Thursdays with Amanda: Book Marketing Challenge, Week 2
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
So last week I bemoaned my book sales and chalked it up to my overall lack of marketing enthusiasm this summer. To get myself out of the rut, I decided to make a list of five thing that I was going to accomplish to market my book over the next week. I then invited YOU to join in.
5 marketing ideas. 1 week to get them done.
Ten or so of you took me up on the challenge. HOW DID YOU DO? I’m asking you, Diana, Edward, Melissa, Raj, Robin, Chelsea, Rachel, and Saloma? And anyone else out there who played along maybe a bit more unofficially??? Let me know how your week went!
Here are my results…
5 MARKETING TASKS FOR THE EXTROVERTED WRITER
1. Find a blog that I’ve never appeared on before and approach them about doing a post. Done…we’ll see if they take me up on the offer.
2. Follow up on that article that I wrote for that one online magazine and push them to run it. Done…they’re choosing not to run it 🙁 WAAHHHH!!!
3. Think up an event/party/contest that I can do on social media in the next few weeks. Ugh, will need more time with this. Just can’t think of anything that will be super worthwhile for writers but also doable on my end.
4. Send a newsletter out to all those people who first signed up to be notified when the book released. Let them know it’s now in print. Done!!
5. Find two writer-related blogs and leave comments. Done and done…so easy.
Want to know the crazy thing?? I accomplished three of these tasks yesterday afternoon…and it only took me about 30-45 minutes. I had put them off ALL WEEK because I was convinced they would take lots of time.
But here’s the truth about marketing: IT NEVER TAKES AS MUCH TIME AS YOU’RE EXPECTING IT TO TAKE.
And when you break your goals down into five simple action steps, things get even easier to accomplish!
So, I’m going to do it again. Another round!
5 MORE Marketing tasks for The Extroverted Writer
1. Comment on five blogs (oh yeah…you heard me! I’m upping my game).
2. Look into a Goodreads giveaway (and set one up if possible).
3. BUY MY WEB DOMAIN!! Time to stop relying on the agency site as my main hub…gonna get my own space.
4. Find 2 writer blogs and see about guest posts.
5. Post something on my Agent FB page EVERY DAY.
YOUR TURN! How did this week go? Are you willing to go for a round 2??
21 Comments
Any ideas on how to approach publishers? I’m in the middle of writing my first novel.
So I’ve been spending more time on my Facebook Page and WHOA! I’m surprised at how quickly it began to buzz with activity.
Thanks for the inspiration, Amanda! I did a couple of things I’d been meaning to do. I created my own web page, buying my domain: http://www.janetfergusonauthor.com/
I experimented with one newsletter format, Mailchimp. The problem I ran into was it required me to list my physical address, and the only one I have is my home. Seemed iffy to do that. Any information on newsletter programs?
I use mailchimp…I can’t remember it wanting to use my physical address…is it wanting to send that to your subscribers? Or does it just want your address for when you’re signing up for the program?
Mailchimp sent my address to subscribers when they signed up. I did a test run with a few people in my critique group. Perhaps other users (like your office) have a business address so it wouldn’t bother them to have it listed.
I’m embarrassed to say I did none of the things I said I’d do. I kept putting them off, thinking they’d take forever, and then the week got away from me. So this week, I still have those 3 goals from last week, and I promise to get them done. Really.
Lol!!! Yes, I put mine off, too, thinking the very same thing! But I was pleasantly surprised at how EASY and FAST it was to knock out my 5 things.
It’s Thursday already? My how time flies! I just reread my goals:
1. I am going to send an email to the 800+ people from my speaking
venues who’ve signed up to be on my email list to let them know that the
PBS documentary “The Amish: Shunned” that aired on American Experience
in February that I was featured in, has been nominated for an Emmy!
I’m working on the letter. I give myself until the end of the day tomorrow to send it out.
2. I will send a press release to the local people in the media who have interviewed me in the past to let them know the news.
Done. I’ve not heard back from anyone, so I will be sending a follow-up email message.
3. I’ll attempt to find three writers of blogs with whom I can exchange
guest posts. (You up for it?) Please let me know:
saloma@salomafurlong:disqus .com
Done. I put out three requests. I have one exchange going so far.
