Healthy Marketing Mindset for Authors, with Rebecca Grogan
Start with a simple plan and build on it as your comfort level increases and you see what's working.
Aah, marketing! One of the few words that will leave a shudder in authors of all stripes, especially self-publishers. It’s easy to feel like you’re paddling upstream with just your hands through the rapids. You’ve labored and worked and finally polished your beloved manuscript, but now you have to figure out how to get people to, y’know, read it.
The (uncomfortable) truth is that no matter what kind of author you are, marketing comes for us all. So how do we tame this beast so it will help our publishing career instead of it biting us on the hand?
I spoke with Rebecca Grogan, an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach, who loves helping authors (especially indies in the romance genre) plan to market for books. A natural creative, Rebecca began her journey early on by writing commercials for local businesses, which her disc jockey father would record for the radio station. This sparked her love of words and eventually turned into a successful career as a marketing strategist and corporate event planner.
Then in 2018, she co-authored, designed, and published a coffee table book, “Answering the Call: A Story of Everyday Lives” with NY Times Best Selling author, Kevin Maurer. This was when she realized that collaborating with writers was her true passion and career path. In 2022, she founded Kaleidoscope Creative where she specializes in coaching romance, as well as teaching writers to market their books. She currently lives in North Carolina, where she and her husband raised their son and are now empty nesters (except for the two rescue pups who run the house).
Your Career Is Worth the Work
Let’s start by acknowledging a strange fact: many writers don’t know how to properly brag about themselves. After all, this highly introspective work can leave you feeling exposed and fragile. Will others be able to see your vision? Appreciate your hard work? Not only that, but the gap between the writer and the reader seems to grow wider every day. Targeted ads and curated content feel more like gimmicks designed to capture wallets instead of hearts. Can you feel comfortable enough to put your horse in this race?
But while the disconnect is real, the way to bridge that gap is not as foreign as one might think.
“Too many beautifully crafted and compelling stories never get read,” says Rebecca. “Most people consider marketing a daunting and expensive undertaking, only effective for a select few who have ‘cracked the code.’ The industry promotes this in a lot of cases, but it's a huge misconception. Certainly, there are multi-channel, multi-layered strategies used by million-dollar brands and corporations, but that won’t serve you when you’re establishing an audience of loyal readers.”
Connecting with Your Readers
It’s important to focus on marketing, especially when you’re just getting started. It’s tempting to play around on every possible platform, but that’s an easy recipe for burnout. What works best for you? Take it slow and choose the platform you’re already the most familiar with. It’s also easy to overcomplicate your marketing when all we see is another's end result. Different people suggest different strategies, so it’s not your fault for getting wires crossed.
Beyond actually writing the book, publishing it successfully means knowing who you’re writing for. It’s uncomfortable to stuff your manuscript into an already crammed Amazon category, and you won’t see the success you need to do this for a living if your book doesn’t appeal to customers.
And to make it even more complicated, when do you actually start marketing your book? Thankfully, the easiest and quickest way to start marketing is to show your future readers your creative process as you work!
This is exactly what Rebecca teaches her writing clients. “Developing your reader following is crucial to selling your novel. It’s important for new writers to introduce yourself and take them along with them. Teasers, talking about your characters, building expectations, and giving readers a ‘peek behind the curtain’ will engage your audience and make them want to tell other readers about your work.
“As a reader, I want to connect with the authors I follow. Why should I be a loyal fan? Think of it as a bridge between you and your ideal reader. You already have the most important tools: words and creativity. Start with a simple plan and build on it as your comfort level increases and you see what's working.”
As you share your work and as readers discover you, people will become more used to seeing your name attached to the glorious title of “author.” From there, the reader searching for a book like yours will be drawn like metal to a magnet, and it’s showing up consistently that will lay the foundation for your platform. It’s okay to take it slow or to make mistakes; taking any step at all will help you find your way, as long as you don’t give up.
Take Action
So far, it seems the plan is to talk about your book as often as possible, whether to your friends and family or on social media. To stand out, it’s important to reflect on the person you are and the type of writer you want to be. Rebecca shares this short list of questions to get you started:
If I had to describe myself as an author, what would I say? What genre and themes do I love to explore?
Why do I write? What are my values and beliefs?
What are five to seven words I want people to use to describe me when I leave the room?
What are three things that I like about myself? What are three weaknesses?
What values do I want to showcase in my work? My humor? My beliefs?
The brand starts with the author and what makes them unique in this very crowded marketplace. Freewrite your answers to help you determine what you want readers to know and understand about you. Practice writing your thoughts as you have them, which will help you become more confident in your writing voice.
These questions are worthwhile also because they help you see your own value in the eyes of others, not just your reader. More than just a book-writing machine, you're a creative giant with stories to tell and a mission to achieve. It doesn’t matter if that mission is as simple as wanting to earn a living, or as complex as leaving a legacy for the future. Knowing who you are as an author will help you stay the course and build a life you can be proud of.
The more you learn about yourself, your boundaries, and what you feel comfortable doing in the marketing/promotion space, the more you can develop and define your brand.
And if you want hands-on, one-on-one help for preparing your marketing strategy (especially if you write romance), check out Rebecca’s coaching services! You can get help analyzing the market for your specific project as well as find community with other writers.