Category Archives: Marketing yourself

Marketing yourself

8 Secret Reasons You Hate Marketing Your Writing (Part 2)

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by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

fear

The Marketing Therapist is in.  She knows your demons. And she breaks  them up into bite-sized pieces to minimize the horror of having your subconscious angst exposed to direct daylight.

You’re welcome.

(Read Part 1 Here.)

3. The Crass Factor:  Last Refuge of the Talentless Hack

I’m not doing that marketing stuff. 

All those over-blown, meaningless, advertising words? They’re the sign of “quality optional” writing churned out by greedy, “used-car” writers, whose clunky sentences were created using  a mallet and anvil.

It’s like taking out a billboard, saying,

“Come on down!  I’m a cheesy, mediocre,plaid-pants-wearing writer who will make you a special deal today for just $99.00 down!  Bring your trade-ins.  We smarmy writers can help you out. (Or my name isn’t THE GREATEST WRITER EVER!!!!)”

MYTH: If you’re good at what you do, people know it.  You have street cred.  (If you’re older, you call it a reputation.) You’re sought after, not the other way around.  Your work speaks for itself.

You certainly don’t take a bullhorn and hawk your wares. 

The minute someone tells you they’re a great writer, you know they’re not.

Those who have the real chops, the wisdom, the experience—they’re confident and humble.

 

(Also, Hysterical1960’s Used Car Commercial: used-car sales man finally tells the truth. Warning: swearing.)

TRUTH: Marketing is not a synonym for hype.  And advertising is not another word for deceptive. 

Think about it this way, when you need a service or product, you want to know your options (it’s called research, people!).  Let’s say you turn to the old-fashioned phone directory, where companies have (gasp) paid for ads.

These ads help you decide who to call.  An effective ad gives truthful information that also speaks directly to your needs.

And what about those humble, high-quality companies that don’t place an ad or even list their phone numbers?  They can’t possibly get your business, because you don’t even know about them.

And do you really ever think to yourself, if these companies were good at what they do, they wouldn’t even be in the phone book!

Yeah.  Thought not.

4. I’m Not Ron Popeil or Billy Mays: “I don’t know what to say” vs. Skilled Patter

There are people who know what to say and how to sell a product….  And those who do not.  I’m not a TV spokesman like Ron Popeil or Billy Mays.  I’m not even Ryan Seacrest.

ron-popeil

I hate public speaking.  Cold sweat.  Stammering.  Staring at the ceiling from where I passed out on the stage. 

I’m tongue-tied and miserable.  Why would someone want my writing, anyway?  I can’t think of a single reason why.  I can’t even describe what I do.

I’ll never be able to do any of that marketing stuff, so don’t make me.

MYTH: The standard for your marketing is to look at the best Pitch Spokesman in the business and assume (a) that’s the type of marketing you need to do and (b) you have to be that good at it.

TRUTH: There are many ways to pitch your writing.  And get this.  Many of them don’t even involve a microphone.

In fact, not many of your clients (or potential audience) are probably headed to a convention center hoping to hear a pitch for your writing. 

You shouldn’t base your author-marketing strategy on something that’s not likely to work for your audience or you.  So, first off, that kind of spiel is not a good match.

But it’s also worth nothing that even if it was, and even if your goal was to be the next “Billy Mays,” you’d have to train, learn, study, practice, and work your butt off to be hired at that level as a spokesman.

So there’s a pretty big fallacy in thinking that you’re lack of ability in “being like Ron Popeil” is where you should start.

It’s like saying any hack writer can do what you do. 😉

So, chose a good match between you and your audience, then assess your skill and knowledge levels (and your willingness to take that on.)

There are a thousand ways to market.  You only need a couple.

What a relief.

TO BE CONTINUED!

