Does The Idea of Book Marketing Make you Anxious?

A big part of your pitch to publishers is demonstrating that you have an established audience. As an independent author, marketing falls squarely on your shoulders.

Many resources are available to help you learn marketing strategy, create paid advertising, and build an audience. Some are step-by-step, some conceptual, and some are done-for-you paid services. How you approach marketing will vary based on your audience, budget, experience, goals, and your motivation for the task.

As with many aspects of self-publishing, you'll hear many absolutes when researching a topic. You must do ‘X’ to be successful or ‘Follow my step-by-step best seller process’, and some of them may be very successful or helpful, but self-publishing can be a very personal journey, and your goals may not mirror those of the people giving advice.

Investing time or money into something that isn’t a good Oit for you and doesn’t produce the expected results can be pretty defeating. If you’re at the very beginning of your publishing journey, start with some introspection:

How are you most comfortable engaging with people in general? Are you a storyteller who thrives in front of a live audience? Is social media more your jam? Is there a particular platform (or two) that you’re on daily? Do you engage in online forums or groups? Perhaps you’re really good at direct sales.

Find one thing you’re good at, and that you enjoy. That’s where you’ll begin building your foundation. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t move out of your comfort zone or expand into different platforms or spaces. You should… once you’ve developed consistent and repeatable strategies. And it’s easiest

By: Tamara Cribley

to build that in an environment where you’re already comfortable and thriving.

Building an audience is much more than hawking your book. Chances are, once someone buys your book, they won’t buy the same book over and over, but creating a relationship between reader and author by engaging them with content can lead to future sales. Readers who like you and the content you produce are much more likely to share and continue sharing within their circles. Even if you have only one book, creating (non-salesy) content about you and your book can pay off as you build your audience.

Before we dive into content, let’s talk strategy. Effective marketing requires consistency. We live in a society of information overload: media, emails, newsletters, advertising, social media, social networks… and so much more. Trying to stand out among the chaos is like whispering in a crowded stadium and expecting to be invited on stage. To get to that stage, you need to catch their attention and be memorable. Consistency and repetition make you memorable, and what makes you unique helps you stand out.

Why are consistency and repetition important? Because, among the information overload, the things we remember are things we see and experience over and over. Many proliOic authors post daily or several times a day to stay at the top of readers’ social feeds. That requires a great deal of time and effort. If you have family, hobbies, a full-time job, or all the above, chances are you don’t have time to be so proliOic. What do you have time for? Realistically.

Can you reliably post on your Facebook author page twice a week? If social media isn’t your jam, but you go to a weekly meetup where people get together to hike and socialize, can you Oind a way to create regular engagement there? Maybe you can bring book- inspired snacks to share with everyone each week or share the ‘gossip’ about what your main character would be doing this weekend if he was in your circle of friends.

Have you ever created backstories for interesting people you encounter in your daily life? What if they lived in your books? If you’re the direct sales type, can you go out each month and talk to independent bookstores or gift shops which might be interested in carrying your book? Maybe you can collaborate on book events with a twist—create a craft project or a signature cocktail. Get creative, so stores see how your book appeals to their customers.

Whatever the plan is, it needs to get you in front of your audience often enough to remember you’re there.

So, how does one rise above the chaos, especially when starting? What makes you unique? Maybe you’re quirky, creative, and artistic. Are you a grandmotherly type who gives excellent advice over a home-cooked meal? Are you exceptional at Oinding obscure facts people Oind fascinating? What draws your circle of friends and family to you?

Use that. Use what comes naturally to you and Oind a way to leverage it to build content for your written world. That sounds easy, but it might take some creative thinking before you develop a plan that both resonates with you, and that you can reproduce consistently.

Creating content is generally reserved for those posting on social media or who might have newsletters, so most of what I’ll talk about here will relate to that type of engagement, but if you have a great platform elsewhere to share content regularly, do it!

