Ah, the key to success as a writer! Seems to have been lost in the back of the Junk Drawer, the one that has the corkscrew, two half-used packages of batteries, a spare D cell rolling around, two pair of shears, random bits of hardware, two flashlights (one of which has been used within living memory), and so on.
Back when I started in 2012 (!), it was “publish five books and sales will skyrocket.” By the time I’d done that, in 2014-15 or so, it was “publish ten books and sales will skyrocket.” Then it was “blog and Facebook ads are the keys to success, and free books.” Then “social media and tweets are the way to do it, and a book every six months, and $.99 or free specials.”
The “one neat trick for success” kept changing and moving down the field. And I kept wondering what the latest thing that I wasn’t doing happened to be.
Fast forward to 2024, and an article at the always interesting Writers in the Storm blog. Keep in mind, the blog is aimed at writers in more traditional career paths, which include sales in bookstores, and romance, thriller, and mystery writers as well as sci-fi and fantasy. I read the list, nodded at several (Know your Genre, Know your Readers, Build a Platform [see Peter Grant’s for a good example]). Some I sort of blinked at and boggled, although as you know, I’m social-media-phobic, which does not help my marketing in this day and age.*
Some of the suggestions … how do you time releases to the sales year if there isn’t that much of a sales year anymore? Yes, Christmas-themed stories in the fall, Halloween likewise, beach books in the late spring, romances perhaps near Valentine’s Day or perhaps not. But the old traditional release surges don’t seem to be at play anymore.
Pre-release marketing assumes that you know almost precisely when you will launch the book. If you are doing Amazon pre-orders, OK, you do, because that’s part of the contract. Or if you are like Chris Nuttal was at his peak, when you can write a book in a set period of time, and can plan out releases and PR to go with them. Most of us are on a less-stable schedule, and trying to do a lot of pre-release marketing might prove more irritating than helpful. Or it might not—you know your readers (right?) and they might prefer a longer advance notice, a build up to the Big Day.
One major thing I notice that the original author assumes is that you have already written, edited, found a cover for, and so on at least one book. There’s nothing about “write the book. Learn from your mistakes and your alpha and beta readers. Publish the book. Write second book.” Or “write a book and a few shorter, related things, release the shorter things to keep interest as you work on the next book.” Or other writing-related ideas that can be as important as advertising. Amazon has conditioned readers to prefer faster releases, and rewards faster releases with higher search ranking (sometimes. Or sometimes not. They seem to vary a lot.)
I agree that the list from Writers on the Storm can work, and makes a good checklist for marketing. That is, as long as you tailor it to your needs, your genre, and your time available.
As Dorothy Grant says, “You do you.”
*Although I’d be curious just how effective social-media marketing by authors is, as compared to word of mouth via social media, and blogging, or doing podcasts and such.
Mad Genius Club 
14 responses to “You’ll Be Successful if you Just …”
I feel like the blogging platform stuff is more useful if you can gather your blog thoughts into ebooks. I’ve bought and enjoyed Tom Simon’s collected essays for instance even though I originally read them on his blog.
I always have trouble getting onto the Writers in the Storm website for some reason.
I bookmarked the site a few years ago, and have not had problems. I’m not sure if that helps me or not.
Blogs can build your reputation as an interesting person and decent writer before you launch your fiction (as with Peter Grant, fiction and nonfiction). I did it the other way, but now, the blog catches eyes that often then at least glance at my fiction. YMMV.
Indeed – I started as a blogger, and there were people who liked my posts so much, they were the ones who started encouraging me to do long-form fiction.
Agreed on the blog helping sales. I started reading Familiars when they first came out, then went to Cat Rotator’s and put it on the daily list. From there, I found other series and stand alones. Still have to delve into Colplatski (have the prequel, but that’s it so far), but it’s in my “sooner or later” list.
MGC serves a similar function. I’m not interested in writing (beyond overly long comments 🙂 ), but new releases tend to get mentioned here.
Ancedote =/= data, but…
I found your books through your blog post on why Rada didn’t go to HR meetings any more.
[…] I kept wondering what the latest thing that I wasn’t doing happened to be.–TXRed, “You’ll Be Successful if you Just…“, -Mad Genius […]
My sales are nothing to write home about compared to a lot of folks, but a lot better than when I started. So, looking across my and Peter’s publishing history, a few thoughts:
1. Great covers help – from the beginning, I wanted covers that were on par with the best of tradpub, or as close as I could get given budget and time. This is part of “know your genre” – it’s not about the platonic ideal of cover, but about the best advertisement between art and typography to signal to your genre what will excite them about this book.