–—

  • In This Series So Far:

    1. Step Inside the Marketing Confessional
    2. Does Marketing Your Writing Feel Like Prostitution
    3. Marketing Manifestos To Shake You Out Of Your Rut (don’t be a lemming)
    4. Every Writer’s Marketing Dream
    5. Marketing Is Funny Stuff
    6. Marketing Your Writing Without Feeling Like a Brute
    7. 8 Secret Reasons You Hate Marketing Your Writing (Part 1)

    —-
    Diane Holmes Crop 1    Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

    She’s the Founder and Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

    • freelance jobs, Marketing yourself, resources

    A Digital Freelancer Shares His “How I Did It” Story

    Even though Tim Diggle is a freelance Flash developer, non-techie freelancers can learn or at least be inspired by Tim’s story. This video clip is created by a U.K. digital placement agency called Major Players. A lot of freelancers turn to placement/temp services like this for a variety of reasons, but Tim’s advice applies whether you’re with an agency or going it alone.

    His short section on how to deal with an agency is pretty good stuff for anyone about to explore that option–you really do have to be on top of your game to compete at the agency level, but more on that in another post.



    advice, client relationships, Marketing yourself, Sales

    Used-car Salesmen Anonymous

    2 Comments

    freelance salesWanted to follow up on Diane’s post from yesterday, “8 secret reasons you hate marketing your writing.” More important, I wanted to echo her sentiments: It’s incredibly important for writers to break down the self-imposed barriers that can hold us back.

    Sales gets a bad rap. Back in my editorial staff days, there was an extra measure of envy for the BMW-driving, expense-account abusing, exotic-traveling schmoozers.

    But here’s the fact: They were the ones who paid the bills. Nowadays, that’s me.

    So, to amplify Diane’s thoughts from yesterday, I came across an interesting post, “Reps Drop the Hard Sell and Discover How to be More Effective.” Dr. Robert Cialdini, whose site it appears on, is the author of several books about the power of influence and persuasion, all of which are worth reading. And the link to the Wall Street Journal article is a must as well. (It’s about pharmaceutical sales, but the same lessons apply.)

    Bottom line, you don’t have to be a used-car salesman or a hard-charging drug rep. In fact, as the WSJ piece notes, it’s all about building relationships; and as the mp3 interview with Cialdini makes clear, that is a matter of establishing trust and authority. And, while we’re at it, a recent study in Nature concluded that overconfidence—not just confidence—has some counterintuitive benefits.

    Indeed, we’ve got it much better than a used-car salesman. They’re selling lemons…We’re selling ourselves.

    Contributing blogger Jake Poinier offers answers to your freelancing questions at DoctorFreelance.com. His most recent post was “Write like you’re rich.”

    Photo courtesy of Hans Thoursie.

    Marketing yourself

    8 Secret Reasons You Hate Marketing Your Writing (Part 1)

    8 Comments

    by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

    Let’s rip the bandage off quickly, before you realize this is a form of marketing therapy.

    If you hate marketing your own writing, chances are you hate it for one of the 8 following reasons:

    1. My ethics will be tarnished the second I open my mouth.

    Someone will figure out I’m full of self-interest and actually trying to take their money (gasp).

    selfinterest

    This train of thought stems from the idea that you can trust someone only if he has nothing to gain by sharing his opinion.

    If that’s true, then the implied opposite must also be true.  You can’t trust anyone who actually wants your money.  And now you can’t trust me!

    Why, oh why did I try to influence you to buy my writing?  Even I know I’m now scum.

    Bad, me. Bad.

    MYTH: The presence of money makes you, by default, an untrustworthy liar face.

    TRUTH: You can be seen and valued as trustworthy, even if you benefit directly from a conversation.

    Truthfulness is a trait belonging to YOU, not to the presence of money….  Which, by the way, everyone needs in order to pay bills.

    #2 I’m forcing them to listen to me… against their will!

    Continue reading 8 Secret Reasons You Hate Marketing Your Writing (Part 1) →

    blogging, editorial, Marketing yourself

    Did You Resolve For 2012?

    Joe Wallace Vinyl Collector and authorby Joe Wallace

    For once, I actually made a New Year’s resolution. I’ve guffawed at them for ages, but this year it seemed appropriate to make the resolution not to say “This year will be MY year” but instead try to work harder at making EVERY year “my year”.

    For me, that means finding an agent for my book WTF Records: A Turntabling.net Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl.

