What to Do With Your Marketing While You’re in the Writing Cave (During NaNoWriMo or Otherwise)
Last week I spoke with a writer who was about to enter the writing cave to work on her second book that's under contract.
She was savvy enough to ask herself what she should be doing with her marketing during that time. How could spend most of her mental energy on her book while making meaningful progress on her marketing so there would be an audience ready to buy the thing in 2021?
This is how pros think. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. But we have to be smart about it, so we don't fall on our faces with gum in our hair.
With many writers, both pro and amateur, gearing up to do NaNoWriMo, this is a great time to talk about how to tackle marketing while you're in the writing cave.
The key to success is to have a marketing plan in place before you enter the cave. When it comes to your marketing, you want to be in worker mode, able to check off tasks without thinking too much about them. You don't want to be in strategy mode. That takes too much thinking and will drain creative energy away from your writing.
Here's a quick and dirty plan any writer can follow to keep their marketing game strong while busting out a new book during NaNoWriMo—or whenever you're in the cave.
This week: 1 week before NaNoWriMo
1. Learn the Connection System: Permission, Content, Outreach, Sell. Look no further for a strategy. Tim Grahl's Connection System is proven and you can learn the fundamentals of it in about 15 minutes.
2. Create a reader persona. Don't know how? Watch this webinar (30 minutes) and then spend another 30 minutes working on it. To market successfully, you have to know who you're trying to reach.
3. Make a list of all the marketing tasks/tactics you've done to date and figure out where they fit into the Connection System. This will help you see where your marketing game is strong and where it's weak. (Hint, for most writers, OUTREACH is their weakest area.) This should only take about 15-20 minutes and most of that time is just sitting there pulling at your hair trying to think of anything marketing related you've managed to do.
4. Make a task list based on the gaps you find in your marketing. If you're weak on permission, you'll want to add setting up your email list and deciding on a reader magnet. If you're weak on content, you can develop an editorial calendar for your newsletter so you don't have to think up ideas of what to talk about when you're trying to write a whole book. If you're weak on Outreach, you can add influencer research and interaction to your list.
Week 1 of NaNoWriMo
5. You will need to take a mental break from writing. When you do, your task list is all set to go. Tackle anything related to PERMISSION this first week. If your permission assets are already in perfect working order, then do some research on influencers and start interacting with them on social media. Even if you're only spending 30 minutes on this during the whole week, that's okay.
Week 2 of NaNoWriMo
6. You may want to run screaming from your draft at this point, so it's a great time to take 45 minutes or an hour to write something -- anything -- other than your book. Take an item from your editorial calendar and work on a short piece of CONTENT for your audience. Even if it's just kvetching about how hard it is to pound out 1600 words a day. If you still need a break, get back on social media and do some more influencer interaction.
Week 3 of NaNoWriMo
7. You've got a HUGE pile of words now. Excellent. During your breaks, work on anything OUTREACH related on your to-do list. Do some more research, interact with influencers on social media, think of ideas for pitches and maybe write a draft or two if you're up for it.
Week 4 of NaNoWriMo
8. This is the week to tackle any issues with your SELLING. Do you have an elevator pitch you can deliver in a few sentences at the end of a podcast appearance? Do you have a link to buy your book in your email signature and in every newsletter you send out? When's the last time you asked readers to leave you a review?
Tackle your marketing in these little chunks while you're busting a a first draft of your next book and you'll start December feeling SO DAMN PRO you don't even KNOW.
You can totally do this. You can be a winner at NaNoWriMo and your marketing. All it takes is a plan and daily practice.
It’s my goal to help you find the audience you need to sustain your career. The Happily Ever Author Club is for authors who want to actually make an impact and sell books.
You’ll have a book marketing expert at your fingertips helping you overcome your mental blocks around marketing and institute a marketing strategy that actually works. Join us!