(Have you caught on to my bird imagery yet? It may be the fact that snow and cold are unwilling to relent to spring here in the northeast, and the birds’ chirping outside my window seems a tease incongruous to the actual temperature and weather. Just fly with it.)
I think part of the frustration for writers is that there’s no right way to market oneself; there is no formula. But, come on, writers; we do that everyday when we sit down to write. There’s no right way to do the thing we do—but there are better ways.
Did you get discouraged the first time someone said “I don’t know what you meant in this sentence”? Of course not, or you wouldn’t have stuck in the profession long enough to read an article like this.
We have to approach marketing with that same attitude of experimentation. You might create a facebook ad and only get three likes out of it. Ok, victory. That’s three more likes. If your goal was 30 or 300, it might feel like defeat. So, try something else. If your writing is worth tweeting about, you understand this as part of the writing process every day. Give yourself permission to draft and revise your marketing plan, too.
In this digital age we have so much free advertising available to us. Don’t brood over your inexperience, or let a few false starts ruffle your feathers. Take a gander at other author websites, and use their platform to help you get a bird’s eye view of your own platform. Then begin to generate ideas for reaching your own audience.
You never know what might come of it. For example, a recent response to a tweet landed me an interview on Huffington Post Live.
So try something. Don’t be afraid to flop. Kill two birds with one stone: use the skills you learned to become a resilient writer to become a resilient marketer.
When in doubt, wing it.
P.S. See an upcoming blog post where I wax poetic about my obsession with clichés.