SHAMELESS PROMOTION

Congratulations! You published a book, and now what?

How many blogs start with this sentence and then follow with excellent marketing advice? You can find some great websites with tips to help you build your author brand. But there is one thing you must first do, and that is to fully understand and accept the situation you find yourself in as a writer. Let’s discuss it.

If you’ve published a book, you’re in a far better position than most who are still in the query trenches. Just remember what you had to go through to become a published author. As intimidating as marketing and promoting your book may be, you’ve done the most challenging part. You have published a book. This does not mean you have finished the work; it means you should continue.

When you first started writing, you had to gain some habits and build your writing routine. It is the same with strengthening and promoting your brand. It must become your routine, a part of your everyday life. Most writers, even if they are forced to do something, consider it only temporary. If you think that way, the key question is how many readers your books will reach.

Does this mean all the marketing is down to you? Far from it, but it means that you are most likely its most important part: the link that connects everything into a whole.

It can feel weird and lonely in this process, and yes, you can blame the age of digital media we live in, but it is far more complex than that. The art of branding and promoting is almost as old as writing itself. Long before us, others have been doing it, and successfully, too. Here are some examples from the past.

We’re not the ones who invented shamelessly shoving our books under everyone’s noses. Long before ours, our predecessors did it, and many of them were famous writers. The difference is that there were no social networks, but there was a society they were targeting. Not so long ago, Hemingway posed for a newspaper and advertised Parker pencils

Master of shenanigans from Spanish Baroque, LOPE DE VEGA

But if you want to go back to the distant past, even to the 17th century and the Golden Age of Spanish literature, the competition in that market was fierce, with writers vying ruthlessly for the audience’s attention. The outstanding Lope de Vega and el ingenioso Cervantes could not stand each other. Lope de Vega shamelessly promoted himself, taking great care to shape the public image he projected by incorporating autobiographical elements into his works. His love affairs and other scandals became material for his writing, which self-mythologized him. He was a superstar of his time, earning many labels. It will remain a mystery whether the author of Don Quijote meant to praise or insult him when he called him the Monster of Nature.

To capture attention, your promotion doesn’t have to be shameless. We live in a time when audiences have seen and heard almost everything, and it is unlikely you will shock anyone with your posts or bold comments. Instead, you can give your audience a consistent presence and offer a behind-the-scenes look at our creative process.

You can make your readers feel part of your routine by making it clear that you are there consistently and won’t disappear. Your audience can count on another brilliant book next year, giving them something to look forward to. It doesn’t matter how frequently you post, as long as you don’t stop and have something to say when you do—quality over quantity and stability over unpredictability.