In this episode of the Writing Momentum podcast, Chris and Gena tackle one of the top questions they receive: How do I get people to buy my book? Chris and Gena discuss the importance of doing this early, even before you publish it. The topics include getting your newsletter audience invested, using social media and grassroots efforts to create buzz, and introducing yourself to others through various media outlets. Gena also shares a ton of “freebie” practical tips that will help you get ahead. Whether you're a seasoned author or just starting out, these strategies will help you build relationships and generate excitement for your upcoming book.

• 00:00 Introduction: Marketing Your Book Before It's Published
• 00:50 The Importance of Pre-Publication Marketing
• 04:03 Building Your Newsletter Audience
• 08:36 Engaging Your Audience Through Social Media
• 10:22 Networking and Media Outreach
• 13:59 Conclusion and Final Tips

LINKS:

• Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join our writing membership and get your book DONE! https://www.writingmomentum.com/membership

What can you do to market your book before it's even published?

Hey, we can help with that.

Welcome to the Writing Momentum podcast.

I'm Chris.

This is Gena.

And hey, Gena, I know people want to know, what can you do to market

your book before it's published?

And so many people ask us that.

We named this podcast after that.

They've, they have asked us the questions.

This is probably one of the top questions that we get is how to market my book.

How to market my book.

You know why this is?

It's because we pour our heart and souls into our books.

We make them everything they can be.

We go ahead and we get them written.

We get them edited.

We have someone format the book and make the cover.

We put it out there on Amazon and then we wonder how come no one's buying it?

And it's the same situation.

Years ago, I had people asking me, how can I get someone to find my website?

Because they thought, Hey, if I go ahead and create a website and I

pay to get a website created, I pose for photos, I put a bunch of writing

on there, put all my pedigree on there, everything I've done, right?

Then surely people are going to find that website online and

be like, Oh, you're amazing.

I want to.

Read your books.

I want to hire you to come speak whatever.

And then they got this shock that no one even knew the website was out there.

Like they didn't even realize it existed because having the item out there is

kind of the whole, if you build it, they will come really doesn't apply

to websites or book sales, right?

It doesn't.

And it's so, I, It is such a hard thing.

I truly feel for authors, because when they put their work out there,

they've spent so much time and money.

If they're a self published, independently published, if they are putting it out

there, they've spent all this time and money to do it, all this energy to do it.

And then they put it out there and it kind of falls flat.

I mean, you would think when you put something that creative and

that good out there for the world to see, that it would catch on like wildfire.

And you know, we love those stories, don't we?

Where someone writes a book and someone happens to see it and

then it just like catches on.

Um, but those stories are so great because they're so rare, you know?

Um, it's not, it's not because it happens all the time, unfortunately.

And so because of that, we've had to develop methods to say, okay, how can

we market our book and get it out there?

And today we're, we're going to focus on not just how to market your book,

but specifically how do you market your book before it's published?

This is such a key because so many people, they write their book,

they edit it, they get it published, they put it out on Amazon, and then

they start thinking about the marketing.

That is not the time to think about the marketing of your book.

The time to think about the marketing of your book is before you publish it.

In fact, I would even say, um, wait to publish it, get that marketing in place

so that when you do go live with it, when you do set it on Amazon, that it,

Has already and there's an excitement and and an expectation around it

Yeah, yeah And that doesn't mean if you've got a book and you just

put it out there like there's therefore no condemnation to those who are first

time published self published But if you have the opportunity to hold that

book back and do a marketing plan before that's what you want to do.

If you Don't, and you've already put it out there.

Hey, better late than never.

So don't feel like it's too late.

You've, you've messed up.

You can do everything we're going to talk about here right now, while

your book is currently out there.

In fact, most authors do.

They wait until their books are published.

We're just saying.

You can do all of these things we're going to talk about today.

Even if your book, even if you're still writing your

book, you can do these things.

So what's the first thing that you would say?

The first thing that you want to do is you want to get

your newsletter audience invested.

Invested in your topic.

In your topic, in your genre, in your writing process, in your

craft, in in this topic of what you're going to be writing about.

Yeah.

Get them excited about that now.

So

I got a question.

You have a question.

Um, what if I don't have a newsletter audience?

Great question.

Thank you.

All right.

But I'm going to actually let you talk about this.

I am, because you are, okay, Chris, what do you do to get a newsletter

audience excited about if you don't have a newsletter and you

have no idea how to start one.

Okay, so what you do is you get yourself a

newsletter and you start one.

