I’ve done a lot of marketing, but marketing myself is difficult.
In case this hasn’t been made abundantly clear over the last few years, I’m an artist—specifically, an author. My main joy in creating art comes from creating sci-fi and fantasy worlds, books, and series.
Since 2020 I’ve published 10 novels. Two complete sci-fi series (Void Incursion and Forgotten Fodder), and my standalone fantasy/Steampunk novel Infamy Ascending. Currently, I’m planning my next sci-fi series, Savagespace, for publication this fall (2024). All three novels of the series are complete and will either be released before the end of the year or on a rolling basis of some sort into the early part of 2025.
For three years, I’ve been attending Farpoint, a con in MD, to take part in panel discussions, network with authors and readers, and generally do marketing. While good in many ways, it has not made a noticeable difference in my sales.
Before the end of 2023, I signed up to BookFunnel. This is a great site for authors to connect with other authors for book swaps, newsletter swaps, cross-promotional exchanges, and a place to offer free material for promotion/trade/and the like.
Despite all of this, marketing my art remains the largest and most daunting challenge of my creative process.
Marketing and sales are two different animals
Sales can occur without marketing. However, to sell more effectively, you need marketing.
Marketing is outreach in various ways to your audience or to people who could be your audience. Readers are a perfect example. As a writer, people who read books are my market.
However, there are lots of different genres of books. Let’s just ignore nonfiction here, because fiction alone is comprised of somewhere on the order of 150 or more recognized genres and subgenres. Readers often have a few genres and subgenres they like or prefer to give much time and attention to. Hence, marketing to every reader is a waste of time.
You need to zero in on your readers. If I write sci-fi and fantasy, I need to market to sci-fi and fantasy readers. Then, from there, I need to dial into the subgenres. Space opera vs multiverse vs space humor and/or mixed subgenres that are related to one another.
Working to sell my books is one thing, but the first thing I must do is let my potential audiences know they’re out there. That’s where the marketing comes in. How do I market to my potential readers? If I could figure that out, I suspect I’d be writing less about why this is so challenging.
Take social media marketing, for example. To be effective, you need to put things out on social media that will tie into your work to draw readers. This blog article is a great example, save that while it can partially appeal to readers, it’s more focused on other creatives.
Other marketing options include email campaigns, newsletters, guest posts, podcasts, interviews, writing/art groups, and other things that get you and your work out there.
Now we need to address the matter of money.
Paid advertising and the like
Advertising can do wonders for getting your product out to the world. The most memorable ads will enter the collective consciousness and hold on for eons to come. If you’re of a certain age, you can complete these jingles and know exactly the brand they’re from:
“My bologna has a first name…”
“It’s a good time for the great taste of…”
“Reach out, reach out and…”
Businesses spend millions – if not tens of millions of dollars – annually on advertising. Ads appeal to people and their need for acceptance, to get laid, to be seen as a good person, to have things that will be the envy of their friends and neighbors, and more. A good advertising agency can sell a drowning man a glass of water or a gullible person oceanfront property in Iowa.
The upside to advertising can be better, more directed targeting. The downside, of course, is that you might spend more and make little return on investment (ROI).
You can also pay for reviews, the various people from largely India, Nigeria, and Pakistan offering to do promos to huge numbers of people on social media for a fee, search engine optimization and placement services, and other things. It seems like there’s an endless parade of people and things you can pay for marketing.
Another option is to hire a publicist or marketing specialist. Again, the RIO might prove inadequate for what you spend. As far as I can tell, there’s no end to the number of ways you can spend money on marketing options.
The last bit I’m going to address here is more personal.
Marketing is partially selling yourself
This is not selling out, this is selling yourself as part of the process. You, as an artist, are a brand.
This is especially true for the indie author. You are not just the book(s) you write and publish. You’re a brand. Ergo, I’m not simply the author of sci-fi and fantasy novels, I’m the brand MJ Blehart, Storyteller.
This can make marketing more challenging. Why? Because now you’re not just all about the books, but the person behind them. I imagine this applies to any art or artists. You must put yourself out there, too.
This can be at least somewhat indirect. However, it often gets personal when you answer the question, “What do you do for a living?”
While you are not your vocation, the arts do tend to be more than just a job. It’s a passion, something you do and create from love and a compulsion to make your art. I write because there are stories in my head, ideas in my heart, and other concepts I’m veritably compelled and driven to share. Hence why I tend to use “Storyteller” to brand myself over “Author.” Even when not practicing my vocation I’m a storyteller.
The complication often comes from fear of judgment. Specifically, being judged as arrogant, egotistical, or some similar negative for claiming to be an “artist”. Why? Because while writing comes easily and is fun to me, there are lots of people who find it difficult and unpleasant. Additionally, society has a certain perception of those who pursue art as their vocation that often attaches attitude, ego, and other negatives to the label.
Thus, it can be easy to feel sheepish when stating, “I’m a writer.” This adds to the challenge of marketing.
Getting a bit more personal
Finally, I’m going to share with you some other bits of why marketing my art is challenging for me in particular.
There was a time – longer ago than I think it was – when I would tell you non-stop, repeatedly, about the things I did, to the point where I’d begin to annoy people with my tendency to overshare. This was especially troublesome because much of it was attached to my need to be seen. Look at me, note what I’m doing, and give me credit and validation!
Fear of success, failure, and abandonment can be ugly on many levels. Those fears – which I recently learned were masks for something else entirely – caused me to overshare because I needed validation and recognition.
Hence, selling myself alongside my art, now, brings this back up. That’s not a pleasant sensation. Yet I know that I must find the happy medium between selling my persona as part of my art versus that long-ago braggart, loudmouth, oversharing person I used to be.
Thus, marketing myself as an artist – and my art, my books – is an ongoing process. Plus, I struggle with the shame of who I used to be and my desire to not return to that person.
However, recognizing and acknowledging this is an important step to working with it. With this, I can go forward to do what I need to do for myself to practice marketing for greater brand recognition and book sales.
I’d like to ask a favor of you
Thus, a request. If you have read to the end and never bought one of my books – please visit my website to follow the links to the places you can buy my novels online from various retailers. My work is available as eBooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks.
Then, please ask a friend who you think would also enjoy my art to also buy a book or series. I’d very much appreciate it. Thank you!
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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