Welcome

Ever Wished There Was Just a Completed Marketing Plan You Could Follow to Market Your Books?

No, not a magic formula. No, not a “push-button million-dollar cash machine.”

You’re not lazy and you’re not afraid to put the work in. But sometimes it’s hard to figure out just what kind of marketing work you’re supposed to be doing.

What if there was a straightforward road map that a resonably intelligent writer could follow?

First, you do Step A. It takes some time and attention, but it’s not rocket science either. Here’s what you do if you get stuck.

Then you move on to Step B, and here’s how to do that.

Keep going until you have a marketing plan that works

I would have really liked to have something like this when I started my author career (at the ripe young age of 23, not knowing that I could have hired an agent to help me figure it all out and certainly not expecting to have to market my own books!) almost fourteen years ago.

So about a year ago I got a wild hair to start putting this “marketing plan” together. If I was starting from scratch, what would I do first? Then what? And what after that?

You don’t have to be a marketing genius to do this (By the way, I apologize in advance if this ends up to be a skillion pages long. I want to make sure you’ve got all the information you need, plus I’ve had a lot of chocolate today and I don’t think I’m quite done yet.)

If you’ve been hanging out with me for awhile, you know that I think most people overcomplicate marketing. Now for big-name authors with multimillion dollar ad budgets, it’s smart to get complicated. We all see how it works for them.

But for authors who run slightly smaller author careers with books that don’t come with massive ad-spending budgets—in other words, real authors—we don’t need a zillion-dollar marketing campaign.

It’s not about complicated technology, expensive advertising, or gigantic agency fees for creative work. It’s about connecting with people who might become readers for life.

No marketing degree required. (In fact, it would probably be a liability.)

The main problem you’re probably facing is focus. There are so many things you could do. But which ones should you do, and how can you put everything together in a way that won’t completely overwhelm you?

What this site will do for you

If you’re here, you were invited to join Author Blogger from my relaunched real/brilliant blog (all about kids book marketing) and you’re here because you’re not interested in kids book marketing.

You deserve your own place to be, so bookmark this page! That way, you can come directly here the next time.

Thanks for checking me out!

So, what is this place all about?

• Each month you’ll get interviews from bloggers, authors, and publishing industry professionals all talking about how to better position yourself and your blog to build a long-term author career. Each interview will provide a core concept or “how to” that you need now to create your book marketing plan. This core concept gets you out of theory and into actually doing something.

• This site will feature a theme of the month and question of the week, thus, send your specific questions! I want to hear from you and I know as I talk shop with my guests, we’ll definitely want to hear your questions.

• Monthly webinars and Q&A calls (free for now) that also will need your questions and where you can hear what questions other people are asking.

• I’ll also be gathering the best resources I can find for your author, marketing, publishing, blogging questions and problems that I can find (or that I produce specifically for Author Blogger!) to share with you via my newsletter. Interested in a free subscription? (Click here.)

Sound good?

Then welcome to Author Blogger! Come on in! Just click on any of the nav menu items to get started (and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter while you’re at it!).

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to get to know you better!