10 (more!) things I wish every writer knew about marketing

How to master the craft of sharing your writing

A couple weeks ago, I shared a post titled, “10 things I wish every writer knew about marketing.” It became the second most popular essay that I have shared here on Substack. So today, I want to share 10 more ideas. These are strategies and tactics that come up constantly with the writers I am working with in my Mastermind group, and clients. They are in the private conversations I have with colleagues and friends. And in many ways, this is the culmination of working with writers for more than 25 years.

Here is what I covered in the original post:

1. You have permission to share your unique creative voice.

2. If no one cares about your book, consider: what do they care about?

3. Be the parade others can easily get behind.

4. Your friends & family don’t have to be your support system.

5. But, you will be surprised where you do find support. Turn over every stone.

6. Nothing sells books. Promote it anyway.

7. Focus on the people, not the things

8. Think of what you can do for others, not what others can do for your book.

9. Do a few things really well.

10. This is work.

Okay, let’s dig in….

#11 Marketing is Deep and Emotional

So often, marketing is portrayed as surface level stuff that is put on top of deeper work — a thin layer. But sharing what you create may throw you for a wringer because it unexpectedly asks deep questions about what you create, who you are, and how you hope your work engages others.

When I speak with a memoir writer about an event they ran, and they tell me story after story about how they cried with a reader, I am reminded of this. When I see an author share something in a social media post that resonates with people, going viral, I am reminded of this.

Inherently, this is an act of determining who you are and how you engage with the world. And that is not easy. Likewise, every choice you make may have a trade-off. For instance, many people try to not market what they create, by assuming that doing so could only mean interrupting people. One way to look at it:

• Decision: An author may justify, “I’m not sending a newsletter more than once a quarter. I don’t want to bother people.”

• Trade-off: But then, how will people hear about your writing?

• What if instead, you… sent a weekly newsletter that people love? That they looked forward to? I’ve published one every Friday for more than twenty years. People tell me all the time they they look forward to it each week. A few days ago I bumped into a guy in the grocery store that I used to see every day when I worked out of a Starbucks every morning, before I had my studio. He said to me, “I still get your email every Friday!” I have had this studio for eight years! That is how long he’s kept following along with my work, even though we no longer see each other. He could have unsubscribed at any time, and I never would have known. Give people the opportunity to follow your work.

Or this:

• Decision: “I won’t pressure people to buy my book. They are aware it is out.”

• Trade-off: If you wait for people to buy only when they have read every other book they want to read, will they still remember yours?

• What if instead, you… thought of this as helping people in a deeper way. That buying your novel would be the respite they desperately need in their day. Or your memoir is a way of supporting certain kinds of stories that need to be told, but are often hidden in our culture.

Or this:

• Decision: “Oh, I don’t want to become a marketer between books, just a writer. I’ll start sharing again when I’m ready to launch my next book.”

• Trade-off: Don’t be surprised if — when people don’t hear from you for three years — that they no longer feel connected with you or your work. That in the meantime, they have become distracted by other things that interest them.

• What if instead, you… found simple ways to share that were not only sustainable, but helped develop meaningful connections and colleagues along the way?

This is why I’ve developed the Creative Success Pyramid as a progression. Something that can feel authentic to who you are, and you can develop slowly over time.

#12 Silence or Outright Rejection is Not an Indication of Bad Quality or Low Prospects

You may have an idea for how to promote your book or share your writing that you are convinced is clever and meaningful to your ideal readers. But then, when you execute on this idea, it falls flat. You hear crickets. No one cared.

As someone who grew up as an artist, has always been surrounded by creative people, and who has worked with thousands of writers, I can say that this is not unusual. In fact, it’s the norm.

When something you try doesn’t work, please don’t feel that this is an indication that your work isn’t good. Or that you shouldn’t share. Or that you aren’t cut out for this. The world is a busy place, people are distracted, and sometimes your awesome idea just doesn’t gain traction.

When this happens, measure progress on a longer timeline. Revamp the idea, ask others for feedback, try new experiments. Slowly hone it as a craft, instead of haphazardly hopping from random idea to random idea.

