Earlier, we discussed your genre and your target audience’s core. Now we know who we are talking to. We understand what these people dream about and what they need.
We understand the demand.
We need to determine who you are and why these audiences will want to follow you. We need to build your offer.
Your offer must meet the demand.
We must give readers not what we have but what they want.
An author trying to sell what he likes can rely only on luck that his interests will coincide with the tastes of a sufficiently large number of readers.
The author who meets the demand is guaranteed to find those who will buy his books.
If you want to build an author’s business that will bring a stable income, you need to understand that your creations do not belong to you. You write books for readers – and this is your mission.
You can turn your hobby of writing novels into a business only if you stop writing for yourself and start writing for readers.
It does not mean that you do not care what you write. It means that the desires of your readers are your priority.
The most troubling idea is that anyone can read your book.
Imagine that your marketing campaign is a rain cloud. Directly below it, in the very center, it will rain heavily, and at the edges, it will only drizzle.
The same goes for your readers. Fans of your genre should be right under your promotion cloud.
Now you need to determine who they are – your readers.
Geography, language, and culture.
The society your readers live in greatly influences the choice of books. For example, the most popular fantasy stories in the United States are those in which the main character changes, acquiring a superpower, because many are not happy with whom they are in real life. But in Russia, fantasy stories are the most popular, where the main character goes to another world, as readers do not like the surrounding reality in which they live.
Dreams and needs of readers.
Genres of fiction reflect the dreams of readers. Someone dreams of adventure, someone about love, and someone about treasures. All the emotions that are not available to us in the real world, we can get in the imaginary world. Non-fiction genres are based on needs. We can get what we dream about by solving a problem or completing a task.
Reader’s situation.
Someone reads fiction to relax, someone to feel like a hero, someone to escape from reality. Non-fiction readers can engage in general self-development, solve a specific problem, or explore a field of knowledge. In any case, the reader has a life situation where the book satisfies his needs.
The gender and age of readers help to define the reader’s dreams, needs, and situations more specifically.
Example: A woman, 40 years old, lives in the USA. She has an office job, a beloved husband, and teenage children. She doesn’t want to flirt and put her relationship at risk. But she really wants to experience the emotions of nascent love and first sex. Books are the source of these emotions for her.
I think it is not difficult to understand what kind of books she wants to read and what social media accounts she will be happy to subscribe to.
Subscribe to my account. In the next post, we will explore.
As stated in the previous post, your readers are fans of the genre you work in – this is your target audience.
But this is a very vague concept, and it must be clarified.
Why is it essential?
🔹 If you do not know your readers’ gender, age, and geography, you will have difficulty setting up ads. Effective advertising for authors is critical. Otherwise, how will you find new readers?
🔹 If you don’t know the core of your audience, you have no idea who you’re talking to. As a result, you will have never-ending problems writing copy for social media, your website, authors’ pages etc.
For example, fans of romance novels 💞 15-25 years old and ❤️ 35-55 years old are completely different audiences.
Girls dreaming of a prince 🤴🏻 and ladies dreaming of a smart man 👨🏻💼 need different characters, different book covers, different book descriptions and different advertising layouts.
By defining the core of your audience, you acquire a powerful tool. You will understand who you are talking to.
For example, if I see an ad that begins with the words “Every girl dreams of dressing fashionably” 👗, I immediately understand that the author of the text is not talking to me. I have not been addressed as “girl” for a long time, and I don’t think about fashion and clothes at all.
To get my attention, you need to talk to me in a completely different way. For example, I immediately reacted to the phrase in the advertisement, “The most comfortable bra in the world.” 👙
The same happens with books, paintings, photographs, and all ather creative products.
Can you define who your target audience is? For whom are you writing? Let me know in the comments. 💬
✅ Subscribe to my blog and in the next post, we will look for the main parameters of your readers and how you can use them for your book promotion.
If you want to build your own business, then you have to make a decision that marketing is your responsibility, and from now on, you will spend several hours a day doing this.