Asking friends and family to buy your book can be just as uncomfortable as being asked to buy the book. It’s a relatively ineffective tool, especially if they’re not your target audience. While they might be rooting for your success, they’re not likely to be engaged or sharing over the long term. You need to build your audience, aka, the people who will read and love your writing for what it is.

At a very high level, content might be about three things: You and what inspires you to write; The story, characters, and setting of your writing; And writerly things.

I generally think of ‘writerly things’ as being memes. Maybe about writer’s block or word count… as a writer, you’ve seen them, you know what I’m talking about. Of the three, I think these are great added content that many readers (and perhaps aspiring writers) can relate to, but they don’t generate book sales or increase the audience for your book.

Share you. Through technology and social media, fans and creators can connect in ways that weren’t possible in the past. In days of yore, you might have written a letter to your favorite author and received a form letter back, maybe with a signed bookmark. Today, @madeupname, with 1.4 Million TikTok followers, might stitch your BookTok video. Readers like to engage with authors. Getting to know you and what inspires you, is appealing. It lets readers feel like they have the inside track. They get bragging rights… so don’t be afraid to share what makes you tick and inspires you to write.

And that thing which makes you unique, use it when you share about yourself. Are you a foodie who writes Historical Oiction? Talk about delicacies we Oind strange today. Do you write Contemporary Oiction with a strong female lead? What is it about strong women that inspires you? Are you an indigenous author? Share your culture and language. Do you write on controversial or sensitive topics? What makes them important to you, and how do they show up in your life?

Share your literary world. Go beyond what is in the book. Who are your characters? Do you celebrate their birthdays, share their favorite foods, and mock their pet peeves? Have you used real places in your book, or perhaps real places inspire them? Share interesting facts and photographs from them. Do you write Science Fiction? What’s the real or conceptual science behind happenings in your book? Share the story behind the story.

Now what?

You’ve done some introspection, picked your platform, and embraced what makes you unique. Your creative juices are Olowing, and you have great ideas for content. You know what you can realistically accomplish on the regular.

Now, make a plan.

Whether sitting down once a week to create and post your content, or writing a month’s worth in one day and then using a scheduling tool to share it, make a plan. You have created a manageable and repeatable strategy that Oits you and your goals.

What if it doesn’t work? Most marketing and engagement strategies take time, and sometimes they require tweaking. Maybe you need to change your content a bit and add some variety. You might need to broaden your reach to Oind your ideal audience. Join me next month for ways to review and build upon the foundation you have started. Regardless of the path that gets you there, your genuine, authentic self will resonate with the right audience. Your job is to Oind them.

You’re invited to join the Professional Indie Publishing Roundtable. If you’d like to be part of the conversation with industry pros and other independent authors, join me for periodic virtual meetings each month. Be part of the conversation, ask questions, and share your experiences, challenges, and successes. Visit www.DeliberatePage.com/Roundtable to sign up for meeting access details and information.

***Heading into her no-work days, Yana’s attacks have intensified, but being watched over by Donal and the Guardian has allowed them to instantly heal her unseen – but definitely felt – wounds. Astonished by her intuitive knowledge of what to do and when to do it, the Guardian’s questioning of Donal and Yana’s activities as Spirits has come into play. With little working as it should, all anyone can hope is that the Laws are fixed. Soon.***

Having spent the night watching over Yana, Donal glanced at the light beginning to glow through small gaps in the shades. Running a hand down his face, he didn’t need to see the Guardian’s look in order to answer it. “I’m not comfortable leaving her,” he said. “The attacks come at all hours and don’t make much sense in what they are or where they’re coming from.”

“While this is true, the fact that we cannot see them coming until they hit should worry you more than when or where she will be hit,” the Guardian countered, still sitting stoically in the chair next to a sleeping Yana.

“I’ll give you that, grudgingly,” Donal answered. Taking a side-eyed view of the Guardian, he commented, “I really wish, for once, that something akin to tired, or even as small as sleepy, would cross your visage.”