In every failure are lessons. Allow these lessons to build upon each other as you learn how to share your work. I try to share a lot of stories in my newsletter of how legendary artists faced failure earlier in their career, not because I want for them to have experienced that, but because it means your heroes have faced the same challenges you do. And they persisted.

I’ve shared many stories about how many agents writers have queried before they landed one:

• Kailynn Bayron: after more than 70 queries, she met her agent who said to her: “This story has to be out there. People need to read this.”

• Janae Marks queried 60 agents for her first book, before pausing. It wasn’t until her third book that she got an agent.

• Fleur Bradley said, “I would say I have at least 1,000 rejections, though I stopped counting long ago.”

If success isn’t coming as quickly as you would like, keep going.

#13 Focus on Evoking Emotions

People want to feel things. They want to feel a part of things. Good marketing often focuses more on these aspects than they do on describing the benefits of a product. If you feel lost as to how to share about your work, pick an emotion. Focus on that. Then, the next time you share about it, pick a different emotion.

Marketing is not just an intellectual affair where if you can create a chart describing why your book hits all the boxes that a reader wants so it will convince someone to buy it.

Emotions grab people in ways they don’t expect. Sometimes they can’t even describe it, but they bought a book because the way someone talked about it evoked something they wanted to feel. Or it triggered an aspect of their identity that is important. Or it made them feel a part of something.

#14 Take the Time to Do Things That Don’t Scale

I recently saw this interview with a record label promoter who shared this story about Paul McCartney. He was on a publicity tour and Paul had been working from 9am to 7pm, and looked “dog tired.” Paul asked if there was anything else on the schedule, and the promoter said that they are a couple blocks from his record label, and there are some office workers that would love to meet him. But it’s not essential, this is not a “have to” thing.

Paul’s response? “Oh. We have to go!”

They had to spend 45 minutes in traffic to get there. Then Paul went around the entire floor, visited every desk, spending two more hours.

I would imagine lots of people would think, "Well sure, if I were a famous person, I would love to take the time to visit fans. When that day comes, I will do what Paul did.

But in that story is the detail that Paul can’t walk a couple blocks on the street. He would be mobbed. That is every single day of his life for the past 65 years. And yet, to choose to want to spend another two hours meeting with fans after a long day of doing so. After decades of doing so? That is a choice. It is knowing that each and every connection matters.

This takes practice. To spend time developing one-on-one connections with people, even if you worry that this doesn’t scale like a viral social media post would. Take time to do the things that don’t scale, but add connection to your creative life.

#15 What Makes You Weird and Unusual Is Also What Makes You Memorable

In real life, colleagues and friends love you because of your quirks. Yet online, we tend to soften them. However, when you genuinely share something that is authentic — maybe even the kind of thing that is scary to admit — that is often when others say, “THANK YOU. It feels so validating to hear that.”

Don’t be cookie-cutter. Give people different ways to be transfixed by you, or relate to you and your work. You don’t have to shove yourself into a tidy-little box of a “brand.”

Be multifaceted. Be the best version of yourself, instead of a generic copy of whatever trend everyone else is copying. And the beauty of that is that is that it means there is no competition. Someone follows your work and you because you are unique. That, is memorable.

#16 Marketing and Sales Takes Time

Give yourself more time than you think you need. So often, a writer may justify that it is too early to start talking about their writing or their book. Instead, they intend to wait until the book is ready, and they are in “launch mode.”

But communication takes time. Give yourself the runway you need to learn how to talk about what you write and why. To test messages. To find and engage your ideal readers. To befriend colleagues.

Likewise, don’t measure results too quickly. I often study the progression of a bestseller, checking in on how many reviews it has every single day. It’s astounding to me how some books seem to be everywhere, yet struggle to get reviews on Amazon. But slowly, they add up.

And if things are going slow, consider one action you can take to speed things up. If you asked a friend to post a review for your book, and they haven’t yet, consider how you can help them out.