Here's how.

First thing you need is to have a website.

You've got to have a website or at least some way that you can capture names.

So now, I would recommend creating a website for yourself.

You really, you could start with one page.

Okay, I know an author right now who's building a website.

They're putting their bio at the top of it, a name capture in the middle.

We'll get back to that in a minute.

And then a little bit about their topic and that sort of thing underneath that.

It's a very simple website.

It's a one page website.

It's not that difficult, but.

What you need on it, the key piece, the key piece is that way to capture

names that's called a lead magnet.

Now we're not going to get into all what a lead magnet is right this second

because we did an entire podcast on that.

It's number 35.

So look that up if you want to find out what a lead magnet is.

In short, it's something that you can give away, in exchange

for receiving someone's email.

When you give away something and you receive their email, and we have

lots of ideas as to the kind of lead magnets you can give away as authors.

So don't feel like you're left alone with that.

Go to episode 35 and you'll hear about all kinds of ideas.

But when you give away that thing and you receive their email, that

indicates a couple of things.

First of all, it lets you know that someone out there is connected

enough with you that they liked what you gave away because hopefully

it's tied into what you're writing that they've raised their hand and

say, Hey, I want to hear from you.

That's exactly what you call your audience.

Your audience wants to hear from you.

So then you start to build a relationship with them.

And how do you do that?

You start to write email newsletters to them, and it's not real difficult to do.

I mean, it's just kind of writing them and letting them know what's up,

writing them and let them know what's going on in your industry or your,

your, um, with your book as you're publishing it, whatever you need to do,

just something that connects with them.

Yes.

And we have talked a lot about newsletters before.

I do not have the exact episode number, but look back through.

We've talked a lot about newsletters, about how we write them, about

developing our style and our tone.

And So I want you to really think about that because, uh, writing a newsletter.

It's not a constant sales piece.

No.

The newsletter is a way for you to relate and talk to people.

We have a great friend, Liz Wilcox, who has a fabulous service.

If you're thinking, I have no idea what I want to write about.

Um, we can put the link for that.

WMDeal, like writing momentum deal, WMDeal.

com slash Liz.

Go to that.

You'll find all about it.

She helps you create newsletters.

She gives you a template every month, makes it really easy.

Every week.

Every week.

Yes.

WMDeals slash Liz.

Yes.

So I want to make sure that that's clear that when you're talking

about newsletters, newsletters is not just, I've got a book,

I've got a book, I've got a book.

It's about working that into the copy at different points where it feels natural.

And so that the whole thing doesn't always feel like a sales piece.

There's times to do a straight up sales piece.

When your book hits the, hits the market, you need to have not just one,

but several emails, a whole series of emails going out to tell people about it.

But on a regular basis, when you're talking about newsletters, you want

to just start this conversation.

And that's really what it is.

It's a relationship.

It's a relationship piece.

Yes.

So, okay.

So we've talked about developing your newsletter.

That's number one.

Number two is getting other people invested or excited about your writing.

through social media, through the meetups.

If you're part of local groups that you're, that you're a part of and that

you're a member of, critique groups that you're a member of, or just talking

about it with family and friends.

Just talking about family and friends.

When you get together, let them know what you're doing and you'll

find, I think it'll encourage you, but it'll also let them know,

Hey, They're working on something.

Yeah.

I need to know what that is.

I need to keep up to date with that.

So when they come out with that book, I can get it.

It's kind of creating your own buzz, aren't you?

Yes, you are creating your own buzz and it's a grassroots effort.

It's very natural.

It doesn't have to be mean again, like, like the newsletter we said,

not everything has to be a sales push in the same way when you're

getting other people excited.

through social media where you're posting about, Hey, I'm

sending my book out to my editor.

I'm so excited, but I'm so nervous.

Or, Hey, I'm working on this.

I'm writing a scene for the fifth time.

I hope I can get it right this time.

As you're writing these just very natural, Authentic and

organic posts about your book.

Just letting people get excited about this, um, about it.

I've even seen authors who will put on their social media, maybe they get from

their cover designer two or three Um, cover designs, and they put it out there

and they say, hey guys, help me decide which cover design is most compelling.

Those kind of things, uh, get people excited about it.

They get it.

People love to help build your book with you.

They love to invest in your success.

So if you can let them know, Hey, here's what I'm working on, Absolutely, they'll

jump right in there with you, won't they?

Alright, Chris, what's number three?

Alright, the final one is just to introduce yourself to others.