    It also means NOT wasting my time sending off queries to agents who couldn’t care less about my book about strange and fun records because they don’t work with authors who don’t do narrative non-fiction or manage non-fiction books aimed at more scholarly pursuits.

    For my resolution, I’m forced to spend more time doing my homework and research to maximize the postage and printing costs rather than firing blindly at anybody who happens to have an address posted on “Find An Agent” pages on the Internet.

    It also means I have to carefully read the instructions on these agent pages when I do find someone who seems suitable–one agent wants only 25 consecutive pages, by mail. Another wants a sample chapter by e-mail, but ONLY after getting a positive reply based on my initial query.

    It’s a lot of work getting a book written, polished, and published. Really, the easy part is the manuscript, or so it seems to me. That’s the part that requires no approval from anybody except yourself…until the agent and editors get a hold of it, of course.

    Then your property becomes the subject of discussion, critique, possible revision, possible more revision, etc. I told myself to enjoy the manuscript part of it as much as possible, because it’s the only part of this I could do without having to wait on other people.

    So the third portion of my resolution, at least where this book project goes, involves being patient and not expecting the world to come rushing to reply to me just because I bothered to drop a line.

    I say all this as much to remind myself that I have to do all these things as to share with you what I’m learning from the process. So thanks for reading my glorified To Do List for 2012, disguised as a blog post.

    Did I forget to thank you for reading this year? And last year? And the year before that? If so, forgive me for being so ungrateful and know that you are GREATLY APPRECIATED.

    Here’s to an awesome and productive 2012 for all of us!

    –Joe Wallace

    Joe Wallace is the author of WTF Records: A Turntabling.Net Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl, which is currently being shopped to agents interested in pop culture, music, and bad album covers. Wallace is the founder of Turntabling.net, and works as a professional blogger, social media promoter, and yes, he admits to being a music journalist. Wallace has been freelancing since 2003 and thinks the whole world may be joining him sometime soon. Contact him: jwallace(at)turntabling(dot)net

    Marketing yourself

    Marketing Your Writing Without Feeling Like a Brute

    2 Comments

    by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

    Today, we begin slaying the real reasons you think you had marketing your writing.

    There are many unconscious reasons (of the Soul Eater clan mostly) that march around your brain, chanting about how marketing feels B. A. D.

    But never fear, I’m just the Marketing Slayer to drag this Brute into the daylight and stake them with Mr. Pointy

    Mr PointyAuthor Marketing Angst #1 (a.k.a. The Brute Effect)

    Chances are that, as you deliver your marketing message, you feel like you’re cramming it down the throat of your potential clients and readers.

    You don’t feel helpful and jazzed (our definition of marketing you should be doing).  Instead, you feel like you’re having to show up with a baseball bat, brass knuckles, and the powers of darkness.

    • Buy my articles.  Really.  You need to do this.  Now!  Right now, Mister!
    • Hire me.  I’m good.  Great.  Over the top.  The best you’ve ever seen.  You need me, and I’m going to tell you why.  So, don’t interrupt.  This is very, very important.
    • Let me work for you.  You’re hiring.  I’m perfect for the job.  Read this, and this, and this.  They’re good, aren’t they?  Exactly what you need.  Very exciting.  Great topics.  Beautiful prose.  Do it do it do it do it do it….
    • Writing for sale!  Click this link.  It’s wonderful.  Really good.  You like to read, so go get this.  Pay attention as I stand on my head.  Look a unicycle.  And juggling.  And my hair’s on fire!

    What’s going on when you end up feeling like a Brute.

    #1  You’re not doing the right kind of marketing.  The invitation to join Brute Union was a tipoff.

    #2  Secretly you believe you’re not being helpful at all.  So listen to yourself.  You actually do believe in your writing, even if you don’t remember that in the moment.  You’re here on Earth doing something you  love.  Let the love shine through.  Or the passion.  Or the inspiration, laughter, and sense of meaning.  Whatever “it” is, that’s your  ticket to marketing you love.

    Yes, But How?

    Here’s delightful, funny example. Continue reading Marketing Your Writing Without Feeling Like a Brute →