2. Rapid release does help. We’ve accidentally hit this a few times, just in the way the speed of writing new books vs. publication timeline piled up. Rapid release helps because it helps algorithmic visibility – tying back into that great cover, so when people see it, they click on it – and also helps with word of mouth, because people have more to talk about and be excited by.
3. Timing: well, don’t put out a book on Tax Day. (Accidentally did that once, when Amazon was a lot faster than I expected. It was disastrous.) Don’t expect sales on 9/11. Don’t release high drama books in Oct-Nov in presidential election years, because people are already getting high-pitched drama frenzy on every media channel. If it’s seasonal, release at the very start of the season, or just before, when people are spinning up to that. If it’s already released, promote at the time the reading public starts thinking about that season.
4. Platform: the blog definitely does help Peter. I found that I was overstressed by trying to keep an online presence, and have drastically pulled back… but where you are, is your platform. So by default, this blog is my platform.
5. Network for the sake of getting to know people, make friends, trying new things, and learning things. Networking for the sake of “buy my book; can I get your audience to buy my book” can work well, but it turns off a lot of folks, and you don’t learn much from it… nor do you end up with friends and the really valuable contacts. Also, I note the article writer on Writers on the Storm recommended networking with industry contacts… beware the dangers of echo chambers, and remember that two thousand agents and editors all talking to each other about what will be the next hot new thing… all completely missed Harry Potter.
6. Communicate with your readers – they put this under email marketing, but email is just one of many mediums. If you have a place where readers can find you, then you can use it to let them know when things are out, what you’re up to, and what else will interest them. They, in turn, can use it to let you know if they loved the last one, hated that character, whatever else… and this communication, whether it’s in comments on fan fiction, or reviews on some web site or five, or twitter, or substack, or what have you… will help them feel like they’re engaged and interested, and if you do it frequently enough, part of a community.
Not every author is up to creating and riding herd on a community. Sarah Hoyt, Alma Boykin, and Peter Grant do that on blogs, Cedar Sanderson has a Discord and a Substack and a FB community… Me, not so much. I participate in a few communities, but I cannot sustain the effort when Day Job ramps up, or sickness drags me down. So I note things as applicable in the communities I’m a part of, and that enables communication at a level I can sustain.
7. In summary, Do what you can with what resources (including time and energy) you got. If you can Do All the things, great. If not, then pick something, realize that your default is the something you’ve already picked, and build out from there if you’re going to.
But you don’t *have* to Do All the Things, and even if you did, it’s not a guarantee to success, nor is not doing All The Things a guarantee of failure. So, you do you.
Re blog: A weekly column in MGC has led to several books from you and Dave Freer. If that’s all what you want to do online, it works for this reader.
I’m glad for that. I’d love to do more… but then, I’d love for a lot of things that I don’t have right now, like the energy I had when I was 24.
Since I’m not giving up Day Job (it’s rewarding and fulfilling), I’ll stick with what I can do… and be glad that it is, on some level, enough for now.
Wait! What heresy is this? Who puts the corkscrew in the junk drawer? It belongs in the utensil drawer with all the other regularly used forks, spoons, and knives.
As far as being successful as a writer goes, my first step should be to actually write something I feel might sell. Since I struggle with actually <i>finishing</i> anything, that might take awhile yet. And I’m not very consistent even about blogging, let alone storytelling.
I suck at this. Hopefully my daughter becomes more consistent (she’s only 14, maybe I should be a better role model) than I. As of now, we’re both much more readers than writers.
Ah, success. How to make me wax philosophical. Because you can’t “succeed” only “succeed at [this thing]” — when King Canute ordered the tide to go back, he succeeded, because he was trying to tamp down the impious flattery of his courtiers.
All her many books seem to be about selling books. Seems recursive.
Still, can’t argue with advice that it’s useful to try and imagine who you’re writing for.
Meaning Writers in the Storm?
People who are interested in updating their marketing skills? Writers who are with traditional publishers and have to do their own marketing as part of their contract? (And yes, some tradpub contracts require that. Which leads back to the “What advantage does tradpub have for the writer?” question again.)