The Critical Element - Six Years Later

The goal of marketing is to generate sales. Marketing is a process, not an app.

Regardless of all the digital tools and apps that have been developed in the six years since we presented our first workshop, the core pages on this site ARE still exactly what you need to know as the backbone of your marketing strategy. You need to develop a Persona/presence to Push your message and Pull your audience to a Point-Of-Purchase. These are critical elements to marketing before the apps and tweets.

In 2012 we made this site interactive by posting three days a week with the following topics: Myth Busting Monday, Workshop Wednesday, Finer Points Friday. It was a lot of fun and let us focus on the extra stuff we stripped out of our core pages to keep our message clean.

In 2013 we posted less for two reasons: 

1. The analytics showed a post got more views and shares when it was the main post for a week or more. That means the quality you present in social media is more valuable that quantity. 
2. A small press wanted us to publish our Guide & Journal so we had to create it. 

Through 2015 we consolidated those workshops from 2012 and brought them forward in a stronger message and to make them easy to locate. We also shared personal stories from authors regarding their publishing and marketing journeys.

This year has been all “Finer Points” of promotion and professionalism as that is the stage we are at today – and we’re having fun! Scroll down the right sidebar of this site to see all the topics we’ve already covered for you and the journey creating your career.

Unfortunately, all the myths we covered through these years regarding marketing advice for authors are also still relevant and being promoted to authors. Any promotions/products/promises that have a secret to success flavor with everything in one magic button, is usually a myth. It was the myths that made us mad enough to debunk them and create clear and effective marketing tools for you to generate sales of your books. No magic here, just proven tools and processes.

To quote Neal Thompson, director of Author and Publishing Relations at Amazon.com (from RWR, vol.36, num.8, August 2016) “Finding your readers has always been a challenge, long before this empowering new age of indie publishing. That means indie authors (and, honestly, all authors) need to get the most out of every reader-engagement tool that’s available to them.”

Yep! We totally agree! Then Mr. Thompson states that the CRITICAL ELEMENT TO FINDING READERS (our emphasis) is for authors to concentrate on Writing The Best Book Possible! To which we also agree! The Best Book. The best marketing will not generate sales for a lousy book.

September is Back-to-School month in the USA so take this month to click on the Persona, Push, Pull, POP page tabs below our banner (above) and review each of The 7 Primary Points To Stand Out From The Crowd so you can effectively use all those digital tools and apps to generate sales of your Amazing Book.

Remember, the author journey includes continuing to improve your craft. So here's some links to also review:

Reflections on a Craft Class: Hanging with Mary Buckham - Friday, May 22, 2015

Morgan says: Like we've said before and we'll say it again, the best form of marketing is writing a GREAT book! And many of the best authors are perpetual learners. With these thoughts in mind, I followed Gina Fluharty's lead and enrolled in Mary Buckham's Power Plotting Workshop. This two-day class was a working session based on the book she co-wrote with Dianna Love titled:Break Into Fiction.

Marketing Children's Books - It is All About your Characters - Nov 15, 2013

Children's book authors have character based websites and promotions. Children tend to ask for books based on topics and characters. "I want to read dinosaurs" or "I want to read Angelina Ballerina" have both been uttered by any number of children around the world.

Marketing Non-Fiction Books - It's your Persona and Topic - Nov 8, 2013

Our personal opinion is there are loads of wonderful How To books for nonfiction authors to build their author platform, especially if it is a How To or Specific Topic platform. Writer's Digest Books and Magazines are chock full of decades of advice for authors to become known as being an authority on their topic. However: Memoirs are 100% the professional nonfiction writer in a specific and genuine Author Persona With a Topic.

Beware the Book Marketing Expert - Friday, August 22, 2014

One of our primary messages is an author's time is a precious commodity and not to spend it foolishly by jumping on the bandwagon of the latest promotional gimmick or hot blog.Our primary objective is to educate our fellow authors so that it's easier to discern the truth from the hype without wasting your hard earned dollars. Everything about this AM101 blog and our book is focused on how to apply basic marketing principles to design and implement a PLAN that is effective to generate sales of your novel. We focus on novelists because they have unique marketing challenges not addressed until now.