What will you have to do?
🔹 Study the market and your competitors
🔹 Develop and implement your promotion strategy
🔹 Learn new skills (for example, advertising)
🔹 Create content: images, copies, and videos for social media
🔹 Communicate with your audience.
How long will you do this?
🔹 Constantly – as long as you run your business.
How much time per day should you allocate for marketing?
🔹 From 1 to 4 hours a day, depending on how fast you want to move ahead and how many resources you have.
Can it be delegated?
🔹 Yes and no.
Suppose you are just starting out and do not understand how and what to do; you cannot delegate. You will waste your money because, in the first stage, you do not know what you want and how the job is supposed to be done, so you can’t manage your employees.
You have to figure out the marketing basics and clearly define who should do what and how the result should look. Then, you can delegate part of the work.
If you are not ready to spend time on all of the above, then I am afraid – you will not succeed. 🤦🏻♀️
✅ If you realize that you can’t move ahead without promoting yourself and your books, then subscribe to my blog, and I will tell you how to build a fanbase and make money from it.
I bet every time you see successful books in your genre or posts, or ads, you hear a familiar voice: “This spot is taken. Don’t even try. Nobody needs you.”
Sound familiar? Then read on.👇
Any successful writer experienced the same feeling just a few years ago. Because everyone starts from scratch, they’ve all been in a situation where it’s unclear how to proceed. 🙇🏻♀️
But some become professional authors, while others do not.
Do you know what the difference is? Some of them can overcome their fears.
Good news!
Almost all the fears of beginning writers have nothing to do with reality.
Here is a list of these baseless fears:
😥 Nobody cares about my creativity;
😳 They will laugh at me;
😕 What if my writing is not good enough;
🙁 Nobody will ever buy my books;
🤬 My ideas will be stolen;
🤐 Advertising is expensive, with no guarantees;
🥴 Promoting myself is embarrassing;
😓 Advocating for my books will be intrusive;
😈 Trolls will find me and bother me;
🤭 What I do is nonsense;
🥺 The genre of my books is silly;
😏 I’m just an amateur;
etc.
Everything on this list is false.
Where does all this come from?
Someone once said these things, and we believed them.
This is a perfect excuse: “I can not do it. I’m afraid!”
🧠 No wonder there is no motivation or inspiration. The brain does not allocate psychic energy to those who are gripped by fear.
Do you have any of these fears?
Write in the comments what you are afraid of, and I will try to dispel your fears, and they will no longer stand in your way.
The first thing you need to do in terms of promotion is to determine your book’s genre. 📚🎨💬
Why is this important?
Readers will be able to find you only when you are on the list of authors in their favorite genre.
Everyone sorts books by genre: readers, publishers, journalists, etc. So if you want your book to be found in the general stream, you need to decide on your genre.
A list of all genres can be found on the website of any bookstore. Explore two or three platforms to help you understand in which section you would like to see your book. Pay attention to the genre neighbors: does your book fit into this group? Will readers be happy if they find you on this list?
It is also essential to decide on a subgenre: not just Fantasy, but Romantic Fantasy or Magical Realism. Keep in mind that different subgenres may have different target audiences.
The more clearly you define your niche, the easier it will be for you to promote yourself.
If you are a distinguished author with millions of readers, you can write anything at all, and everyone will be happy. After all, your books will be searched by the author’s name. If you are at the beginning of the path, your only chance to get featured in the catalog is to get into the correct genre.
✍🏻 You will rely on your genre when choosing a title, writing a blurb, designing a cover, or writing texts for a website – every step you take will depend on this choice.
If you think all this is unimportant and it will be possible to decide on these things along the way, I’m sorry to tell you: it doesn’t work that way. It’s like putting wheels of different sizes on your car. 🛻 Of course, you can ride, but only slowly and with problems.
Let me know in the comments below: do you know the genre of your books? Or are you experiencing difficulty with this task?
