Whether you've recently self-published or are considering self-publishing, continued author marketing is what grows you as your brand. The following tips can help you find your writing niche to take your income to a more profitable level.
1. Sell your author marketing skills. Writers come in all shapes in sizes. Some of you may have been marketing pros in your past career lives or simply have a knack for it. Adding "social media: specializing in author marketing" to your resume will make other writers think, "why didn't I think of that?!"
To supplement your self-publishing income, consider advertising your skills as a social media/public relations specialist for other writers. In the process you'll be getting paid to make new connections that will no doubt advance your own writing and book marketing forward.
2. Use your expertise to get hired. If you're an expert in your field, author marketing just got that much easier. Reporters and news stations are clamoring to hire experts for regular columns or get their take on a subject area for their upcoming stories. While the money might not be upfront in all cases, these types of feature opportunities where you're contributing or being quoted as an expert lead to paid gigs. About.com posted for an expert in philosophy the other day and then posted for an Indonesian food expert. You might not be a professor in a field, but may be an expert writer with a backround in a specialized area.
Tip: You need to get your name out there to reporters if you're just breaking into author marketing and networking. Help A Reporter Out is a list serve of reporters and journalists looking for other writers and experts who have published to do feature stories- we're talking The Huffington Post, ABC News, The NY Times. Once you're in with a reporter, you can become their go-to expert. Some authors even get invited to write regular paid columns from these leads. Many reporters are looking to do features on successful self-publishing stories- watch for these.
3. Speak up and do demos. Just like reporters are looking to quote experts, universities, foundations, hospitals and shopping markets are just a few places always on the hunt to invite published authors to speak at their events. Many corporations need published authors to speak on their wellness days or team building events- this can be an excellent way to financially supplement your writing career as well as grow your network to land more writing opportunities. An added career bonus? Speaking also tends to enhance the authenticy of your writing.
Tip: Bring a few copies of your promotional books anytime you're speaking at an event. Reserve these for the CEO, head of the event as well as event-goers that are influencers. Offer to sign a copy as a gift and let them know how you'd love to contribute to one of their campaigns offering your services as a speaker or as a writer.
