The best marketing is to write the next novel
I’ve seen this advice scattered all over the Kindleboards, and it’s advice I’ve taken to heart. I tried different methods of marketing Demonspawn, my first novel, and started to stress over it. It took focus away from my zombie novel, Dead Living.
So I decided to almost drop marketing altogether, with the exception of some small effort here and there. I cranked out Dead Living, released it, submitted to a few review sites, then started on the next novel, Mind Slide.
Even with very little effort in marketing, Dead Living has started to take off a little (almost afraid to say it aloud, and jinx it ๐ ). It’s funny, really. I think (it’s hard to verify) Dead Living is starting to help out Demonspawn with an audience. I’m hoping Mind Slide will jump into the pool and have some fun too ๐
Because of my lax attitude toward marketing, I was able to dig into Mind Slide and finished it very fast. We’re talking something like 3-4 months, which for me is pretty quick. It’s going through beta reading now, and I’m 50K words into the next novel.
So if there’s anything to take away from this (and I know a lot of people already know this, just wanted to share my experience) is to not stress about marketing. I used to spend so much time trying to figure out where to submit Demonspawn to next.
It’s also hard to say what marketing really works. The Kindle Nation Daily is very solid, but everything else seems to be hit or miss (I’m thinking in terms of online ads). I’ve heard varying degrees of success with different sites.
So don’t stress, like I used to, and keep writing. ๐ The more you write, the more work you put out for people to talk about.
Sarah
July 17, 2011 @ 6:32 pm
Thank you for this! About six months ago, I decided to take my casual writing more seriously. I started reading about writing and marketing and sales and publishing, and somehow it’s been killing my actual pleasure in story-telling. This advice is probably the most useful thing I’ve read in weeks.
Glenn Bullion
July 19, 2011 @ 9:38 am
Yeah I’ve gone through the same thing. I’d much rather go through writing burn-out then marketing burn-out. ๐