Do you have a marketing plan, but have been unable to follow through with it? Do you feel like there are things you should be doing to market your books, but you can’t seem to get a grasp on any of them? Do you feel as if it’s all just too much of a bother?
What might be at the heart of all of these excuses is fear. Most people think of fear as the “I just saw the girl from The Grudge in my backyard” feeling, but for most of us, fear is really that constant little voice in our heads, whispering “you’re not good enough”.
That voice also tells us things like:
- No one will want to read my newsletter, so why bother writing it?
- The first two people didn’t reply to my request for a review, so I really don’t want to write a third request (or twentieth).
- I got a bad review, so I’m not really willing to put myself out there and ask for more.
- If I do a Facebook party, no one will show up, and it will be horrible.
- I don’t write great blogs, and no one will read them.
If your little voice speaks that clearly to you, congratulations! If you are already connecting the cause with the effect, then that’s half the battle. So many times, though, we don’t even realize that something is holding us back or that the little voice is even speaking to us. We just simply never follow through on our marketing plans. That marketing thing that sounded like a good idea when we first wrote it down – asking to blog on someone else’s site, or sending out a request for newsletter subscribers, or a Facebook party – whatever it is, we just don’t seem to make the time to do it.
But as Freud once said, the lover always makes his appointment.
What he meant was, that if marketing was something that we yearned to do, something that we enjoyed doing and looked forward to, it would never fall off of our to-do list or get pushed to the side by things like television or Facebook. We would meet our lover, damn it.
So how do we start to love marketing (and possibly ourselves, in the process)?
One great trick is to write down a mantra. Or a few mantras.
Here are the mantra rules:
1. They must be stated in the positive (i.e. not “Don’t waste time” but instead “I only spend my time engaged in revenue-generating or name recognition activities.”)
2. They must resonate with you and make you feel joyful as you say them. So if you feel like something like “I am a best-selling author” is too much of a stretch to write and speak, try “I am doing everything I can today to be a best-selling author”.
3. They must be written in present tense and reflect where we want to be. Even if you don’t feel as if you are where you want to be right now (and who ever does?!) then speak as if you already are. As Mary Kay said, Fake it till you make it.
4. After you write them down, put them somewhere you can see them every day – next to your computer or on your mirror, perhaps.
Here are some examples – feel free to steal them:
1. I engage in fulfilling and exciting marketing opportunities on a regular basis.
2. I am filled with joy when writing blogs (or newsletters, or Facebook posts).
3. My life flows with ease and expansiveness, and I always find time for things that are important to me.
4. I allow for fun and creativity in my marketing.
5. Marketing is fun, easy, and I enjoy it.
Do any of those help you? What are some of your tricks for getting motivated to stay positive about marketing? How do you know when you’ve gone off track?
Posted by Author Erin Moore.
Erin writes sensuous paranormal romances set in exotic locales. Her latest book is a sexy minotaur shifter story set in Crete, Erin is a regular blogger for Marketing for Romance Writers as well as Heroes and Heartbreakers-which means she is sadly neglectful of her own blog.She lives in Atlanta with her two little paranormal beings and one unruly husband. She’s also (way too frequently) on Twitter and Facebook. Find her free short story,To Love a Shaman, at her website.
She's also giving away a critique of a first chapter with a subscription to her newsletter!
