After the high of writing and completing a manuscript comes the tedious task of deciding how to publish. Once that task is complete, and if you went indie or small press, next comes the crucial stage of marketing and advertising. I think many indie’s hit this strong and with so much excitement, but most would agree that they are writers not marketers. Short of having the money to dish out into marketing/advertisement many of us are left to figure it out on our own.
At what point does an author step back from the day consuming chore of marketing/advertising to become a writer again? And is there a point at which an author gets marketing fatigue and goes on marketing disability?
A book will not advertise its self. When I’m not actively marketing my book it is not actively selling. I’m not of a name yet where people search me out. After life got in the way I took a moment to go back and look at my royalties for one book. I sold three in the first two quarters of this year sans marketing. In two weeks I revamped my energy and went back on the social media road. In two weeks I sold more than I did in the first two quarters.
When is it time to walk away from advertising and marketing? When is it time to say you gave it your best and now its on to the next project? How much do you promote older books when you release a new book? The answer: You are always selling. Your new life title is Author and Director of Marketing & Sales. If you want to sell it, you need to promote it!
With over 3,000,000 books available online, you need to make sure people see your name and titles.
Tania L Ramos, RN & Author
New Author Publishing 
Totally with you Tania. The first part of my trilogy just came out and I hit the marketing hard. Part of that was running a free weekend on The Hunter Inside last saturday-monday. Since Monday when my new novel came out, I’ve sold double the amount of my old novel as I have of my new one, even though it’s almost 3x the price! A total of about 35 books this week. I’m not complaining, but marketing for indies is so hit and miss! I’m hoping the fact that my new venture, From The Sky, is a trilogy will allow its reputation to grow naturally, but I already have my next novel chewing at the insides of my skull to get out, and I feel like I should be spending more time marketing than I am writing. In fact, I haven’t done any writing at all for a long time!
My sentiments exactly. I spent a year hitting the markets hard, attending every literary festival I could, and because of that my writing was done. Now that I’m trying to get back into a groove, I find it harder to write. I suppose its like jumping back into a workout routine, it takes time to settle back into a niche. Congrats on your trilogy! That’s awesome.
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