And here's what we mean.

There are all kinds of media outlets out there that are looking for content.

They're looking for people to talk to.

They're looking for people to share their story with it.

So we're talking about podcasts, we're talking about book bloggers, right?

You can find people out there who are looking for that sort of thing.

They'd love to talk to you, and if you'll reach out to them, you'll

find that many times you will get interviews on podcasts and blogs and

that sort of thing that you can share.

Again, your story, share a link back to that website.

And what are you, what are you going to tell people about?

You're going to tell them about the lead magnet so that they go to that website.

They get the lead magnet.

You're going to do that by the way, on your social media too.

You want to let people know about your lead magnet because the most important

thing you can do is build that email list.

So that's why you're doing all this stuff so you can build the email list.

Because the email list is what's gonna lead to the sale every time.

It's gonna lead to the sale this time It's also gonna lead to the sale

next time when you do your follow up book.

Yeah

So definitely don't discount that.

Uh, but I would also say introduce yourself.

Going to writer's conferences is another way.

Go to writer's conferences and have a card, have your card ready.

And I know we all share things on social media and everything, but there

is something to be said about just being able to hand people a card.

And here's a freebie.

Put your picture on the card, so that people remember who you

are, because they might be at a conference getting 50 different cards.

But if your picture's on it, then they're able to say, Oh yeah, I remember her.

I remember him.

I can't tell you how many times that has worked for us.

Uh, we, years ago someone told us that they said, you know, you should

always put your picture on your card.

And we thought, what?

Cause you know, you go on these sites and they've got pictures of all these business

cards and they're just words, right?

Just names.

But when you're trying to get people to remember your name with your face, Find

an attractive picture of yourself, put it on a card, put your name on it, hand

it out to people, and what's going to happen is that after the conference is

over, as people have 30 or 40 cards in their hands, Who are they gonna remember?

They're gonna remember you because you're the only one who they have

a face to go with the name, right?

So it's such a kind of an easy hack, but man that that sure works.

Okay, and another freebie here that I'm gonna tell you to do is after

you go to those writers conferences, if you have met with people, if you

have met with editors or agents, if you have gone to classes, Go ahead

and drop a line to those people.

Send them an email or even a handwritten note that just says, thank you so

much for your class on this, or thank you so much for meeting with me.

I so appreciate it.

If it's a handwritten thing, you can put your, your card

in it so they can remember.

If it's through email, create that signature at the bottom that also

has your picture in it if you can.

And just keep, get those conversations started.

They're easy ways to network and to just let people know that you're in

the game, that you're in the industry, and that you're serious about it.

And I will tell you, if you drop a line to your, uh, Um, to the people who teach

the seminars that you go to and the people that you get to meet with, I am telling

you, I am promising you, you are going to be one of the few writers who do it.

Am I lying, Chris?

No, that's absolutely true.

I am shocked at the number of people who don't take advantage

of these kind of things just to get those conversations started.

It is absolutely true.

I'll tell you what, this is all about being a writer.

Marketing minded, being a marketer is what I was going to say.

You're marketing minded.

And as writers, we often think that, Oh, I just, I need to write my book

and get it done, get it published.

But in today's world, you've also got to be someone who

can market your own material.

And what you'll find is the more you learn about marketing,

kind of the easier it becomes.

You start to realize that marketing is really about relationships.

And that's, did you notice that almost everything we talked about

today, we talked about newsletters and websites and name capture.

Why?

So you can build relationships.

We talked about putting your material out on social media and

having meetups and talking about it.

Why?

Relationships.

Talked about going on podcasts, talking book bloggers.

Why?

Relationships.

That's what marketing is.

It's relationships.

And if you can start to forge those relationships, just be yourself.

You don't have to put on a persona or anything like that.

Just be yourself.

People will like the authenticity and you'll find yourself making

strides forward as people learn about you and your book.

Yeah, absolutely.

We wish you all the best with this.

If you have any questions, just drop us a line and let us know.

Go to writingmomentum.

com.

You can find out all about us.

You can also find out about the services we offer, which I will say that we do

do web website creation for authors.

So definitely check that out.

We also have a membership where you can meet together with us every week to write

together as well as to learn from us as well as our good friend Rene Gutteridge.

And so come hang out with us.

Come see what we're about.

We keep it super affordable because we want to help Writers, just like

people helped us when we first started.

We want to be that for other people.

So we hope you'll check that out.

That's right.

Because we are not in this alone, my friend.

Together,

we have writing momentum.