#17 Create Experiences People Can Be a Part Of

When I talk with writers about promotions, giveaways, and bonuses, they often first start by considering the value of an object they think people will appreciate. It’s worth in dollars.

Instead, I encourage you to consider experiences people can be a part of, and how that can be more rare and valuable to people. How it helps people connect, to feel seen and heard, or to engage in something rare.

I watch a lot of author events online, whether they are recordings of large in-person events, online workshops, or interviews. There is something about an experience that engages someone in multiple ways. To sit across from them and talk about an important topic is different than sending them a PDF.

I know, sending people a bookmark or bookplate or PDF scales easily. You can offload it to a virtual assistant too. But what also consider experiences you can create for others. These can be online or offline events, or ways of connecting that becomes a moment they will remember, not just a thing they get.

#18 Ask for the Sale

This one is scary, right? But it’s one of the primary lessons that people are taught in sales. We can talk all day about tactics and strategies that help one find their ideal readers, engage them, get them interested in an action you hope they take, such as buying a book, subscribing to a newsletter, attending a event, etc. But there is an important step that people often avoid: to ask for the sale. To say the words, “Can I ring this up for you?” Or “Will you subscribe to my newsletter?” Or, “Will you post a review for my book online?”

People bend over backwards to avoid doing this. They try to setup a complicated series of hints to encourage people to do the thing they want, but without directly saying it.

Ask for the sale. Not as a way of “pushing” people, but rather to communicate clearly. For instance, let’s say you set up a book launch event for your first novel, and you convinced a local indie bookstore to host it for you. Now, you know that the bookstore will earn money if the people who attend purchase your book right there in the store. And you have setup displays of the book, there is a bookseller behind the counter, perhaps even working after hours for this event. Your friends come, those who may have received an early copy of your book months ago. You hope that they know that the only way the bookstore survives is if people actually buy the book at events like these. So, if you directly ask your friends to buy a new copy of the book, and tell them why it matters: that this is how our local indie survives, and how it encourages them to keep holding author events like this, that is a way of clearly communicating value they may not have recognized before. Ask for the sale.

#19 Social Media is Optional

That’s right, you don’t have to bother with social media at all. But the key here is this: what will you do instead to craft meaningful connections with your ideal readers? How will you show up elsewhere, or in other ways?

In the past I have explored how finding alternatives to social media can be much more complex, time consuming, and expensive. That is not good or bad, it is simply a choice.

Social media is optional. If you use it, do it by choice, not obligation. Do it with intention, not copying a copy of a copy of some “best practice” that stopped working 5 years ago after a million other people copied it. If you use social media, do so because you want to connect with other human beings.

#20 Right Now is the Best Time Ever to Share Your Work

It’s easy to romanticize another era in publishing — a time we now see as “simpler.” That back in the day, it was easier to have your work seen by readers.

But at the time, it didn’t feel that way. I mean, look at this 1929 interview with an 87-year-old, born in 1842. When asked about changes he’s seen in the world, he responds:

“Oh, yes, yes, yes. We live in a world of change. The trees are just the same as the weather when I was a boy, only larger. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. But when I was a boy, we didn’t have the telegraph, we didn’t have a telephone. Of course, no electric lights, or any of these other things which have come out to bother us, and help us.”

You have tools that earlier generations of writers would be amazed by. But you also have access they never could have dreamed of: to colleagues, readers, communities, and so many individuals. This is the kind of access that, at best, would have been ridiculously expensive and time consuming to access in previous decades. But now, it is just there, on your computer or phone. What will yo do with it?

Please let me know in the comments: what one lesson about sharing or marketing that you would tell a writer just who is just starting out?

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For my paid subscribers this week, I shared a video case study analyzing what a music video from the band OK Go! can reach us about Human-Centered Marketing. See a preview here.

Reminder: if you want to explore working with me, there are two ways I collaborate with writers and creators:

1. One-on-one consulting

2. My Creative Shift Mastermind

As always, thank you for being here with me.
-Dan

Kids of the Week: Another domino build:

Coloring before bed: