S. O. S. – Writers Need Help, Too – Part IV

The book is PUBLISHED! It’s ONLINE and available to the WORLD! Friends and family have purchased their copies and everyone is giving it FIVE STARS! It will sell a thousand copies in two months! Or…will it?

Personally, I love writing. I enjoy everything about writing—yes, including research—and feel the satisfaction of completing each manuscript. However, I have absolutely no idea about how to develop a marketing plan, and without one of those, the great majority of books will only be held in the hands of our family, friends, and a few “seekers” who scroll through the online genre lists.

ENTER the Personal Marketing Assistant.

If we expect our books to SELL, we need to be prepared to participate in the marketing. While the traditional publishers will “get you started,” they’re involvement slows to a crawl, then disappears when the book goes out-of-print. (Oh, yes. There is a finite life span for your book with traditional publishers.)

If you’re considering hiring an agent to promote your book(s) to the traditional publishers, you probably believe that the publisher’s marketing staff will “do all in their power to make your book a best seller.” Of course, their name will be on the book, too, and that may draw some readers/buyers. However, the days of the big traditional house marketing “splash” has fallen away.

Self-Publishing companies, however, offer marketing assistance whenever you need it. Their Personal Marketing Assistant will talk directly with authors who sign up for this service and discuss goals and the available budget to reach those goals. They are not daunted by slim budgets and help each author to creatively accomplish marketing steps that will eventually bring about more exposure. Once those goals are established, the tasks that the Personal Marketing Assistant spends their time doing is all up to the author. This includes:

• A book Marketing Plan customized to each author’s needs, which sets recommended actions, and provides valuable information that can be used right away or any time in the future.
• Book signings: a great way for the “word” to get out about authors and their books. The Personal Marketing Assistant can help you schedule these events as well as coordinate all the details.
• Build an “online presence” which is a big marketing tool, and each author approaches this in their own way. Personal Marketing Assistants help authors select what social media is best for their book/genre, as well as helping novice authors relax as they see their name all over the Internet. This is called Developing the Author Platform that gives readers valuable ways to find and BUY your book(s).
• Best of all, when developing your personal Marketing Plan, authors can decide which areas (if any) that they just don’t want to deal with. That is when the Personal Marketing Assistant can take the pressure off you, and work on the details while you’re writing the next novel. This makes sure no leads to readers/buyers are lost.

Yes, Writers Need Help, Very Specialized Help. It is okay to shout S.O.S and allow experts the opportunity to assist you in offering your book to the WORLD. And, best of all, self-publishing authors enjoy total control over this process.

Bottom line: Because I know my vocation is writing—and NOT publishing or marketing—I will always seek help from the experts. I hope you will, too. ⚓︎

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.