“Unlikely. I do not get tired,” the Guardian answered.

“I’m going to tell Emme that you lied,” Donal teased. “There is no way you don’t need some kind of rest.”

“I did not say I did not need rest. I said I do not get tired.”

“Now you know you’re going to have to explain that. Every being gets tired,” Donal held his hand up to stop the response, “except AIs. Those buggers, whether mechanical or elemental, never stop. I don’t know how they do it.”

“They are built that way,” the Guardian said with a shrug.

“Well?”

“You truly want an answer?”

“Yes.”

“First of all, I make sure that I rest and reenergize long before I physically require it, to avoid looking like you do right now. And secondly,” he pulled a hand sized device from somewhere with a twist of his left wrist, “I have one of these.”

“What is that?” Donal asked, desperately trying to withhold from grabbing it and tearing it apart to see how it worked.

“It is a recharger,” the Guardian said, Olicking it back into non-existence.

“Wait, you plug yourself into that?” Donal snickered. “Are you certain you’re not an AI in a Spirit form?” Donal watched closely, waiting for a reaction to his teasing. “Really? Not one reaction? Come now, that’s an amusing thought.” He paused, “Actually, that’s an amazing thought. Why didn’t Yana and I think of that before and try it out?” he Oinished, muttering to himself.

“You do realize, one day, that you will have to confess all you did, whether Spirit, Mortal, or Incorrupt, in order to Progress?” the Guardian asked, raised eyebrow the only hint stating his unease at one day knowing all the two of them had managed to get away with for so long.

Donal waved him off. “Ppfftt, we have way larger issues to tackle than what Yana and I may or may not have... accomplished... as Spirits.”

The Guardian did not answer, and though uneasy at the black eyed gaze, Donal refused to look directly at him or shrink away. Instead, he stared through the shade’s gap, noting that the sun was fully above the horizon. “If you tell Kit to come over, will she listen? And come?”

A small smirk played at his lips. “She is terriOied of me,” the Guardian said. “She will do whatever I tell her to do.”

Turning to see if that was whole truth, Donal quipped, “Those eyes would terrify any Mortal in their right minds.”

“Which is why most only hear or sense my presence, but do not see,” he answered. “Kit is most... unusual. I have not had to say much to her, regardless. She has studied and learned her lessons well, for a Mortal, and her belief is solid for one so young.”

“I’m glad she listened, and is so attuned,” Donal said somberly. “I can’t imagine Yana going through this with no understanding because her hearing and sensing have been...”

“Destroyed?” the Guardian offered.

“Manipulated is what I was going to say. Do you know something I don’t? Stop. Don’t answer, of course you know things I don’t, but with Yana, everything that I don’t?” Donal asked.

“Much of the Mortal systems, and a few elements, that allow for hearing, sensing, occasionally seeing, but most importantly, feeling what my words and presences bring, have not been manipulated. They are,” he hesitated, “missing.”

“Missing? As in not there at all? Gone?”

With a shrug, the Guardian answered, “More like… removed.”

“What... removed... but... I...” Donal sputtered. Sitting forward, the Guardian said, “Don’t ask how, I do not know. Many things are possible to do to a Mortal form. It is the most highly manipulative form there is, you know that.” He paused. “But you did not know that it was designed that way so that it would be the hardest part of the Path, the form that guides, and challenges, and weighs the most on the Path of Progress. Mortals are allowed to do all sorts of madness to their forms, to see what they will do to themselves and others when they cannot remember who they were.”

He sat back, drawing sigils into the arms of the chair again. “Removal is possible. However, it must be the Mortal’s choice. It cannot be done for them.”

“Except it has.” Donal motioned to Yana. “There’s no way she would do that to herself.”

“She did not. At Ebbe’s request, I went into her form’s past, from birth to now. There is nothing at all telling me that this was her choice. So yes, it has been done,

Donal called up a portal, leaving a copy of his timepiece next to Yana’s bedside, a link to her location. He hoped it would be enough for him to get back, without a portal landing him inside the sun, or one of the moons instead.