Then you need to realize that being an author is a business.
🔹 You have a product – your books,
🔹 You have customers – your readers,
🔹 There are even wholesalers – publishers.
Like any business, your success is determined by profit. 🙅🏻♀️ Not by winning a literary competition, not by contracting with a publisher, but by receiving income from the sale of your books.
💰 Profit is the gratitude of your readers.
Fame can come to the author if there are many grateful readers,. 🎊
To make a profit, you need to promote your book. No publisher, no agent will do this work for you.
It depends only on whether your readers will hear about you and your book.
✅ Subscribe to my blog, and I will tell you what steps you need to take to achieve this.
I would like to show you the difference between an aspiring author, for whom writing is still only a hobby, and a commercially successful writer, for whom writing is a source of income.
Surprisingly, the main difference is the mindset.
👉 Our thoughts generate our emotions
👉 Our emotions trigger our motivation
👉 Our motivation gives us the opportunity to act
👉 Our actions create an experience
👉 Our experiences form the basis of our beliefs
👉 Our beliefs shape our thoughts 👆
… the cycle is complete. 🔄
So, if we change our thoughts 🧠 and what we believe in, then our emotions, motivations, actions, and results will change too.
💫 Sounds like magic, doesn’t it?
In the next post, we will look at how a successful author thinks, and how these thoughts help him act differently and get different results.
Let’s see how an author who has commercial success ahead of him thinks and how these thoughts differ from an amateur.
1️⃣ Writing and selling books is my business. This is what I plan to do to earn money.
💥 This idea alone is enough to change the way you look at the situation.
It’s one thing when you think “How can I find those who will read my book?”
And another way to think of this is: “I need to sell 10,000 copies of my e-book. How will I do it?”
Do you agree that there is a major difference in approach?
2️⃣ I will not quit and will not pull back. Because behind is only work from 9 to 5 and yearning. Ahead are beautiful worlds, enthusiastic readers, prosperity and freedom. And yet, being a writer means being the creator of your own universes.
💥 A visualized dream changes everything. You know why you work so hard and what lies ahead of you.
3️⃣ I don’t know much. If I knew everything, then I would have done everything a long time ago and would already have become a successful author. This means that I need new knowledge to make different decisions and do something new to get a different result.
💥 Modesty and curiosity are key factors in embracing and opening new horizons. You have a vision of the path and motivation to follow it.
4️⃣ This is my business, and only I am interested in promotion and marketing. All responsibility lies with me, and all results belong to me as well. At the same time, I have complete freedom of action.
💥 Now no one is to blame for anything: neither the readers nor the publishers. You do not need to wait for anyone nor rely on anyone. Now, you can just choose your path and go for it.
5️⃣ My mistakes are my treasures. This is proof of the path I have already been on. Any rejection only brings me closer to my goal. If I know that the result is possible, and I know how to do it, then my victory is inevitable.
💥 Now, it’s almost impossible to stop you. You are resilient to failure and perceive criticism and mistakes as gifts that save you time and money.
“Нi there! 🤗 And welcome to my blog, “”Marketing for authors.”” 📚
I want to say thank you to all of you who inspired me, helped me work through my fears, and finally made it happen.
Starting a blog in a foreign language is not an easy task, but I hope this will be an example that anything is possible.
🙋🏻♀️ I’m Irina Chan, and I help build a powerful fan base for self-published authors dedicated to success.
This blog will focus on all aspects of book marketing, and its goal is to help authors find their readers and build a strong fan base.
I see my mission as helping aspiring authors market their books and build a profitable business, even if English is not their first language.
I have created several online courses for authors and also have one-on-one coaching programs.
I was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Russia, and found myself in the USA, California. 🌴 I live in Santa Monica with my 💁🏻♂️ husband, 👸🏻 daughter, 🐈 cat, 🐶 dog, 🐠 32 fish, and two 🦀crabs.
Marketing is my vocation, and book marketing is my passion. 🤩
