The next few blogs will be in fulfillment of my MFA Marketing course, but maybe you can learn something useful.

Marketing- Can it Ever Be Fun? 

Photo courtesy of Dominika Roseclay, Pexels 

That word strikes fear into the heart of every writer—debut and veteran alike. No author I know enjoys book marketing, but it’s a crucial part of publishing. 

One of the required courses for my MFA is marketing, and grudgingly, I admit I need it. The explosion of social media has changed the marketing landscape for everyone, but especially authors because publishing houses no longer offer much in the way of marketing for the non-celebrity (mid-list) author and independently published authors are clearly on their own for everything. Social media is the proverbial ‘hill to die on’ for authors. 

Reading course materials, we study cases where a company helped revolutionize some aspect of marketing. One such case was the eyeglass company Warby Parker. How does marketing eyeglasses relate in any way to selling books? First, you’re still selling a product, your books, and second, how Warby Parker used social media to launch their company can be applied to selling books and increasing an author’s presence in the social media universe. 

What Does Warby Parker Do That You Should?  

Photo courtesy of Alizee Marchand, Pexels 

When launching their business, Warby Parker used social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc., in a new way. Instead of simply advertising their glasses in a traditional manner: Look at our glasses! Come buy! on radio, TV, and print ads, they employed ‘transactional communication’. This means communication that goes both ways; Warby Parker asked the public to tell them what they wanted and what they didn’t like, then addressed their needs and concerns via social media, a public forum, for all the world to see. This created a community where company and consumer worked together. Then, they asked their social media ‘friends’ inn this community to post selfies of themselves in their glasses—and customers did. Imagine chatting with people who are interested in your books; you get a feel for what they loved and what they didn’t which is good input for future novels (and hopefully sales). Then, if they post selfies of them reading and enjoying your book (some reviewers do this), it goes not only to you, but to their friends also—scores of people you don’t know and couldn’t have reached. But take it further—ask them to dress like your characters, enact scenes, show off artwork, whatever they want. Your readers are helping you advertise your book- that’s golden marketing, creating what social media experts call awareness, the first (and hardest step) in marketing. And, it’s free. 

Hold On, There’s More! 

So now that you have people posting selfies connected to your book, spreading the word, where do you go next? Like Warby Parker, think of social good. For every pair of eyeglasses sold, they donated a pair to those in need. Now I’m not telling you to do the same, give one book away for everyone you sell because that would erase any slim profits whether you’re traditionally published or independently published because you have to buy those giveaways. But, you can ‘pay it forward’ in another way. One example is author Judy Campbell Smith. She organizes World Read Aloud Day where authors read their books to school kids via video conference. Judy specializes in helping independently published authors who often aren’t permitted to participate in many book marketing/selling events because of the stigma of ‘self-published books not being as good as traditional’. That burns. So not only is she bringing awareness to her books by connecting with others, but she’s helping other authors. That’s a win-win social good. (She does much more, so check out her website.)  

Photo courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels 

Seeing is Believing. 

Whether it’s eyeglasses or books, creating two-way, transactional communication—chatting with your audience—and helping others just makes sense—and marketing almost fun. 

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