

Your business cards can also do double duty if you put your book cover and a testimonial quote on the back. (Don’t have a book? Ask one of your favorite clients if you can use part of their testimonial on the back of your cards.)

Of course, one of the most important components of your marketing efforts is tracking what works. That vanity URL I mentioned earlier is a good tool for tracking. Domain names are cheap, so you can use a variety of vanity URLs to see which of your promotional tools is the most effective at driving traffic and selling books. Put a different URL on each item and then use Google Analytics or Statcounter to track visits. Use a landing page and then have all of the links redirect to your main site.

Have you tried any of these marketing tips or any of the tips I mentioned on Monday? If so, have you tracked them so that you know if your money was well spent?

Written in response to a Social Moms blog prompt. Here is the complete list of recent prompts.

Related Posts:

• More About Marketing, Part 1
• Avoid Marketing Missteps
• A Library Request Chain
• More on Marketing
• Marketing That Book

I posted a little bit last month about different ways to spread your message and keep your name top of mind with potential clients.

This week, I’ll focus on a few more ways to market yourself in your local community.

Business Writers

If you’re looking to land local businesses in need of your writing expertise, you need to get yourself in front of them. (I know this is not the most appealing task for many of us reclusive freelance writers.) Face-to-face relationships are key for many business owners and managers, so you need to meet them on their turf to make a good impression.

Many communities have local business fairs and trade shows with reasonable rates for booth rental. If you can swing the time and expense, these can be valuable marketing opportunities for you.

You’ll need a display to draw people to your booth, professional marketing collateral pieces, and a fun giveaway.

For your display, you can go with a low-cost vinyl banner, which you can hang in your booth area, or a more expensive free-standing trade show display. There is a middle-ground free-standing option that you can order in different sizes, an X-frame banner stand.

Fiction Writers

Yeah, yeah, you say. Another post on marketing that only applies to non-fiction writers. But, fiction writers could use displays, too.

Imagine you are doing a book reading. You’re up on stage with a free-standing X-frame display behind you featuring your name and your book cover. And you have a matching smaller table-top display up front next to your stack of books to sell.

Or imagine that you are planning a reading at your local library. They are kind enough to let you place a vinyl banner outside announcing the event. You’ll likely find that more people attend your event, and those who don’t at least check out your book on Amazon or in the bookstore.

Have these ideas gotten you thinking about how you can use displays to market your writing products and services? Do you have ideas of other resources you could use to market yourself? Look at what the local businesses around you are doing and see if you could apply any of their techniques to your writing business. And check back Wednesday for part 2.

Related Posts:

• More about Marketing, Part 2
• Avoid Marketing Missteps
• A Library Request Chain
• Marketing That Book

I’m still thinking about one of the posts I included in last week’s writing roundup.

Abiola Adams discussed the importance of her platform and of controlling how her book was marketed. Her books crossed genres in such a way that it was hard to find the right niche. For example, she saw her book initially marketed as erotica. But, with only four sex scenes, her book would likely disappoint the average erotica fan. So, she looked at the market and made decisions about who she wanted to target and how.

I ran into a similar issue with my book, The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology. It is a collection of the best articles from a five-year span of Learning & Leading with Technology magazine. Marketing seemed easy. People new to the magazine and those who were long-time readers but wanted to see the refreshed versions of the articles they already loved.

But, it turns out that this market wasn’t the strongest. Instead, the book is a good fit for educators who are not heavily involved in technology organizations or technology magazines. The early adopters already have all of their dog-eared copies of the magazine on their shelves, so they were less likely to need this book. Instead, the best audience is the educators who are less comfortable with technology integration and are looking for tested best practices.

Think about your books (or your future books). Who is the right target? Who else could you target? Make a list of the potential aduences, then brainstorm five methods for connecting with them. You can begin building these connections before your book is publised, or even before it is done. Remember, it is important to have a platform even before your book is on the market.

Related Posts:

• Differentiate Your Social Media
• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• More about Marketing, Part 2

After attending Caroline Miller’s talk on book marketing earlier this month, I’ve been thinking about how to get my book into libraries.

Miller suggested asking your friends to request it, using either the paper or online forms or just a face-to-face conversation with the person in charge of acquisitions.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense to look beyond my circle of face-to-face friends. Thus, I would like to set up a library request exchange. If you would like to request my book at your library in exchange for me requesting your book at my library, leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Related Posts:

• More about Marketing, Part 2
• More About Marketing, Part 1
• Avoid Marketing Missteps
• Marketing That Book

Many days, I like to wax poetic about the things I have learned from my adventures in writing. Today, I want to do some learning.

I have learned a lot about marketing a book online, and I have some ideas about marketing one in the offline world. But, I’m hoping to gather some great tips from other writers to help my readers create their own marketing plans.

Each book and each author will have his or her own marketing needs, but we can all learn from each other’s experiences. Please share those in the comments, with an eye on these three questions:

1. What was the biggest marketing mistake you made?
2. What marketing idea gave you the most success? Did you expect it to be as successful as it was?
3. If you could pick only one element to include in your marketing plan, what would it be?

I’d like to gather the comments into a free white paper readers can download. If you include your URL with your comment, I will make sure the paper includes that link. I am also happy to give you a copy of the paper once it is complete so that you can include it in your resources for writers.

Thanks! I can’t wait to read your comments.

Related Posts:

• More about Marketing, Part 2
• More About Marketing, Part 1
• Avoid Marketing Missteps
• A Library Request Chain