Authors, If You Don’t Win, You Lose

 

Authors can be poor marketers, not necessarily because of their lack of knowledge, skills, or abilities, but because of their bad attitudes, unfounded fears, and fragile egos. What is one to do about this?

Ignore it, as if it doesn’t exist.
Then you will have lost, for sure.
Don’t do this.dze

Avoid it, as an intentional strategy.
You will automatically default.
This is not your best idea.

Dismiss the notion you can impact your book sales with the marketing efforts that you can initiate.
Again, your denialism will convert into an utter defeat.
Never do this.

Hope for the magical discovery of your book.
Wishing it so won’t make it so. You need definitive action taken to position yourself to have a chance.

Staying on the sidelines is a loss. Observing, pondering, questioning, and researching without action is as good as a loss.
Initiating — but not following up — is a loss.

Do not condemn yourself to failure.
Pay others to help.
It could fail; it could succeed. You are at least playing the game.
If you have the resources, this is a no-brainer.

Try.
You may fail; you may succeed. You are playing the lottery. You have a chance.
You must do this.

Not playing the game is like losing it.  You fail as a result of not even trying.

In the end, not trying and getting no rewards or benefits is the same result one gets if they tried but failed. Dear author, don’t sit on the sidelines of book marketing. You must go out there and pursue your dreams. Take a risk, make an effort, commit to something, and invest in yourself.

If you are single and see an attractive person and don’t ask them out, you will be treated the same as if asking and having been rejected. The outcome is the same.

If you see a job opening posted but don’t apply out of feeling you won’t get it, you will already prove your prediction without trying. The end result becomes just the very thing that you feared.

In each of these examples, an actual loss or an aborted opportunity produces the same result: nothing. No date, no job, no athletic victory.  If you don’t win, you lose. If you don’t try, you can’t win, and thus, lose.

Then there are situations where you do actually risk the loss of something tangible as a result of your attempt to gain something greater than what you already have. For instance, let’s say you invest money in the stock market. You can lose some or all of it, but you can make some or even a lot of money. You can calculate if the pay-off potential exceeds the risk.

The same is true of an author’s paid book marketing efforts. Invest in another to help yourself succeed. Sacrifice something for your book and be willing to spend a little to give your book a chance at breaking through.

It costs nothing for you to contact a book reviewer, connect with someone on social media, or inquire of a speaking engagement at a bookstore. Yes, you put in a little time, but risk what — your ego? Get over it. Jump in the pool. Take your clothes off. Swim a little.

If you don’t try, you already fail. There is no advantage to not trying, no luxury in saying: “Well, the book didn’t sell well, but I put little time or money into it.”

 

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!

 

Read This!

 

How To Protect Books, Further Free Speech, and Increase Literacy

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/how-to-protect-books-further-free.html

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. 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.