Why Do Authors Fear Marketing Their Books?

 

What if it fails -- then what?

What if it succeeds-- then what?

Are authors ready to market their books? 

Most are not equipped - mentally, skillfully, financially, or knowledgeably to do so - or at least that’s what they believe. The way to defeat fear is first to acknowledge it, to break it down from a general or broad feeling to specific things, and then to identify real solutions to real challenges.  

The best cure for fear is success. Even a small win. 

You just need to experience success and to enjoy a moment where you saw that if you act wisely, try your best, and dedicate time to something, that you will come out on top. Not all of the time. Maybe only some of the time. But that’s good enough when you battle on the competitive playground of marketing books.  

No is the second most common thing an author will hear; most often what they hear is silence. Rejection comes packaged up in many formats. Authors need to increase their odds of success by reducing the things that can go wrong. Put yourself in a position to win -- not lose.  

The more common fears authors have are:

 

• Asking someone to buy their book
• Talking to strangers
• Not feeling they are worthy of attention
• That they don't know what to do or how to do it 
• Discovering people really don’t like their book
• Running out of money to properly promote it
• Not having enough time to do what’s needed
• Lacking the basic technical skills to market a book

Some people have a lot of fears and hang-ups. That’s their nature. Maybe meds and therapy - or avoidance techniques helps quell their anxiety. But as soon as you are grounded and centered, but have legit concerns and fears, start to list and confront them. If that doesn’t work, I suggest this strategy:

• Outsource your publicity and marketing 
• Do what you can -- ignore the rest
• Try things that beat your fears, such as doing advertising if you don’t like speaking and lack time for social media or lack the ability for getting media coverage
• Work through your fears by trying to do what you fear -- and discover you won’t die doing it.

Dear authors, I have only one fear, that you’ll simply give up on your book. Never, ever capitulate.

You’ve got this.

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum

We All Need Some Bibliotherapy

  

We all know about pet therapy, where one gets comfort and a sense of calm from having their pet go everywhere with them – car, plane, work, school, outdoor restaurant, etc. Well, how about bibliotherapy?  

Yes, books can be therapeutic!  

Writing books. Reading books. Being surrounded by books, authors, and book people is most soothing for me. How about yourself? 

In the technical sense, bibliotherapy has evidence of reducing alcohol dependence, self-harm, and panic disorder. Basically, bibliotherapy is the act of intentionally using books to help us overcome a burden or challenge, to put us in a healthier frame of mind, and to alleviate stress. 

Books can certainly help us resolve certain issues, either because the content specifically addresses an issue of concern, or because the act of reading allows us to relax. Reading stories that provide an opportunity for growth, escape, or enjoyment are as therapeutic as anything else. Bottom line: Does reading books make you feel better? Yes? Bibliotherapy, thank you!

 

Wikipedia describes bibliotherapy as such:

 

“Although the term "bibliotherapy" was first coined by Samuel Crothers in 1916, the use of books to change behavior and reduce distress has a long history, dating back to the Middle Ages. When applied in a therapeutic context, bibliotherapy can comprise both fictional and non-fictional materials.

 

“Fictional bibliotherapy (e.g., novels, poetry) is a dynamic process, where the material is actively interpreted in light of the reader's circumstances. From a psychodynamic perspective, fictional materials are believed to be effective through the processes of identification, catharsis and insight. Through identification with a character in the story the reader gains an alternative position from which to view their own issues. By empathizing with the character the client undergoes a form of catharsis through gaining hope and releasing emotional tension, which consequently leads to insights and behavioral change.

 

“Working with an imaginative journey and a specific selection of metaphors, proponents claim that a therapeutic story approach has the potential to shift an out of balance behavior or situation back towards wholeness or balance. A patient might also find it easier to talk about his issues if he and the therapist can pretend that they are talking about the character's issues. Proponents suggest that the story form offers a healing medium that allows the listener to embark on an imaginative journey, rather than being lectured or directly addressed about the issue.” 

So, books are therapeutic, whether you realize it or not. They give us skills, provide knowledge, distract us from problems, share wisdom, provide mentoring and support, and allow for us to have a teacher, therapist, coach, and minister right beside us, 24/7, wherever we are. 

We are never alone with good books.

 

“To approach greatness, write about the unwritten, the unspoken, the unspeakable.”

--Arthur Miller

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

--Samuel Goldwyn

“Be yourself, everybody else is already taken.”

