Self Promotion and Why You Deserve It

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As authors we constantly hear about marketing. But what about self promotion? What’s the difference?

What Exactly is Self Promotion?

We constantly hear about marketing and how important it is. But what about self promotion? What exactly is self promotion and why is it important? Join me below to discuss the differences and how authors can incorporate some simple self promotion examples into their tool belts.

Differences between Self Promotion and Marketing

Let’s start by defining marketing. Marketing’s defined as the activity of promoting and selling products or services. Simple enough, right? You want to sell your book- you need to market it. But, one of the biggest mistakes I see authors making is thinking their marketing should focus solely on their book. That’s where self promotion comes in.

Technically, self promotion is presenting yourself as an accomplished, skilled, capable person. But honestly it’s more about building a connection with your readers and building yourself as a brand that supersedes one individual book.

Brand Identity

Brand identity is necessary for a business, it helps build loyalty and a trust in the style and quality of a book with your name on it. If you want to make being an author your JOB and your BUSINESS, you have to promote your brand – you have to commit to self promoting.

You can do this by first determining what is the common theme you want to write about or do you see in your current stories? For instance, I write historical fiction and I can see myself writing about different time periods and different kinds of people. But one thing I know my books will all have in common is they’ll all be about women. They will also all be about women fighting for change. So, my brand identity? “I write about women in history overcoming obstacles to fight for change.” This is what I tell people when they ask about my books and this is what I’ve built my website and social media platform messaging around. Therefore, when readers find and follow me, they know exactly what to expect when they pick up my books.

More Self Promotion Examples

The other important part of self promoting is selling yourself. We have to build relationships with our readers and allow them to see us as people. I know I probably have some of you authors shaking in your boots right now. The last thing most of us want to do is spotlight ourselves. That’s why we hide behind our books, right? But if we’re unwilling to open up and share, our books will languish and never get read. So, let’s see if we can find a comfortable way to work some of these self promotion examples into our regular routines.

Working Our Livelihood into Conversations

I tell people I’m an author. I’m not saying I walk around introducing myself that way. But I do seize on natural opportunities to bring it into the conversation. And luckily with Amazon there’s the immediate opportunity to make a sale once I do. I’ve sold books in the pediatrician’s office, in the dentist chair, on an airplane, on the sidelines at a soccer game etc. When there’s an opportunity to bring up what I do, I take it. But to make sure this feels natural and easy, I’ve made sure to perfect my elevator pitch synopsis of what my book is about.

Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch

Have you ever been asked what your book is about and find yourself freezing or launching into a long winded explanation where you can see the person’s eyes glazing over? We’ve all been there at some point. That’s why it is crucial to master your elevator pitch synopsis. This is simply a two-three sentence max description of your book. For me I say- “I created a fictional character who escapes from Russia at the beginning of the revolution. She settles on the Lower East Side of New York and is involved in the 1909 Garment Worker’s Uprising. She’s then involved in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the aftermath.“

My elevator pitch immediately identifies my book’s genre- historical fiction. The time period I’m writing about- early 1900s. It also gives an overview of the main historical events and obstacles my character is facing.

Using this elevator pitch and being nervy enough to bring my book up in conversation is how I’ve not only gotten sales, it’s how I’ve landed speaking engagements, bookstore signings and other festivals and events. I’m constantly on the prowl. Both for selling opportunities, but also for chances to network and add to my Rolodex of contacts. You never know when they’ll come in handy.

Promoting Ourselves on Social Media

Ah, the dreaded word. But one of the reasons I find people have such apprehension about using social media to market is they don’t know what to post. For starters, you need to know going into it that it’s not where you’ll sell books. Social media will not translate to sales. It just doesn’t. So, then what’s the purpose and why waste your time?

To network and build a community of followers. If nurtured with a targeted purpose that follows your brand identity, social media will hopefully translate to an engaged audience who WILL sign up for your newsletter, like your posts, be your beta readers and early reviewers etc. And yes, some will also hopefully buy your books at some point. But more importantly, they’ll be loyal and feel like they know and care about YOU which will go way further than the person who buys one of your books from Amazon or off a shelf from the bookstore.

To sum up, think of it this way- you can market to sell one book once. This can be done with targeted ads, book promo newsletter features, virtual book tours etc. And this should and could be done as well. But if you self promote yourself- you’ll be nurturing a loyal base of readers who will buy every book you ever write. You do the math.

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