3 Ways to Fall in Love With Book Marketing
When you think of marketing and sales, do you think colorful, fun, and creative?
If you’re like 85% of my colleagues and clients, I’m guessing you don’t. I didn’t either. I used to think “sales” was code for pushy dude bros trying to scam me into buying a used car with no brakes. During the early days of my career, I spent way too much time and money on overpriced offerings I didn’t need or want because of scarcity mentality tactics.
(The One Thing Every Author Needs to Market Their Book.)
Now, 20 years into being a writer and creative entrepreneur, I love marketing. What made me go from dreading putting myself out there to ask people to buy my stuff to loving marketing my books and online programs?
Stickers.
Yes, stickers! Specifically, sticker charts.
Deep in the pandemic, I was broke, rejected from yet another book deal, and worried I’d have to go get a 9 to 5 to pay my bills. I needed money stat. So, I developed a profess I now call 33 Asks®—where I used a sticker chart to track how many people I reached out to and asked if they wanted to join one of my programs.
That simple sticker chart took me from $1,500 months to $15,000 months in my business, got me featured on Good Morning America, helped me get an agent, and is the key to all the hype I’m getting for my upcoming queer rom-com Because Fat Girl.
All because I created sticker charts.
No, I’m not here to try to sell you stickers or my program. I am here to sell you on the idea that marketing can—and absolutely should—be fun, creative, and uniquely yours.
Here are three tips for falling in love with marketing yourself and your creative projects.
1. Tap into your WHY.
Our lives are defined by the stories we tell. Not just the ones we publish, but the ones we live. Sure, it sounds cool to be a #1 New York Times bestseller, but you know what’s even cooler? Leaving a legacy that lasts long after you leave a room—and eventually leave this world.
I write books to change the cultural narrative around queer, fat, neurodiverse femmes. Yes, I want my novel Because Fat Girl to be a massive hit, but if I focus on trying to make my book go viral or having it appeal to the masses, I might silence the part of me that wrote this book in the first place.
Instead, when I’m out here promoting Because Fat Girl, I’m leaning into talking to those people who have felt too big, too weird, too queer—or just too much. When I get rejections or trolls come hating, I’m able to re-center myself and remember that my legacy is one where I don’t let homophobic, fatphobic bigots silence me.
Your WHY should empower you, tapping into a deeper well of wisdom within you that is able to see past this one moment to a greater legacy you’re leaving.
To find the WHY for your book:
Ask yourself: “Why do I care if anyone reads my book”?Go deeper: “What’s underneath that?”And even deeper: “At my core, why does any of this matter to me?”And then lastly, ask this: “How does this connect to the legacy I want to leave in this world?”
Once you have those answers, put them up somewhere you can read them regularly. Look at them before you post on social media, sit down for an interview, or do the thing we all swear we don’t do but secretly peek at anyways: read reviews.
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2. Give yourself concrete, definable, and trackable goals.
Like most authors who dream huge, I want Because Fat Girl to be a New York Times bestseller and have a movie or TV series made about my book. But those goals are complex, time consuming, and mostly out of my control. If I aim for them alone, I’ll get overwhelmed and frustrated, quitting before I can reach them.
Instead, I teach my students in 33 Asks® to give themselves concrete goals that they can easily define and track. That way you’re not reliant on your publisher for stats and you’re able to see the needle move as you go, giving you a much needed dopamine boost.
Here are some great concrete, definable, trackable goals for book marketing:
Reach out to 7 local bookstores to ask if you can do an event with themAsk 15 friends directly if they will make a post about your bookPitch yourself to 33 podcasts related to the subject of your bookAsk 3 big influencers if you could send them your book in exchange for an honest review on their platformsSend a DM to 8 local authors to see if they’ll meet up and have tea with you to talk about publishing and make the process feel less lonely
Notice that the last one isn’t about promotion. Sometimes the best marketing and sales is simply honest, kind, reciprocal friendships that focus on collaboration over competition.
3. Make it fun, colorful, and creative.
Why does my sticker chart work? Because I love making it, checking it, and completing it!
I tried using fancy online project management and marketing software, but it was 10 times as expensive and one-tenth of the fun of just recreating the old Book-It sticker charts of my youth—complete with pizza as a prize if I complete the whole thing!
Sticker charts work for me and my clients, but they might not work for you. Maybe you love spreadsheets. Maybe you love Post-Its on a wall. Maybe you like a simple to-do list.
Whatever way you enjoy tracking things, use that! But I do suggest adding color and rewards so your brain can get a little dopamine hit every time you look at it.
Whatever you’re out here marketing as a writer, be it your book or yourself, remember that you’re a creative at heart. Let yourself have fun with the process, don’t take it too seriously, and bring friends along for the ride. That’s the key to success in everything we do.
Check out Lauren Marie Fleming’s Because Fat Girl here: