Spinning my wheels with marketing (of all things)

[Deep Half Guard]

I have a few published short stories through Kindle and I am in mid-novel right now. Oddly enough, writing isn't my issue at this moment. (Not saying it is any good, just saying I've written on and off for a few years and for some obscure blogs and articles for my own blogs so process, planning, craft, I pretty much have a handle on as well as sitting down to actually write and all that)

What it is driving me nuts is, how to self market myself. I am a relatively successful internet marketer so I have some experience with twitter, facebook, blogs, building a following etc...I've seen and actually know some writers who have their blogs, and social media and a ton of fans and followers and these writers are successful. Their writing is sub-par (as is mine I'm sure) but they sell books all through Kindle. And it isn't non-fiction. It's solid genre fiction. But their tweets, blogs, posts, pics, whatever are fluff. It's "wrote 300 more words today" type stuff. No substance.

I have strong opinions about certain things. I can ramble about sci-fi/fantasy all day long. I can go on libertarian rants as well. Do I mash this all up into one "persona"? Would I alienate too many people?

For example, I create my pen-name and all the social media accounts and just be myself. But my novels are mystery novels set in London. Would libertarian posts help or hurt me or neither? Would I alienate too many people that way? (Assuming I develop some exposure) Should I just make fluff like some of the other writers I follow and know do?

As an internet marketer, I feel I should fluff it up and not "alienate" anyone. As an opinionated person, I feel like screw it - write what I want and when I feel like talking about my books I talk about them.

Any advice?

 

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[Gale4rc]

If Howard Stern cared about what people thought, he would not be as successful as he is. (Same with many others)

 

[Deleted20245]

Well, I'd start with your elevator pitch: "I write mystery novels set in London."

This would only appeal to me if a) I like mystery novels, b) I'm interested in London, and c) I'm willing to try something random and not particularly compelling just because.

For instance, your elevator pitch might be:
Explore London's seedy underbelly, where Detective X begins to unravel a string of murders by Group Y. (this is lame, but you get the idea.)

 

[COSenior]

As an internet marketer, I feel I should fluff it up and not "alienate" anyone. As an opinionated person, I feel like screw it - write what I want and when I feel like talking about my books I talk about them.

I'll be following this discussion with interest. What got a lot of us here and participating in this sub-forum was Held for Ransom's thread, Hello from Denver, now designated a Gold Thread. HfR has done NO marketing, and, after publishing three dozen titles, is making a solid five figures a month at last report. On the other hand, some of us are impatient to get to the money, and have been considering what kind of marketing to do to speed up the process. Hope you'll report on what you do and how it works.

 

[Deep Half Guard]

I'll be following this discussion with interest. What got a lot of us here and participating in this sub-forum was Held for Ransom's thread, Hello from Denver, now designated a Gold Thread. HfR has done NO marketing, and, after publishing three dozen titles, is making a solid five figures a month at last report. On the other hand, some of us are impatient to get to the money, and have been considering what kind of marketing to do to speed up the process. Hope you'll report on what you do and how it works.

Agreed, that thread is gold and I do believe just writing the best you possibly can and publishing books as consistently as possible is the best way to succeed. As a matter of fact as I write this, I am realizing that my struggles with "marketing" might just be my inner critic or resistance/fear to just finishing the damn novel and moving to the next one.

 

[Held for Ransom]

On the other hand, some of us are impatient to get to the money

Uhhh, I am impatient for money as well, for what it's worth. Heh.

As a matter of fact as I write this, I am realizing that my struggles with "marketing" might just be my inner critic or resistance/fear to just finishing the damn novel and moving to the next one.

I am in the midst of something similar at the moment. Not so much fear of whatever but I am overhauling my approach to writing to (hopefully) improve my process over the long-term.

Will it pay off? I have no idea. I hope so.

Unfortunately, there aren't any shortcuts to dealing with these things and I don't think it ever goes away completely.

In any case, know that you aren't alone but also know that if you forge ahead and just keep writing, you will make progress and a year from now, you will be amazed at how much you can accomplish.

 

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[Deleted20833]

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world. Start a channel and share short sections of your writing and give tips and tricks on writing..find your own twist to make interesting and true to yourself...build a following there and promote your book in the section below the YouTube video. Keep in mind that the reason they are following you is due to your stories so posting politics views isn't what they are looking for.

 

[Deleted20245]

Here are some ideas. I'm a big fan of what Ryan Holiday has got to say. He seems to be an expert at generating word of mouth marketing.

a preview for his creative live class:

the creative live class: http://www.creativelive.com/courses/smart-pr-artists-entrepreneurs-and-small-business-ryan-holiday

The gist of it is that you create a USP. The details of this are important, and you should always be refining it to make sure your marketing is clear.

I think sometimes we forget that people who don't know of us don't know who we are and what we do. We have to keep reminding them. So your USP should be engaging and functional. It has to say what you write, why you write it, and who you are, at the very least. All the while, the USP has to be short, simple, and interesting enough to stick in people's heads, share it with others, and buy your books.

So the USP is really, really important. It's your hustle, your elevator pitch. Everything else flows from there. Your twitter, your fb posts, all of that supports the USP like a set of statistics will build up an argument.

Next, you make sure that your product itself points to the USP, that it's embedded in your writing. If your USP is X and your writing is Y, then everyone will say, "wow, that's not what his USP said. I'm disappointed." So your writing has to actually support your USP as well.

Let's do a couple of examples.
Harry Potter: "A group of kids grow up, learn magic, and fight an evil wizard." This is essentially the plot of Harry Potter in a sentence. But it isn't compelling. Instead, you'd want something like, "Marked at birth by the wizard who has the power to enslave humanity, Harry Potter must rely on his singular magical ability, his wits and his friends to save himself and all that is good in the world." Still it's not perfect, but it's getting there. There's no official USP that I can find for the books because it's already so ubiquitous.

Chuck Klosterman's IV: "A collection of essays about musicians and pop culture." Better: "Klosterman paints a picture of pop culture in the 90's and 00's with a unique voice balanced between snark and analysis." Even better (from the subtitle of the book): "A decade of curious people and dangerous ideas."

This might seem backwards, writing a USP, then writing books to support it, but this is actually genius. Amazon's product development department has to submit a marketing proposal before they can even develop a prototype. This is to ensure that your product remains marketable through all stages. With a book, it's not all that different. All your titles, characters, everything have to keep pointing to that USP.

Once you've got a product, you start submitting stuff to Reddit, blogs about mystery novels, self-publishing, etc. Get someone to interview you and put it up on youtube. Because you've followed your USP, all of this will help people tell each other about your work, which is what you want.

 

[Lauryn]

As an internet marketer, I feel I should fluff it up and not "alienate" anyone. As an opinionated person, I feel like screw it - write what I want and when I feel like talking about my books I talk about them.
Any advice?

You have strong opinions.
You have lots to say.
You have digital experience.
You are versed in strategy.

Create a strategy using your opinions. Nobody cares about vanilla ice cream. It's safe.
People care about rum raisin, butter pecan, bacon brownie - whether they love or loathe it.

Remove the vanilla from your brand...because even in MARKETING the number one thing you're supposed to do is isolate and eliminate people who aren't your target market so your message is clearer.