Creative Marketing Ideas for Writers

In “Golden Rule Marketing for Writers,” Emily Akin reminded us that aspiring authors should learn to love marketing and spend as much as 80% of their time marketing their writing.  Still, some writers chew on this idea with apprehension, hoping they will be the exception. I think the problem is that we tend to approach marketing with the wrong perspective.

I recently ran across Meeting Needs, a blog post by Sarah Bolme, Director of Christian Small Publishers Association. She challenges Christian writers to see marketing differently. She says this:  ”Promoting a book is like being a missionary. Missionaries don’t sit at home and wait for people who need Jesus to come to them. They go “into all the world” and seek the lost.”  What a great perspective!

If you are beginning to feel differently about marketing, then you are ready for some new ideas to reach your readers. Here are five links to articles from creative writers and marketers that can get your creative juices flowing:

1. 1. Book Launch Party on Facebook
   2. Guest Blogging
   3. Virtual Author Touring
   4. Twitter Book Marketing
   5. Publishing and Marketing with Scribd.com

Question: How about you?  Do you have some creative marketing ideas that help you reach your readers?  Share them with us.

Golden Rule Marketing for Writers

Editor’s Note: This is a guest article by Emily Akin. Read on and find out how you can enter to win a copy of Emily’s e-book, A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work .

The Golden Rule

 ”So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12 (TNIV).

Would you like to sell more of your writing? To get your work published, you must give your customers, the editors, what they need. Editors know what their readers (customers) want, and they only accept work that addresses their readers’ needs. Writers and editors apply the Golden Rule every day, not pursuing their own interests but the interests of their readers.  Read more

Tip 6: Three Must Read Articles for New Authors

Who would turn down an opportunity to chat, with pen and paper in hand, with Michael Hyatt, author, speaker, and Chief Executive Officer for Thomas Nelson, Inc. — and record all his publishing secrets?

Well, we can.  He makes it easy because he has made his wisdom available for free.  If you have not discovered his website and blog yet, get started with these three must read articles for  new and seasoned authors. 

1. Advice for First-Time Authors
2. Five Publishing Hurdles
3. How Can You Get Published If You Don’t Have a Platform?

“If you met with me one-on-one, this is what I would tell you.” ~Michael Hyatt

Question:  have you come accross these resouces before?  Are there any others you would like to share with the rest of us?

Writing for an Audience

This article is the first installment on a series of tips I will offer to help you understand how to write for an audience.  My goal is to provide bite-sized pieces you can ponder and begin to put into practice right away.

It may seem self-evident, but writing for an audience requires that we, writers, understand the readers that will potentially read our words. Magazine editors, for instance, have a precise knowledge of the publication’s reading demographic — they expect freelance writers to study the publication, understand its style – and their target audience. 

Let’s say, for example, you want to write for Christianity Today.  Do you know who reads it? Would you guess that the majority of its readership is made of married men in their mid-50s?  MomSense, on the other hand, caters to mothers of preschoolers (infants through kindergarten).   Of course, there are publications that reach a wider demographic.  Take Reader’s Digest, for example.  It aims to provoke, educate, and entertain readers from all walks of life through articles and features illustrating contemporary American life. Still, Reader’s Digest editors understand that they cater to readers who prefer excerpted features over the meatier versions published in, say, Time Magazine.  

“The child as reader is neither to be patronized nor idolized: we talk to him as man to man.”  ~ C.S. Lewis  

Learning to write for a target audience is a skill every aspiring writer needs to learn sooner than later.  Here are three skills you can begin to develop whether you are writing for a national magazine, an organization’s newsletter, or a blog:   Read more