Guest blogger today! Delilah Hall is here to talk with us about the marketing mindset. Do you find marketing to be a drag? Well, maybe Delilah Hall can help change your mind and help put a fun spin on marketing!
When it comes to being an author, for a lot of us the easiest part (though not easy at all) is actually writing the book. Publishing and promoting it, is something else entirely. And for most authors it is something a lot struggle with. When it comes to learning how to market, there can be a lot to take in, but I believe the first thing that should be learned is a positive marketing mindset. Here are three simple tips.
What is a positive marketing mindset
Do you fear marketing?
Do you hate the idea of having to “whore” your book?
Do you see marketing as a necessary evil?
If you plan on being an author and feel this way, the truth is that you have to learn how to change your marketing mindset. If business, and book publishing, promoting is part of the life. For authors, marketing is a life skill and the sooner you begin to look at it this way, the sooner you will be able to change your marketing mindset. Just like all life skills, marketing is a positive addition to your life. When you learned to drive a car or cook a delicious meal, it may have been challenging at first but your life is better now that you know, right?
Think of marketing like that.
When we begin to change our marketing from a place of fear to a place of fun (and let’s be real, the more time we spend having fun/being happy the better, right?), not only does it begin to excite us to promote our books, but it also shows in how we promote our books.
The marketing mindset you should have: Start to love and value what you have to market. You poured your heart into your writing, and now it’s finally out there for people to see!
Be excited to share it.
Be dedicated to helping people find your book.
Be passionate about getting your book out in the world.
Be selfless with what you have. Don’t hide your book from everyone!
When you approach marketing from a mindset of necessary evil, you (unintentionally) don’t show your book the love it deserves. You promote your book in a state similar to shame, when you should be proud of your books. Over the next few weeks, I really want to help y’all with a mindset that is going to help boost your confidence in marketing and in yourself!
Understand that marketing is not selfish
A lot of people feel dirty about the idea of marketing, and that is a huge mindset aspect. If you feel this way, you have to take the time to change your mindset about marketing. When its not done right, it is very me, me, me and that makes a lot of people nervous- it makes people want to not market their work.
But, why?
Why would you not want to market your book and allow people to find it? What if you wrote the perfect book for someone, one that they relate to, one that gives them hope, one that makes them feel like your main character is them…. And then, they never find it because you refuse to market your book.
When you refuse to market your book, you are not only losing sales but you’re taking your book away from people who may fall in love with it.
Don’t attach your value to your sales, don’t attach your value to your work
As the month starts to end, a lot of us are looking at our sales.
If you had a good month, congrats!
If you haven’t had a good month, that’s okay. That is why I want to post this. As we start to pay attention to how to promote our books, and as we start to really focus on that there is, as much as it sucks, a chance that what we do won’t help us gain sales.
This may be because we’re unlucky (I mean, life happens, right? Not everything works out) or it may be because what you’re doing isn’t what is best for you. And this is something we will talk about in the future!
Whatever the reason, you may not be gaining sales no matter how hard you are working. And that feels really disheartening and draining. And honestly, it can leave you feeling like there is something wrong with you.
Trust me, that is not the case.
There is nothing wrong with you- even if there is something wrong with your marketing. As authors, we tend to associate our success (our sales) with our value. If we don’t get good sales, we feel like we’re bad writers. But, chances are, we all know that doesn’t make any sense. Of course, knowing something and actually feeling it are different.
When you’re able to be aware of your feelings and if you place your value to your sales you’re able to focus on challenging and changing those thoughts.