--Oscar Wilde

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum

22 Social Media Marketing Tips For Authors

 

In case you are wondering what to plan for as you seek to execute a social media marketing campaign to promote your book, worry no more. Let me set you straight. Obey these 22 rules:

1. Yes, you need social media to successfully launch a book — and yes you need a plan. So, get to it!

2. You must determine how many social media platforms you will be active on, choosing between the legit biggies: Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, You Tube, Pinterest, Tik Tok, and Snapchat. There are also smaller but significant ones, such as: Threads, Truth Social, Clubhouse, and Telegram.

3. Perform a social media audit: Which platforms are you on and what needs to be done to make them work better for your needs and goals? What do you do well — where do you fall short — and what needs to be tried or experimented with? Compare yourself to genre-similar authors and see what their digital media footprint looks like.

4. Determine what you will outsource (find a surrogate), what you will do, and what will sit on a wish list or get dismissed after a thorough review of the possibilities.

5. Create detailed profiles, with photos and videos, for each platform you are on — and revise/update it every three to six months or whenever something new or major happens, such as a new job, new book, new location, etc.

6. Learn the basics to function on each platform but also plan to take time to consume free tutorials online about all of the features of a platform.

7. Plan to post regularly and frequently. This could mean posting daily, or multiple times per day — or week. Whatever the frequency, be consistent so readers can anticipate your predictability.

8. Determine your editorial voice and define the persona that you want to project. In essence, how do you want to sound or come off. For instance, are you funny, serious, angry, smart, graphic, descriptive, story-teller, etc?

9. Join many relevant groups and be active and engaging on them.

10. Take time out to solicit people to become a connection/friend/follower of yours.

11. Schedule your posts so that you can build up content and ensure it goes out at all hours of the day without you being awake to do anything. Draft a social media editorial calendar. Are there upcoming dates that tie into events, anniversaries, holidays, seasons, and honorary days that you can identify and anticipate a way to exploit for crafting related content? Start to bank your ideas, links, or stories that you may call upon for future posts.

12. Know why you are doing this. Set goals. Remind yourself of the reason you spend time and brain cells on social media.

13. Measure and adjust your approach, change your goals, and try harder. Monitor the time you invest and compare the pay-off to other activities and investments of time and money in order to determine the most effective approach to book marketing.

14. Balance your posting between sharing the content of others, messages to push the selling of your books, questioning things, commenting on related news, offering views and insights/advice, pushing your own blog or podcast, and bragging about an accomplishment, like an award or good book review.

15. Posts should be short, contain a visual image, and where possible, a link back to your site that showcases good content and doesn’t just spam people with an amazon link to buy your book.

16. Comments, likes, and sharing other people’s posts is a necessary part of the game.

17. Be prepared to experiment with advertising on social media, from boosting a FB post to advertising your book on other people’s feeds or blogs.

18. Beg people to share, retweet, and re-post select pieces of your social media content.

19. Run a special offer, book discount, or give a free download of interesting content on your social media..

20. Promote a charity or cause on your social media, not just because you support them but because it helps with your branding.

21. Monitor what is trending, in the news, and influencer posts to see if you can capitalize on something.

22. Consider live-streaming an event in Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or LinkedIn Live.

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum

Authors Need A Key Fob Book Marketing Moment

 

We all need a signal that we are on the right path, a guiding light, or a loud sound to hint to us where we must go. Authors absolutely need to follow a trail of book marketing bread crumbs to know they are on the right path. They need their key fob moment.

What acts as your lighthouse, flashing neon sign, GPS, or key fob when out at sea trying to paddle your way to selling books and marketing your brand?

I get lost easily — I have no sense of direction. I often lose my car in an unmarked parking lot. But my key fob is my friend. I press it and either see flashing lights or hear the sound of the car horn, letting me know if I am getting hotter or colder. Authors need this when marketing their books.

How does a writer know he or she is doing what they are supposed to be doing? How do they know if they chose the right strategy and are executing it properly?

Writers need marketing plans, best-practice guidelines, metrics, mentors, and goals. The end result, book sales, will tell you if you succeeded or failed, but along the way, you need a key fob to tell you if you are heading in the right direction.

Here is how to identify your book marketing co-ordinates:

* Did you create a long-term, short-term, and daily marketing plan?

* Are you taking a diverse approach, spreading your time, money, efforts, and mindshare on the major areas, such as social media, special sales, advertising, traditional media, book awards, networking, speaking, etc.?

* Is someone helping you to execute your plan: a volunteer mentor, a support group, a paid marketing coach, a publicist?

* Are you measuring progress in some way — number of clicks to your site; a quantity of quality consumer book reviews; number and size of media outlets writing about you; number of speaking events lined up?

Authors, find your way to where you want to get to. Have a destination in mind, get help, measure your efforts and results, and follow the flashing light. You may not become a best-seller, but at least you will find your car. 

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.