In addition to these things, I have:
1. Posted to my blog and tweeted about it. (And if you read the post, you’ll discover why number one above is not already done.)
2. Sent an email to 20 of my former hosts to see about speaking engagements. I’ve scheduled 2 new venues and I have a few more in the works.
3. Planned with my publisher to offer a Goodreads giveaway in the middle of the month.
Thank you for this challenge. I feel like I need something like this every week.
Yay!! Way to go. And yes, I may keep doing this every week just because it’s so helpful.
Great idea, and congrats on getting 5 things done. (A Goodreads giveaway was on my list last week, by the way. Super easy to set up, and it’s pretty fun to watch the number of people following your book jump up.)
Here’s my list this week:
1. Use all social media channels to let my audience know about yesterday’s launch of The Author’s Guide to Marketing on NoiseTrade.com (interesting promotion tool for authors who own your work, by the way: http://books.noisetrade.com)
2. Respond to Q/A blog interview request for a writers’ website that’s been sitting in my Inbox for 3 weeks.
3. Mail “thank you” copies of the final book to my beta readers and endorsers (yeah, the book’s been out for more than a month; I really need to get on this.)
4. Write a new post for my own blog. (Ugh, how does that always fall off the list?)
5. Email two more writing/publishing blogs to offer interviews/guest posts. (I admit it; this is my least favorite part of marketing.)
I’ll be back next week with a report.
Yay! I’m glad you’re participating, Beth!!!
I’ve tried to comment on blogs about writing but feel like most of my goals are writing rather than marketing. I’d like to be better at the latter but so out of my comfort zone. Not a time thing as much as an ugh thing. Going to try to join you this week though.
Haha, the “UGH” things are always the hardest…and I think most writers would agree that marketing is way less fun than writing. I hope you can come up with your list of 5! It’s really easy to knock them out once you know what those 5 things are.
How did I miss this challenge last week? I love a good challenge. Okay, let me think:
1. Write newsletter to go out on Tuesday. (Have to do this anyway, but I’m counting it for the challenge!)
2. Update my website landing page.
3. Start a new PInterest board.
4. Follow new Twitter-joiner Gillian (done).
5. invite Amanda to guest blog on http://www.routinesforwriters.com…uh, Amanda?
Lol! I’d be happy to guest blog. email me amanda@macgregorliterary.com. And thanks for taking on the challenge!
Blog tour for release next month: Six spots booked, bringing my total to eight. VERY happy with it!
Review requests sent out to six sites, plus one to a reader I found through my author group. Two of the seven have told me already they’re reviewing. New release info and review copies have also been submitted to the SFR Quarterly, our genre e-zine.
Guest posts lined up on genre group group blog for September, October, and November. I’m all about the hero, so I’m doing a three part series on crafting the perfect hero. I like to post there once a month.
FB banner with book cover ordered, paid for, final draft received, and uploaded to FB and Twitter.
Contact made with a PR/blogging specialist for indie writers who has prices I can afford and services I’m interested in. Also met through my genre author group. Sort of.
Very productive week and weekend. Waiting on the final proofread to get finished so I can make final changes manuscript changes, if any, and call it done. Release date is 9/12.
To do this week: My next newsletter with all the pre-order links in it.
Make newsletter campaign for release week with all the blog tour stops in it, so all I have to do on 9/12 is hit send.
Investigate Author Culture site, and once my author approval for The Romance Reviews comes through get all that set up.
Write on current WIP, which is #4 in the series.
YAY!! Great job!!
My goals are more platform building to prepare for marketing this fall than anything else at the moment, but here goes!
1. Learn how to use twitter. Just joined a few days ago, and I’m still stalking the hallways trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t!
2. Post reader related material on my author FB page at least once every day.
3. Find time to get another blog post written and on my blog
4. Set up my goodreads author account
5. Visit and comment on three writing/reading blogs to build connections!
Whew! Not a terribly daunting list when it comes down to it!
You’re on Twitter now? Yay!
Yes I am. I caved! I think it’ll be fun once I figure it out! I may have referenced the twitter section in Amanda’s book once or twice already.
I watched Twitter for like three months before I felt comfortable enough to use it 🙂 Glad you’re participating!