Tingling the length of her Oinger woke Yana from a dreamless, restless, sleep. Stretching, and still feeling the ache of healing muscles all over, her left hand was getting heavy. Groaning, and making a futile attempt to roll over by grabbing at her headrail, she couldn’t stand the weight anymore, and chucked the heavy whatever-it-was, aiming at the gap between her shades.

“Whatwasthat?!”

“AHHHHH!”

Kit’s terriOied eyes met Yana’s as they both screamed at each other.

“What are you doing here?” Yana yelled, recovering faster from her fright than Kit.

Mouth opening and closing a few times while grasping the door frame, Kit’s voice quavered. “The Guardian told me you needed me to come over, so I did. The entrance was not locked.”

“I... wait, yes it was. I remember locking it before crashing in bed,” Yana answered. Standing back up, having stumbled back into the bed, she said, “I don’t need... what in cold ochu now?” she said, Olicking her right hand a bit at the numbness creeping up from her Oingertips.

“Don’t wave that around!” Kit shouted, launching herself from the door frame to grab Yana’s right hand and hold it steady. “How can you be so careless with that?”

“Just like it shouldn’t be possible for portals, elements, and communications to go crazy and decide not to function,” Donal said with a snort. “Indeed.” After a few minutes, the Guardian stood. “I send a thought to Kit so that she comes over here within a short time.” Black eyes stared directly into blue-green ones. “We must go. The knowledge I have of the other Guardian has a shortened time where we may act on it. As alil of the Leveler, you have the rights and ability to tap into her, should we need it.”

“If what you think you know is true, we’ll need it,” Donal answered.

With a curt nod, the Guardian’s gaze drifted, eyes half closed, telling Kit she was needed at Yana’s.

“With what? I don’t see anything!” Yana was losing her limited patience.

Kit looked up curiously. “Really? Still? But...” Kit trailed off. Standing up straighter but still holding onto her wrist, she continued, “If you can’t see anything... but you looked down, you had to notice something.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t notice anything, I said I don’t see anything. When I woke up, there was something heavy weighing against my left hand’s Oingers, and it kept getting heavier the longer I was awake, so I rolled halfway over, saw the gap of light from the shades, and,” Yana paused. She’d never told anyone about her zings. “My whole life, when I need to hear something, pay attention to something, or do something, I kinda get this…” she waved her free hand behind her head, “zing back here. It’s not something I hear, but more like something I feel. No, not feel… sense.”

Heaving a breath out, she continues, “It’s just there, and I know it’s there.”

Kit’s eyes rounded. “Like… a presence?”

Yana considered, then shook her head. “No, because no one’s there. It’s not like when you get a Progression tinge from the Guardian. It’s just something that’s there. I know that really sounds lame.”

Kit tilted her head. “I’ve never heard anyone talk about zings or pushes, not like that, but it doesn’t mean the Guardian isn’t the one behind it, or something.”

“Yeah, or something.” Looking down, Yana continued, “Can you let go of my hand now? I need to toss this.”

“Toss it?”

“Yeah, just toss it up. I guess someone in the Hereafter knows what to do with it,” Yana said, closing her Oist slightly and then Olicking her Oingers upward.

“Or what you just tossed knows what to do by itself,” Kit murmured. “You know, there are Teachers in the past who talked about elements and mixes kind of being autonomous.”

“I remember, but there’s nothing speciOic and a lot of those time period writings were destroyed in the wars.” Heading into the bathroom to clean up and empty out, she called over her shoulder, “You don’t need to stay. I am Oine.”

Closing the door on Kit’s arguments, Yana turned the water on to further drown her out. As she stepped in, both hands began to buzz. Sighing resignedly, she waited a few clicks for the balls to form, the weight to increase, made sure they were pulsing and then Olicked her wrists sideways. Looking up, she whispered, “Can I please enjoy the water now?”

