Jeff Bailey - Author: July 2016

The Spaghetti Book Marketing Strategy by Jeff Bailey

For the novice author, effective book marketing can be more difficult and more mysterious than actually writing a book. I’m a retired scientist and engineer. My introduction to the world of writing, editing, and publishing a book was shock enough. Deer Hawk Publications released my first book, The Defect, in June of 2016. Just when I wanted to turn my efforts to my next writing project, it seems that I must now stop and assist in developing and executing an extensive marketing campaign on my recently released project. My first two questions were, ‘okay, what are the most effective marketing strategies’ and ‘which marketing strategies are most time efficient?’ As an engineer and scientist, I thought these were reasonable questions. Either a given technique works or it doesn’t. I was so wrong.

There are as many marketing strategies and marketing plans as there are authors, publishers, and publicists combined. Everyone has a single favorite technique and is convinced that certain other strategies can’t and don’t work. One YouTube channel supports the idea that ‘book signings’ are a waste of time, that electronic media is the answer. A blogger swears by the book signing, but views the ‘press release’ as useless. The more that I researched the dilemma, the more suggestions I found. The more suggestions that I found, the more opinions, for or against, followed. As the young people say, “OMG!” Where do I start? How do I get organize? How will I know which strategy to start with? Where should I concentrate my efforts? I found industry insiders feverently for or adamantly against everything!

I was discussing this quandary with my wife (co-author, editor, proof reader, and senior collaborator), Patty, when she made a nice clarifying observation, “Designing an effective marketing plan sounds a little like the old wives tale for deciding when a pot of boiling spaghetti is cooked. Throw a piece of noodle against the wall every few seconds and see what sticks. When the noodle sticks, remove the pot from the heat.

I don’t believe that anyone actually threw spaghetti against the wall in his or her kitchen, but the concept seemed sound. Over time, I would have to put each individual suggest to the test and see what worked for me. It makes no difference what worked or didn’t work for someone else. I needed to know what would work for me. I needed a plan.

The first step for me, metaphorically, was that I needed a pot of boiling spaghetti. That is, I needed a list of as many possible marketing suggestions as I could compile. The internet is the obvious first and best source. There is no end to on-line experts and/or web pages dedicated to the subject. Pick one. Read the site material and add each ‘novel’ idea to your list. Go on to the next site. Repeat until the internet sources don’t provide enough new ideas to make continued searching worthwhile. I will make one suggestion, discount any site that wants you join their service and/or pay them to apply their idea.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer

Another source of marketing ideas, and one that I recommend, is to buy a book on marketing techniques. Marketing for Dummies might be a good resource. For me, the best published resource that I found is 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer. Trust me, 1001 ways is not enough ways. Granted, I did not apply every suggestion in the book. Some of them are just not ‘me.’ Nevertheless, I recommend that every novice book marketer read 1001 Ways, cover to cover, every word. I did and I highlighted and tabbed anything that even remotely made sense. The reason that I say, “read it all” is that even though I might not accept a given suggestion, some of the most outlandish suggestions occasionally sparked a different idea. ‘I would never do that, but that gives me an idea of something else that I would try.” I wrote down dozens of the better ideas, from joining a local speaker’s registry to starting a blog. After a few months of applying some of the ideas from the working list, the remaining ideas may start getting stale. At that point, I will read the book again, with a more experienced perspective of what new technique might work. I’ll add what I can to my list. The second time around will go quicker. I won’t have to reread the sections on the techniques that I have already incorporated into my daily routine. I will probably re-scan the book several times.

At this point I must discuss one marketing suggestion that I initially discounted as absurd, ‘Start your marketing efforts the day you start writing your first book.’ It takes most of us a year or more to write a book and can take one to three years to get a book edited, proofed, and published. The concept that it would take me one to four years to build a marketing plan was ridiculous (to me.) I, now, wish that I had started even earlier.

One of the marketing suggestions that I first attempted was to produce a professional web page. Developing a web page takes a lot of time. A second suggestion that I adopted was to review the books of other authors. Review them where? How? Which authors. It took me weeks to find the best review sites, blogs, and to learn to publish my own review web sites.

There are affiliate programs to join. There are website to join and profiles to post. There are organizations to join and become active in. All of these things take time. Trust me; a new author doesn’t want to be starting these marketing programs at the same time as his/her new book is coming out. I regret that I didn’t heed this suggestion four years ago when I started writing my first book. I hope that you will do better.

From personal experience, I feel that two habits make the spaghetti system work. One is to be very selective on which techniques to apply and the other is to work to advance your plan every day.

There is an art to selecting which techniques to apply. The basis of the art is simple to state and horrible to apply. There are days when I regret ever learning this habit. ‘Every day, spend your marketing time perusing the most potentially productive single item on your marking list.’ Don’t confuse busy work with productive work. We’ve all seen the office ‘busy bee’: immaculate files, meticulously sorted mail, manicured nails, spotless desk, and so on. Overworked as the ‘bee’ might seem, little or none of the ‘bee’s’ efforts are potentially productive. At the start of each day, look at your “spaghetti’ list and decide which single item is the most potentially productive item on the list and then pursue that item. What makes this habit so horrible is the fact that the most potentially productive project is not always the most fun project, the easiest project, the project with the most visibility, or the most comfortable project.

I was a scientist and engineer, spreadsheets, budgets, schedules. I knew nothing about blogs, web site development, video producing, affiliate programs, writer’s guilds, or a hundred other book-marketing areas. Talk about being out on one’s comfort zone. Nevertheless, I did them.

I googled ‘create your own web site.’ I learned about domains and URL’s. I investigated commercially available help sites. I, also, found Google Sites,’ which, I must say, satisfied all of my needs at the time. I spent a couple of days looking at the home pages of other authors. I looked at celebrity home pages and sales oriented home pages. My lack of knowledge was almost painful, but I learned. I now have what for me is an acceptable home page. I won’t win any web page awards, but, for now, it satisfies my needs.

Blogging for Dummies by Amy Leopold Blair

After I had mastered my home page, I learned about blogs: how to start a blog, where to get content, etc. I worked to sharpen by ‘blogging’ knowledge every day. For weeks, blog development was my most potentially productive pursuit. I bought Bloggingfor Dummies and read it. Again, I absorbed everything I could fine. Today, blogging once or twice a week is part of my routine.

I previously suggested that one must look at the marketing list at the start of every work session. This part of my routine is essential. I spent days developing my ability to produce a blog. At some point, the concentrated study and development time spent on a specific project becomes less than productive. At some point, one must move on to other methods. Commit the blogging effort to routine and quit spending minimally productive time trying to improve on an already adequate product. That’s the moment when it becomes more potentially product to move on. Make it a habit to analyze your list every day and decide, every day, which marketing technique is potentially the most productive. Maybe today it’s time to move on to YouTube?

The second huge habit that I had to adopt was to ‘do something every day.’ I’ll say it again, “Do something (the most potentially productive something), every day.” The something doesn’t have to be a four-hour marketing blitz. Don’t try to do it all in one day. Pace yourself. Just as every dedicated writer should try to write every day, every dedicated marketer should make a habit of do some marketing every day. Write a blog. Test your IPhone camera for video quality. Read some web pages on ‘how to do’ a press release. Review another author’s book and post an online review. Attend a local writer’s workshop. Do something every day. Spend half your time, every day, writing and half your time, every day, marketing your writing and yourself.

The spaghetti method took the stress out of marketing for me. Marketing, now, is just another part of my daily routine, one potentially productive item at a time. It will be interesting to see what combinations of marketing techniques works for you.