Writing – Marketing my books – the difficulties and tribulation, dilemmas and aggravations.

Posted on by Opher

IMG_6343

I am a writer – not a marketer.

I write in many forms and have accumulated a large catalogue of books in different styles and different genres.

I have written nearly fifty and published about half. There is the dilemma.

I enjoy writing. I do not enjoy marketing. I do not have the time. At present I have eight projects on the go. I’m juggling and loving it. It is the writing that I enjoy.

There does not seem much point in writing if you don’t have an audience. You do not get an audience if you do not market. My only marketing is this blog. Yet I am aware that there is a balance. People who like my blog do not want to be bombarded with sales talk.

I am not seeking wealth or fame. I want to write and I want to influence things that I care about. I am a serious writer. I do want to have an audience and I do need feedback about my writing.

I believe in myself, the quality of my work and the content I put in. I have had sufficient glowing feedback to know that others enjoy it and it is marketable.

So do I take time off from what I love doing to spend weeks marketing? Or do I put my energies into getting a publisher so that they handle all that? Or do I continue along and have the books dribbling along.

Is writing valid if the audience is severely limited?

I am torn.

In the meantime – please leave reviews so that others can see that you have enjoyed the books and send through the feedback. I feed off it.

Thank you to all of you who have left the ‘likes’, encouragement, support and bought my books. You give me hope.

35 thoughts on “Writing – Marketing my books – the difficulties and tribulation, dilemmas and aggravations.”

  1. So far I have took every bruise and knock,
    You can guarantee I can take every hit.
    They call it strength in character,
    I just call it, not giving a shit,

  4. I would think you need to spend your energy doing what you love and find someone who loves marketing. Those people are out there looking for something to sell. You have a distinct recognizible brand and folowers and sales. The sixties, rock music, etc., are interesting to a wide range of people. You have done the hard part. I would suggest reaching out to people whose life is selling and know how to get your work in front of the masses. It may be difficult trusting strangers with your babies but I think part of your dream is that they one day stand on their own. Consultation with a web guru to optimize your web search. Interviews on radio and local tv. Are there trade shows or conferences that you might fit in. Are there university professors who teach courses on topics you write about? Give them a percentage to use your books. Could you promote some of your stuff on indi music websites for a percentage of sales? I think your marketing should be focused on the marketers. Are there webcasts that would like to interview you? Some of those kind of shows have large audiences. Reach out see if they would be interested in a free copy. You would only need to do a few interviews in the right place to reach tons of people. And before you sign anything get a contract lawyer that has some knowledge of the industry. I would think there are standards they would be familiar with. In fact you may want to start there. If you can find a lawyer who is working in the industry they would have contacts and suggestions. You may be doing all of this already but it is what came to mind. Also find people who will cross promote. You promote them and they promote you. Its typically more effective when someone else is saying how good you are and you reach their audience. Get your groovyness out there. Think tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions. Who has those kinds of numbers or knows how to reach them Reach out to those people. Get your groovyness out there brother.

    1. Plato – you are an inspiration. What you say all makes sense but it sounds like a lot of work and a whole new ballgame.
      I love the writing. That sounds like hard work. I don’t know I’d be good at that.

      1. I am just learning myself. I still need to do alt of work on the product but am looking for folks who already know what to do and are looking for something to promote.

  5. Remember these people would not be doing you a favor though they may act as though they are. Generally these people are not creative in the artistic sense. They need a product to promote. Its about being mutually beneficial. Also are there festivals you could get a booth at? Sometimes you can find someone to split the cost with. I.e. someone selling tie died t-shirts or sixties stuff.

  6. Your writings are amazing… They will find their way into the hands of people on their own.
    Yes… There is a purpose to write even without an audience.. The purpose is to please yourself!
    A publisher would not be a bad idea if you do not want to be bothered with promo.. But I think either way your books will sell fine!

    -Truth Seeker

    1. Thank you for your faith. And yes I am quite satisfied to write without an audience but then there are times when that seems futile.
      The books trickle along and there are times when I feel it is frustrating. What is the point of writing is hardly anybody reads what you have written?

      1. Yes I can definitely understand your point… That is why I have found some peace by creating this blog. I don’t have many followers but just knowing that a few people out there are affected or impacted by my thoughts keeps me sane.
        I aspire to write books… Several as you have done and are currently doing. And I too hope that readers will find my words… With hope to change the world..

        -Truth Seeker

      2. Yes I can see that. Your blog is thought provoking. That’s great.
        Write your books! There is nothing better. All the best in changing the world. Our ripples spread out to touch others forever! Cheers Opher

  7. Or do a book on current or up and coming bands who meet your criteria. They all would then have motivation to promote you cause it also promotes them. They could include your book in their merch sales. And it would be a cool book.

    2. Hey Plato – I just played your ‘flat world’ track to a good friend of mine who was visiting. He’s a muso who plays in a number of bands and he was well impressed. I gave him the MP3 to listen to. He thought it was great!

  8. One of your problems is probably Amazon. A Google search for amazon publishing gives a first page of results which all suggest amazon publishing is a joke. (see eg. Wikipedia)
    Amazon Publishing’s home page apub.com in particular suggests that they have no idea what they are doing.
    Amazon is NOT marketing your books. A search on amazon.co.uk under Books and likely categories does not bring up a single book of yours. Even searching for Chris Goodwin under education books does not bring up your headteacher book.
    It is possible to find (5) books on rock music by opher but only by diligent advanced searching and amazon prefers ‘other’ to ‘opher’!
    Publishing on Amazon guarantees that no bookshop will stock your books.
    Even for ‘self-publishing’ there are alternatives to Amazon!

    1. From what I can gather Amazon work on numbers – numbers of hits, sales or reviews. It puts you higher up their priority lists. In order to sell you have to have sold. It’s a catch 22.

  9. From what I can see marketing is as hard a job as writing. I love the writing and can’t get enough time to do it. Insanely I’ve got eight projects for books on the go right now, all in various stages of production. I begrudge any time I spend on marketing or trying to get a publisher interested.
    Amazon is not brilliant. I don’t know what else is really available.
    Suggestions are welcome.

  10. Opher, one of our IT guys in my local Green Party works in this area. I’ll try to talk to him asap.

    I think you need to be looking at blogfeed aggregators such as QuiteRSS as well as a professional bulk emailer like NewsChimp. However, WordPress itself has some powerful inbuilt features and it claims in its own blog that you can do most of the work of marketing your blog within WordPress itself, utilizing the various free add-ons.

    Also take a look at self-publishing websites. Lulu.com was one of the early ones that I was aware of, it appears that they now have a lot of competition.

    Here’s an article that appears to be useful, though its relatively old

    http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/

    1. Hi Ian. I read that article and it was very good. Confirmed all my own observations. Self-publishing is a nightmare. If you want an audience you have to invest time and money.
      It all sounds daunting and not really what I want to be doing with my limited time.
      I’d be really interested in what your IT guy has to say. I’ll look into QuiteRSS and NewsChimp and look into WordPress possibilities though I don’t know quite how I can do that.
      I’ll have a ponder.
      Thanks a lot for all your help Ian – much appreciated. Best wishes Opher

  11. Pingback: Writing – Marketing my books – the difficulties and tribulation, dilemmas and aggravations. – Opher's World

Comments are closed.