In answer, she tossed several more handfuls of whatever-it-was-es in the direction of the sun before the tingling and zinging ceased. * * * *

Standing in front of a seemingly endless hallway wall, Ebbe glanced in consternation at Emme. “There is no way there is a door anywhere here.”

“There has to be. The mapping Yana showed us said so,” Emme countered.

“What if she was wrong?” Ebbe asked, hand sweeping sideways, feeling for the barest crease demarcating a hidden door. “What if...”

Grabbing Emme to his chest as he threw himself backward, he held one arm out to protect her from being crushed by his weight as he rolled them both away from the Olaming orb aiming for his head... which was now engulOing the area where they’d been standing.

Coming to a sliding halt with Emme wrapped in both his arms, they looked back at the endless hallway, crackling and exploding.

“Blue Olames. Huh. Who would have thought?” Emme said lightly, tapping Ebbe to release her. Standing and attempting to swipe the debris and wrinkles from her attire at digniOiedly at possible, she side-eyed Ebbe.

“What was that about her being wrong?”

Mouth open, Ebbe stood, ignoring the mess his godly attire was in. “How?”

“How did she do this? Or how did she know to do this, right now?” Emme asked, auburn eyebrow raised.

“Either. Both. She can’t hear us, can’t see us, so how would she know...” he trailed off.

“Dearest,” Emme half snorted, half laughed, “even with all our knowledge, how much does anyone truly know about what the Leveler can and cannot do from instinct, simply because of being the Leveler? We may not have gifted and blessed Yana with everything she needs to do this work, be this being, but what if she already has it, or has access to it, just because of who she is?”

“You mean what she is.”

“No, I mean who she is. Leveler is not a simple title, it’s the name of a being, as well,” Emme answered, her posture hinting that arguing would be hazardous to his health.

Walking to the still Olaming, but not hot, walls, Ebbe poked at it. It wobbled and cracked under his light touch. He tilted his head slightly, brows knitted, placed his palm on it, and shoved. As the walls tumbled down in heaps, he stepped backward, looking in both directions of the endless hallway, and saw... ends, within ten of his paces away. “Do you...”

“I do indeed,” Emme said in awe. Touching the heaps with her toes, not daring to use her hands, she watched them lift, separate into their elemental make-ups, and leave. She sucked in a breath. “Illusion,” she hissed.

“Sorcery is against the Laws,” Ebbe whispered helplessly.

“Apparently not,” Emme answered quietly. Behind the smoldering heaps… A door.

Glossery of Names and Terms

Alil–AH leel (husband)

Alili–AH leelee (wife)

Ama-(Ah mah) - mom

Concilium–cohn SIL eeyum (a council of high gods/goddesses who guide others on the Path of Progression and oversee much of the running of the Hereafter)

Corrupt–the dead whose Mortal life choices and doings align them with evil and the Demons

Datter-(daa tr) - daughter

Deisos–DEE sohs (after death “paradise”)

Deisos Teacher(s)–Mortals spiritually and higher skilled than Oracles, rarer too, few known, can talk to/see Ebbe/Emme when allowed

Donal–DOH nul (male protagonist)

Ebbe–EH beh (Cycle God)

Emme–EH mee (Cycle Goddess)

Gods/Goddesses–those who were Incorrupt, then passed their various tests and trials in Deisos, allowing their ascension to godhood on the Path of Progression; god(s) is often gender neutral, as they are equals, but lazy, and the word is shorter to write/ say

Ochuroma–O schu ROH mah (after death

“hell”)Hereafter–the life continuation along the Path of Progression that occurs after Mortal existence endsIncorrupt–the dead whose Mortal life choices and doings align them with the gods/ goddessesGuardian–a guide, helper, from Deisos, who assists Mortals

Oracles–Mortal version of prophets, seers who can talk to/see the Incorrupt, Guardians, Void - realm of the Demons (devoid of light)

Yana–YAH nuh (female protagonist)