Webinar: Building a Content Promotion Strategy to Promote Your Message and Sell More Books!
We wanted to get to know Brian Schwartz (NAIWE’s Self-Publishing Expert) better, so last month we sat down with him. Here are some things he shared.
What is one thing that you learned about your craft the hard way, and what benefits have you received from it?
I’ve learned that consistency is key and to stay the course and continuously build relationships. The self-proclaimed gurus make their living on selling this as something that’s easy to do (if you just buy their courses). You might get lucky and your timing plays a large part. There isn’t a single book out there that can teach you everything you need to know, nor enough time to learn it all. It takes a team and you have to take some risks. It’s never too soon to start building your personal brand, and you need to keep turning over rocks.
What I’ve discovered is that things aren’t often what they seem. It’s good to better understand what you are up against.
Can these benefits be broadened to include marketing?
Absolutely. I’ll provide attendees with actionable steps as part of a long-term plan to help them reach more readers, and I’ll explain the benefits of approaching marketing like a marathon, not a sprint. Successful marketers work from a training plan that allows them to consistently and incrementally increase their mileage through increased visibility followed by sales.
Tangible results come from planting many seeds and thinking like a farmer, rather than a hunter. I find that authors who take the long view can do very well if they stick with it and give the seeds time to grow.
I’ll cover specific tools authors can use to manage the content aspect of their marketing plan and how to create a marketing dashboard to stay on track.
What has been your most rewarding marketing avenue, and how was it rewarding? Self? Monetary? Clients?
I appreciate the opportunity to share what I know with people who have a shared interest. I know of an author who is also an artist who sold her artwork (to the tune of over $30,000) to someone who discovered her through her books. This event also led her to get a deal to have her artwork featured in a Broadway play. I know another author who is being paid to blog for a company. Many authors’ books have led them to paid speaking gigs and workshops. For a non-fiction author, a good book can become their most effective marketing tool.
What do you associate with marketing?
Marketing is the act of generating awareness for your work to your target market (those who can benefit). It’s about leveraging and amplifying word of mouth for your mission, book, or business. It fuels a continued effort to refine and improve your work based on the feedback from your fans (readers, students, and colleagues). Another less common perspective of marketing is to view it as creating an opportunity to gain feedback from your users (readers) to guide you toward how to improve your product and tune your pitch.
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You can join in this conversation on April 25, at 7 pm eastern, when NAIWE will host a one-hour discussion on creating a marketing toolkit.
Getting your book found is a matter of having the right content in the right place at the right time. The good news is that it’s less about driving traffic to your own site and more about being visible where your target audience already exists. It’s wise to choose a few platforms to master before you spread yourself too thin, but which ones produce the highest return-on-investment? Learn to create content that gets the clicks on high-traffic sites including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, Flickr, Huffington Post, and more.
The cost for NAIWE members is only $10! To register, send an email with your name and telephone number.
April: English Language Month. A celebration of the uniqueness of the English language.
We wanted to get to know Ruth Thaler-Carter (
Writing Prompt: Writers craft words into memorable phrases, stories, poems, and plays. What writers make your heart sing? Why?
Writing Prompt: What person in your life helped you understand the importance of choosing words carefully? What would you say to them if you met them today?
Writing Prompt: Writers are artists with words as their medium. What author is your favorite word stylist?
Writing Prompt: If you had to eliminate one word or phrase from the English language, what would it be? Why?