25 Ways to Promote and Stay Sane

Traveling, promotion, and marketing always take far more time than you think it will. When I had three books released in one year (which made for a hectic prior year in terms of writing), I got very, very tired doing all that promotion (and I did it from France for the most part). But in some ways it was beneficial to be in another country because when I did travel, I got a lot done at one time.

My family is a priority for me, so I try to stagger my time away from them.

But the best thing you can do now is strategize. Believe me, the marketing/publicity machine will take you by surprise. Having a plan in place beforehand will greatly benefit you.

Here are 25 tips:

1. Decide how many out-of-state visits you’ll do in a year, then stick to it.
2. Winnow out non-paying jobs (speaking-wise) to maximize time.
3. Try to cluster your speaking events.
4. If you’re going somewhere anyway, query local churches, radio stations, and bookstores to book several venues.
5. Consider using part of your advance to hire a publicity person. A good publicist is worth his/her weight in gold (or these days, gas!). They do all the hard work for you — finding media outlets, scheduling appearances and interviews, and garnering reviews and articles. Although I know I COULD do these things, I simply don’t have the time to do them. I do have time for interviews of course, but all the behind-the-scenes stuff overwhelms me.
6. Consider hiring a personal assistant part time (5–10 hours a week) to help you with marketing and publicity.
7. Have an accountability prayer team who keeps you honest about the time you’re spending away from your family.
8. Each publicity/media opportunity that comes your way, pray that the Lord would use your words to touch many. Don’t think of it as a time to perform or do shameless promotion of your book, but as a chance to further the Kingdom of God.
9. Enlist the help of your spouse and kids to do promotion (sending out books, database entry, etc.) so they feel ownership in what you do.
10. Ask your family for permission if you take a far-away opportunity to speak.
11. In the initial stages of your speaking career (if you have one), you’ll usually say yes a lot to low-paying, far-away venues. But as you improve and charge higher fees, really consider the cost–benefit analysis of your time. I can write a sellable article or two in the time it would take me to speak. So I’m more careful of my time, and speak less (more strategically).
12. Consider paying for a housecleaner (same rationale as above . . . I can write enough to pay a housekeeper several times over in the time it would take to clean my house). This frees me up to do more writing or promotion.
13. When your book releases, try to create a window of time where you can solely concentrate on its promotion. It’s hard to do but will be rewarding. That one-month launch window closes quickly.
14. Organize your calendar well. Be sure you place family obligations, bills to pay, medical appointments, EVERYTHING, on one master calendar. Otherwise, you may book yourself on a day your child is in a school play.
15. Ask the Lord to give order to your days.
16. Observe the Sabbath. If you go-go-go, you’ll quickly burn out. Take a day out of the week to rejuvenate.
17. Remember the tyranny of the urgent. Instead, create goals for your career, including marketing and publicity, and stick to those when the urgent things come up.
18. And yet, be interruptible.
19. Consider giving some of your time away as a sacrifice. I write and speak for free on occasion, when I sense the Lord leading me to do so.
20. Keep a marketing idea file on your desktop. When you find a great idea, copy and paste it there. When your next book comes out, you’ll have a whole arsenal of ideas to promote it.
21. Remember the power of the web. Right now is the best time if you don’t have a book out to concentrate on creating a strong web presence. Write a monthly newsletter and begin to amass subscribers. Create a blog that gets read.
22. Keep a list of all your media contacts in a database. When a book comes out, you can send an e-blast to those entities, letting them know you’ve got a new title out.
23. Network now. Make friends with media professionals, publishers, and people in the industry.
24. Consider introducing yourself whenever you’re in a bookstore as an author or potential author.
25. If you are building a speaking career, let your circle of friends and family know. Sometimes the coolest speaking opportunities come through relational connections like this. Your network can also help you connect with pertinent media and marketing people.

 

Mary E. DeMuth helps people to turn their trials into triumphs. She mentors new authors through the publishing process and has written two tutorials on book proposals (one for fiction and another for nonfiction). An expert in Pioneer Parenting, Mary enables Christian parents to navigate our changing culture when their families were not good faith examples to follow. Her parenting books include Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture (Harvest House, 2007), Building the Christian Family You Never Had (WaterBrook, 2006), and Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God (Harvest House, 2005). Mary also inspires people to face their trials through her real-to-life novels, including Watching the Tree Limbs (nominated for a Christy Award) and Wishing on Dandelions (NavPress, 2006). A pioneer parent herself, Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, where they planted a church.