WISE COUNSEL—WITH MUSCLE III

The truism that “Two—and sometimes more—are better than one,” is definitely accurate when coming to marketing anything—especially our books! I, for one, have been quite overwhelmed with the promotion and publicizing of my book which was published last year. SUDDENLY the reality hit me that I was now in the business of selling my book—my product. I’ve been “back-doored” into operating a business that is taking way too much of my time. So, what to do?  Hire and assistant! If I don’t, I’ll burn out and all my creative ideas for the next book will burn UP!

Talking with a few of my author friends, I discovered several things about the Business of Books.

1. The business WORLD of book publishing and marketing is evolving so rapidly that even the giant traditional publishers and very famous authors cannot keep up with it all.
2. Most established authors not only have a Marketing Assistant, they have a “marketing team” through their publishing house—multiple minds searching for better ways to sell books.
3. Self-publishing authors who have published with a self-publishing business often have access to marketing assistance which can include:
   1. Very basic marketing included in a publishing package which sets up a website and sends out a basic press release.
   2. Offers an introduction to Marketing Assistants who are definitely qualified and usually have had experience working with several authors.
4. Personally self-published authors are “independent” authors with no automatic assistance. The writers I’ve known who have gone down this route usually publish their work for a small niche of people (family or co-workers) and seldom wish to market their work beyond that.

One of my new author friends has been talking to me about hiring a Virtual Marketing Assistant—an Internet Specialist who understands the world of digital marketing. My first response to her was, “This sounds like the same thing as working with a Personal Marketing Assistant. I’m talking with a very intelligent and Internet-savvy gentleman now who has a lot of good references.” She was not impressed by the details I gave her. Her continued arguments have not persuaded me. I much prefer meeting with and/or talking with a real person, rather than a “virtual” one—even though I know there IS a real person behind the typed messages being received.

Bottom line, each author needs to do a bit of research into this concept of finding and hiring a Marketing Assistant, then make your own decision which way to go.  But “go” you must, before you suffer the physical and mental burn out that comes from trying to do what we cannot do well. I’m making my list of pros and cons. Here’s what it looks like:

Pros: I don’t like to research genre outlets. I don’t like doing “cold calls” to bookstores. I don’t like creating group email lists and sending out messages each month. I don’t have time to “refresh” the website every week. And, there are probably more marketing things that could be done, but I don’t know what they are. I know I’m losing income by not doing everything I can to promote my book.

Cons: Adding this assistant to my budget.

Conclusion: If this book is to be successful (financially and being read), it is time to invest in a Marketing Assistant. ⚓︎

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.   Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.