10 Marketing Myths That Can Kill Your Book and Career (And Their Remedies!)

Here are excuses many authors use not to promote, killers all. Each includes advice that will help a writer salvage his book and career from wrong thinking.

 "My book is doing well enough. My career is on an upturn. I can easily take a year off from promoting to write." Advice: Cut back if you must but slot in some time to keep the efforts you've already made at least at a simmer.

 "I hear everyone is cutting back on promotion so why shouldn't I?" Advice: Didn't your mother ever ask you, "If Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" Look at those authors. If they're selling lots of books, it's because somebody (their publisher, bookstores, their publicists) is promoting them. I'll bet, though, that most of the authors saying this aren't selling very many. Look at your situation. If you don't do it, who will do it for you?

 "I like Carolyn's Frugal Book Promoter idea so I'm going to only do things that cost no money at all." Advice: Hey! Frugal is one thing. Cheap is another. Some of the best things you can do cost some money. An example is American Booksellers Association Advance Access program. Find it at www.bookweb.org. Careful though. Always weigh the "rightness" of any program for your particular book.

 "I'm gong to examine everything I'm doing and only continue what I can prove is working." Advice: You may not be able to prove much, if anything. That's not the way marketing works. Judge how well your entire campaign is going only after you have given it plenty of time to work. If one thing is working well, maybe it is because your title or name is being seen elsewhere. Balance your campaign, yes. Try new things, yes. Cut back on a few only if you must. Keep in mind that book sales are not necessarily the most valid way to evaluate your promotion.

 "Nothing I've tried works. I'm giving up." Advice. You may be on the brink. Or maybe you've been giving up on each aspect of your campaign too early. Any marketing plan must be many-pronged, frequent and long-term.

 "If I cut back on promotion and find my sales slipping, I can always gear up again." Advice: Yikes! Good publicity and promotion build. It's like skipping rocks on a pond. With each stone, ripples wave out, out, out. Eventually, after you've skipped lots and lots of stones, the results start coming back to you in waves. If you stop whipping those stones into the water, the results dissipate. It will take a long time to get enough stones dancing across the water again to match what you've done and, once you lose momentum, you may never get it back.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success and an Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less." Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

A Neat Affirmation of an Old Marketing Principle

I can't resist telling you about the fun thing that happened on my vacation. It is a little more bloggy and a little less like an article than my usual posts but none-the-less it was a memorable event AND it illustrates one of the marketing principles I have the most trouble getting across to my clients. It's hard because everyone naturally wants to see results from their efforts and pinpoint them.

So here is the story:

I took a short cruise from Long Beach (near Los Angeles) to Mexico. On the last night I was stopped on the way out of the dining room by a young mother. She had two daughters in tow along with the others from one of those tables that seats ten.

"Are you an author?" she says. "My daughter says she thinks she knows you."

Of course like any good author (and marketer) I wanted to know how her daughter knew me. The girl, who was about 15, couldn't remember; she just knew she knew me.

Like any good marketer (and author), I told her that she is just the age bracket I am most interested in reaching with This Is the Place because I hope young women will see that even a short time ago things were not so good for women. I also hope that it will inspire them to reach for the gold when it comes to their own futures. I even had a couple business cards (mine are designed more like mini ads) in my purse and gave some to her and her friends.

Now, I know many of you have this happen to you all the time. Janet Elaine Smith, for instance. She recently moved from South Dakota where she was a real Star with a capital "s" in her community. In Los Angeles we have thousands of stars and, trust me, one writer with silver hair doth not a dent (or an impression!) make.

If you haven't had a similar experience, I just want you to know it is great. Not because of fame, but because it is an affirmation (one that could actually be identified) that promotion does work.

And for those of you who have had a similar experience, this is my plea to subscribe to my Sharing with Writers newsletter and to then share your secrets for making promotion work. I only wish my young new -- ahem! . . . fan, could have helped me identify the one specific thing I did that had made a difference. The fact that she couldn't emphasizes the point I keep making. Marketing is almost never one project. It is the accumulation of all you do that eventually makes a difference.

So yes, Keep promoting! And yes, writing and editing, too!

Best,
Carolyn

PS: Here is a picture from Mexico. I love traveling. Everything about it! Right down to the biology and rocks. This was a mango bush (tree?) with little pubescent fruits on it. (Those who read this newsletter in plain text will need to go to my blog, www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com) to see it.)


PSS: Don't forget that Patrika Vaughn, Allyn Evans and I are teaming up to present a free teleseminar titled "How To Write Your Life Story." to writers who want to tell their own stories, as memoir or as fiction. It is for genealogists, journalers and story tellers everywhere. Writers are invited to listen and come prepared with their questions at noon on July 12th EST. Call 1-218-936-7999. When prompted use this access code: 390175. If asked, participants may need this pin number: 2823.
The teleconference will be available as a podcast afterward at:
 Authors' Coalition, www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress/podcasts_&_radio.htm
 The ACapella Publishing site, www.acapella.com/
 Allyn Evans' site, www.allynevans.com
 On Allyn's Queen Power site, www.queeenpower.com .
 And on Carolyn's Resources for Writers page at www.howtodoitfrugally.com
Those with questions may contact Patrika at acappub@aol.com. Please put it on your calendar!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal." Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.