Recently, a brand new author (First story about to come out in an anthology) asked a very straightforward question: what should he be doing for marketing? He’s working up a FB page for the pen name and a newsletter setup for the penname, and what else does he need, and what content should he put out?
Seriously, first, massive kudos to this guy. Because he asked the question. I will never denigrate anyone for asking for help.
Second, this is a question that requires stepping back and looking at a lot of things before arriving at a customized answer for you and you alone. Because like many complex problems, there’s an answer that is simple, obvious, and wrong – and that is to Do All The Things.
So, to arrive at the best answer for you, let’s start with the checklist.
1. What is your endgame?
1A. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
1B. How does your social media fit into that?
2. Who is your audience?
2A. Who likes the kind of reading you do?
2B. What will they find interesting?
Remember that you attract people interested in the content of your social media channel, not necessarily in your books.
I write weekly (most weeks) at Mad Genius Club. It’s a group blog about writing. You know who reads it? Other writers. You know what effect it has on my sales?
It’s greater than zero, because 1.) some of my fans are writers, 2.) some fellow writers reblog that I have a new book out. (Thank you!) …but not much greater. If I was doing it for growing my audience, it would be a massive negative return. Fortunately, I do it for other reasons, so the few extra sales are a cherry on top, not a massive disappointment compared to the invested effort.
3. How much time do you have available?
3A. What percentage of that should go into building a web presence now?
3B. What percentage of that should go into actually producing product to sell?
4. Do you actually like social media?
4A. If you find it utterly exhausting and it is a net emotional drain that takes away from the creativity for writing, then it’s not wise to plunge into trying to do a lot.
4B. If you find Really Shiny And Far More Fun Than Writing The Next Chapter, then it’s not wise to plunge into it.
5. Which Social Media are you even looking at? There’s a huge variety out there, from Twitter to long-form blogs, to pictures on instagram, to Booktok, to podcasts, to mailing list newsletters, to Reddit, to internet forums, to discord servers, to substacks, to…
5A. Under no circumstances should you try to do All The Things. Unless you want to be someone who wrote something once and is resting on that faded and withered laurel. Because Time Management is a thing, and do you really want to look back after 5 years of hard work creating content, and realize your results are 100,000 followers on twitter, a huge pile of likes on Instagram and FB, and only two short stories sold?
5B. Which works to your style of communication?
5C. Which one is likely to contain a sizable audience of people who like to read the same things as what you write?
…
You know who doesn’t do All The Things? Alma Boykin. She has her blog, Cat Rotator’s Quarterly, and posts here, and that’s about it. With the time not spent doomscrolling reels, she manages to outwrite lots of us, and has just released a new book: Wheels of Empire, Book 9 in the Merchant and Empire Series.
If you like blue collar fantasy, this follows a medieval millwright as he’s contracted by the Earl of Jerwood to build a new wheat mill. But it’s not as simple as finding wood, stone, and a site; there’s also making contacts and contracts, and dodging the suspicion and scapegoating that always falls so easily on outsiders over a long winter. No one is saying why the old mill burned, and some people will resort to trickery, treachery, curses, and worse to prevent the new one…
This can be read as a standalone, though it’ll be deeper and richer if you’ve read more of the world in other books. Do recommend!
Mad Genius Club 
3 responses to “You Don’t Have To Do All The Marketing Things”
Really good and to the point.
I’d add name your social media (if any) and your website after your name. Not the title of your first book “Laid-back Slutty Slacker.”
That’s not the name of website and social media sites of an author I know but it’s in the same vein.
Don’t make it hard for people to find you!
Use your author name. If someone else is using your author name (you did google it to make sure that your name isn’t a serial killer or celebrity, right? and check Amazon to be sure your name isn’t being used by three other writers, right?) add “author” or “writer” before or aft your name, whichever sounds better.
Don’t forget, if you’re in it for the long haul, to set up your business checking account either. It makes the accounting so much easier.
Some people are very, very good with social media, but poor with blogging. I’m the opposite. I also think about the WIBBOW Rule – would I be better off writing? If time is limited, write first and post later, or do a simple picture or aphorism. Readers understand, and they prefer books over blog posts (or at least, mine do.)
It’s a balancing act. And social media changes, something to keep in mind for the long haul. How many of us are still on Second Life?
Networking on social media with other writers can be useful in making sales, if some of those other writers are extroverted self-promotion types. But it has to be organic. You can’t just spam more popular writers with links to your work and expect them to promote you. We’ve all had to develop mental “grifter-detectors” on-line, and the more effective a publicist is, the more they have a hair-trigger block button. I have made some genuine friendships with writers I know on-line, and they have helped me more than I probably know in getting the word out about my work. The friendships have to come first, though. No one likes to feel like they are being used.