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Scratch Paper, Episode 18: Marketing for Writers 101

Marketing! What is it? How do you do it for writing?

And why should you listen to this podcast instead of the million other podcasts/blog posts that are already out there about marketing?

Because many of those narratives go like this:

“I tried this and this and this and this, and thing X worked! DO THING X!”

…and they focus on the wrong thing.

They focus on Thing X, “the next big thing,” the latest platform/trend/silver bullet.

Instead, we should focus on the first part–how the person tried a bunch of different things.

This doesn’t mean try everything–but it does mean that marketing takes time and lots of tries. Listen in to hear what I have done to market my ebooks (DIY Writing Retreat and DIY Chick Lit) and my full-length fiction and nonfiction manuscripts.

Newsletter readers, click through here or on the image below to listen.

SCRATCH PAPER (1)

Show notes:

Writing update: Still working on my new novel; Finding Lucy is still out on submission.

Reading update: Really into Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series, despite/because of the punny titles.

Links to all the things I have done to market myself:

  • I am on Twitter
  • Also Instagram
  • Two things I have tried to market: DIY Writing Retreat and DIY Chick Lit, available on Amazon as ebooks and Etsy as PDFs.
  • Built this website (originally called craftbookproject.com)
  • I took a survey of craft bloggers and blogged about it
  • I tweeted about it – I lied on the podcast and said that I had kept the same account from back then, but the Internet tells me that I’m wrong
  • I made awesome business cards, and tragically, I can’t find the link to the original tutorial! I thought the Internet saved everything.
  • I made Instant Gift for Writers, a zine that I put in little free libraries around Seattle
  • I made a video with Tara Swiger (actually, I made a lot of videos! Here’s one about how to get inspiration to write a story. I made these with Kelly of KMR Publishing to promote DIY Chick Lit–then called “The Chick Lit Cookbook”)
  • I sent out my ebook for review to a lot of book bloggers, who blogged about it (collected here)
  • I have a newsletter; you can sign up for it here
  • I’ve written for The Write Life and We Heart Writing
  • I’ve been to AWP
  • I’ve participated in #PitMad (that’s how I found my agent)
  • I’ve kept in touch with my writing friends
  • I’ve entered my novel in contests, and sent out my stories
  • I wrote for Alt Magazine (and other places)
  • I wrote for the Patheos Network on a blog called “Surprising Faith”
  • I redesigned the covers for my ebook (well, I had someone else do it)
  • I started this podcast (and put it on Stitcher)
  • I started selling my ebooks on Etsy
  • I’ve also thought about trying Periscope, but I just couldn’t do it.

Apologies for the sniffles on this episode; a pox upon Seattle “spring.”

And in case you missed it, my ebooks are now PDFs. That means you don’t have to take the Internet with you when you go on a writing retreat! Use coupon code STPAT17 to get two for the price of one.

Thanks for listening! Tune in next week…where I dive deeper into marketing.

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