New Website for RechelleOwens.com

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The 3 Biggest Marketing Mistakes Authors Make

There is nothing worse than having a great book that is well-written sitting unpublished on your computer, or having a well-written published book sitting on the shelves not selling.

If you find yourself in either of these positions, you are not alone! More than likely, the problem is that you have made one or more of the three most common author marketing mistakes.

1. Failing to market yourself and your book, or not marketing early enough!
2. Failing to utilize available marketing tools, or not using them properly.
3. Failing to follow through to keep your marketing momentum going.

If you are guilty of making any of these mistakes, or all of them, have no fear. You can turn your your situation around!!

Let's take a closer look at each mistake and the solution:

1. Failing to market yourself and your book or not marketing early enough!
The first thing that comes to mind for many authors, especially new authors, when working on a book is completing it, not marketing it! There's plenty of time for marketing later, they say, and don't give their marketing plan another thought until after the book is completed and in the submission process, or until after the book is contracted.

Others try to put off marketing their book onto the publisher, mistakenly thinking that marketing it is not their responsibility, they are writers not marketers!

But succumbing to these lines of thinking in today's market is a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face as my Great Aunt Ida used to say!

Readers and fans are faced with hundreds of new titles being released each and every month, and are much more apt to purchase works from authors who they are familiar with, or who have been recommended by other readers or authors. And, it takes time to build up social relationships and to make yourself known.

So when is the best time to begin developing and enacting a marketing plan? The moment you decide to write your first word.

Agents, editors, and publishers often go online and google authors who have submitted manuscripts to them. They are looking for authors that have already established a following, because this indicates that there is already a market for the author's work established that can be built upon. After all, they have a lot at stake in the success or failure of the books that they publish.

2. Failing to utilize available marketing tools, or not using them properly!
In some of the writing groups I belong to, I am amazed at how often I hear fellow authors make excuses for not marketing themselves and their books. Two of the excuses I hear the most often are:

a) Marketing takes too much time!
b) I don't know how!

It is true that marketing yourself and your books does take some time, but it is time well spent if done properly. After all, nobody will buy your book if they don't know that you or it exist! Effective marketing helps to build visibility and awareness of both you and your books.

There are tons of resources out there that can show you how to effectively market yourself and your books. Here are a few places to start:
The Creative Penn
Author Marketing Experts Blog
Marketing tips For Authors
Author Insider
TribalAuthor
Author Marketing Ideas
The Savvy Book Marketer
Self Publishing Coach

These resources can guide you on the most effective ways design an author marketing plan and on how to use a variety of free and low-cost resources and tools to begin building your author platform.

3. Failing to follow through to keep your marketing momentum going.
Another all too common mistake that some authors make is that they start off strong but then start floundering after a few months. I have been guilty of this mistake myself.

The key to effective marketing is to continually and consistently be utilizing available tools to build and grow your author platform. Remember, as a writer you are an entrepreneur and business owner with a product to sell. And like any other business, marketing your product is a necessity if you want to be successful.

So take a moment to review your are in your marketing, what tools you have available, and what actions need to be taken to get your marketing back on track.

Stay tuned for my upcoming series of marketing posts where I will be sharing some of the most common free and low-cost marketing tools and tips to use them effectively to build a successful author platform.

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The Contemps: Lessons from a Literary Agency Internship

I came across an interesting post over at The Contemps blog.

It details the experience of 21 year old college student, SM Rosenberg, during a summer internship at a Literary Agency over the summer. Check it out!

The Contemps: Lessons from a Literary Agency Internship

Rechelle's Diary: 9/14/11

Dear Diary,

I just heard Christmas mentioned in an email I received this morning informing me that there was only 104 days left before Christmas! It's too darn early to be thinking about Christmas!! We're not even officially into Fall yet.

This week is the first full week since May that temps have been out of the 90's. I'd really like to enjoy some long-sleeve shirt weather before I have to start thinking about snow and Santa Clause!!

But then again I have been wanting an Ipad and the soon to be released remastered Star Wars DVD set!!

Rechelle's Diary: 9/11/11 - Remembering 9/11

Today as the activities of life were buzzing on around me, I wanted to stop and take a moment to remember those who lost their lives in the Twin Towers terrorist attack on 9/11/01.

As I write this, this incomprehensible attack still seems fresh in my memory. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes at the thought of the thousands of people who were killed by such pointless violence, including 411 emergency rescue workers who had responded to the scene.

On the morning of 9/11/01, I remember being awoken from my sleep shortly before 9 am to a panicked voice on the other end of the phone screaming at me to turn on the television. The heart-wrenching emotion in that voice assured me that something terrible had happened. I reached blindly for the remote control, having only gotten a little more than one hours sleep after working a long night shift. I flipped on the television and could hardly believe what I was seeing. Smoke was billowing out of the North Tower and the anchor was saying that a terrorist had crashed a plane into the building. For several minutes, netiher myself or my friend on the line said anything. The news had shocked us both into silence.

I remember flipping through channels trying to get more information and hearing that other planes had been hijacked as well. Then just when it seemed that it all might be over, another plane flew into the South Tower. I was filled with such a horrible sense of uselessness as I sat and witnessed the event from my sofa, powerless to do anything but watch.

A few minutes later there was coverage of at least one, and possibly two hijacked planes, that were possibly headed towards the Capitol. The whole incident seemed so surreal.

A few minutes later my pager started going off. I was being called back to work as a precaution after a terrorist activity alert was received by my agency that other cities could also have similar incidents occur.

Still stunned, I put my uniform back on, strapped on my gun and badge, and reported for duty. I was later told that both buildings had collapsed and that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. Thankfully, the terror ended with those four planes; however, I remember the heightened alertness and sense of worry and dread that hung heavy in the air that day and for weeks afterward as we anticipated the possibility of more terrorist acts.

It was one of the worst times that I can remember in my lifetime, and I pray that nothing like that ever happens again. My thoughts and prayers go out to the deceased family members on this day of rememberance, and may those persons who lost their lives on that fateful day never be forgotten.