“Should i be marketing before my book is out?”
Whether I'm doing webinars, live events, or talking to writers in the Happily Ever Author Club, one of the questions I get asked most often is some version of:
"Does it make sense for me to be pitching myself to go on podcasts and such when I don't yet have a published book?"
Let's look at the little case studies from two different writers.
Writer #1 is Carly, who wants to build a career as a picture book author. She's got a half dozen manuscripts and wants a traditional publishing deal. She's querying agents and small publishers. That takes time. She could be building her email list while she's waiting to get published, but she feels like she doesn't have anything to talk about until her book is out.
So, when she finally gets a deal from a small publishing house and publishes a year and half later, she still hasn't done much marketing. Now she's got to face that marketing learning curve and start building her audience, fast. The pressure is on for this book to do well so that she can get another deal. But come publication day, it's crickets. She's disheartened because the book isn't selling well. It takes her a few weeks to recover from disappointment and really get to work learning to market and taking action on her plan. It takes her six months to really ramp up and start seeing sales.
Contrast that with writer #2, Jed.
Jed's got 10,000+ people on his email list. Because he was willing to market before he had a book, he got a nice advance from a major publisher to write his book because the publisher knew there was already an audience eager to buy it. Jed's book sells over 3000 copies in the first few months after release because he has an audience AND has been marketing for years so understands it and is comfortable sending pitches and being on podcasts.
As a marketing coach, I will always recommend starting to build your audience well before your book comes out. You don't have to, but if you don't, you'll likely wish you had.
But what the heck do you talk about?
You're a grown up with life experience to share. You don't need a book in hand to show up and have an interesting conversation.
The question of "what the heck do I talk about" becomes much easier to answer if you know who you're writing for. Knowing your ideal reader will help you decide where to show up in the world and what to talk about.
Think of late night talk shows. The actor or author doesn't show up and talk exclusively about their new movie or book. They tell an entertaining story and then get a chance talk about their new thing at the end of the interview. You can do the same, but instead of selling your book, you'll sell them on becoming an email subscriber by offering them a free little something that would really appeal to them.
The pithy version of marketing before your book looks like this:
Know who your ideal reader is.
Get in front of audiences of people just like them.
Be entertaining and/or helpful.
Invite them to get a free thing that they would really like when they sign up for your email list.
Keep being entertaining and helpful until your book comes out and then invite them to buy it.
Start now—as soon as you know who your book is for. Because it's way more fun to launch to sales than crickets.
If you know you need to tackle your marketing to grow your audience you want some guidance in doing it as effectively and painlessly as possible, then you should join me for the summer of list building!
Starting in June, members of the Happily Ever Author Club will be doing a list-building challenge and getting tons of resources and guidance on building an email list. In fact, this Friday on our club call, I'll be walking you through troubleshooting why your list isn't growing.
Learn more and join the Happily Ever Author Club and the summer of list-building!