Customize to Fit Your Life: Step 3 of 7, Creating a Sustainable, Income-Generating Author Life You Love
8 ways to make book marketing and sales much better for you,
Having written a book, monetized your work, and/or started a small business around your author life are all incredible achievements, and those who focus their creativity in any of these ways should make the most of that foundation. Share your knowledge, your experience, your books, and your services with the world. Integrate your books and authorhood and marketing them into your life, and leverage what you’ve started for maximum satisfaction, starting with the sweet gratification of proper financial reward!
I have been helping authors and authorpreneurs make money from their work my entire career. It started with the authors I published, many of whom turned a single nonfiction book on a topic close to their heart into a cottage industry, a side gig that yielded personal and monetary returns for 3–10+ years after the book’s release.
One thing I learned years ago was that the best way to make money in publishing was to customize the sales and marketing approach to fit each author, their book, their personality, their goals, their lifestyle, and their readers. What I have come to think since the 2008 recession is that this is now the only way for authors to receive ample compensation for their endeavors.
There are eight areas I’ve identified that you as an enterprising author and book marketer can look at when creating a personalized sales and promotion plan that works for you.
1. Your personal strengths
Take a personal inventory of your strong points, what you’re good at, what’s easy for you. Ask your friends and family. Better yet, I recommend taking the StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment created by Tom Rath and the Gallup Organization. If you’re unfamiliar with this, you can find the book (with a test code) on Amazon or go straight to Gallup.com to take the assessment and learn your top five strengths out of about 30. These 30 strengths are also grouped under four broader headings (executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking).
Once you know your strengths, you can more easily match them up with suitable marketing and promotional tactics. This helps you both optimize your efforts and sustain those efforts for the long haul because it’s easier and more enjoyable for you.
Those whose strengths tend towards executing, for example, may be best able to methodically carry out a detailed plan, while those with relationship building skills can focus on reaching out and connecting with others who can help them.
If you have the charismatic strength that Strengthsfinder calls “Woo,” for instance, you may want to focus on speaking, networking, and television appearances. If you have the strategic skill of ideatio — a love of ideas and idea generation — you can focus on daily brainstorming of marketing and sales ideas, then choosing the best ones to pursue. An influencer may know how to best leverage Instagram or 1 to1 sales calls.
So, first, customize by knowing and engaging your strengths and find marketing and sales approaches that fit those strengths. It makes things a whole lot easier and more fun. It’s more sustainable.
2. How others see you
Next up in customizing your sales and marketing is the concept of orienting your activities towards how others see you.
What about you interests and fascinates others? Social scientist and marketing expert, Sally Hogshead, has a book based on her research called How the World Sees You: The Science of Fascination. In it she identifies seven core fascinating characteristics (innovation, passion, power, prestige, trust, mystique, and alert). When you combine a person’s primary and secondary fascinating characteristics you get 49 distinct archetypes of fascination. You can see the matrix and likely find yourself without buying the book and taking the assessment (though I recommend both) at howtofascinate.com.
While similar to your strengths, your points of fascination are really about the point of view of others. What intrigues or interests others about you and how you move through life? What about you is most inherently valuable to others?
Customize your book and author promotion activities next around your points of fascination.
For example, in Hogshead’s scheme, innovation (changing the game with creativity) plus passion (connecting with emotion) yields “The Rockstar” archetype. One author I know with these attributes, David J.P. Fischer, has — entirely coincidentally — built a consulting company and a business book series on networking in the 21st century published under his RockStar label. In hindsight, I see that the first book publishing company I started, Lake Claremont Press, was a great example of the archetype she calls “The Authentic,” a combination of trust (building loyalty with consistency) and passion (connecting with emotion). We best marketed our regional books by riding on the appeal of our reliable authenticity and tugging on customers’ emotional attachments to their place.
So, for yourself, ask others what is most valuable, interesting, fascinating about you and how you go through the world. Consult the archetype matrix at howtofascinate.com and check out Hogshead’s book, How the World Sees You, to select book sales and marketing through this lens.
3. Your interests and skills (those you have and those you want to develop)
The third way to customize your book promotion is to use your interests and skills — those you have and those you want to develop — to choose your sales and marketing activities. Start by brainstorming lists of each, say 25–50 personal interests and 25–50 skills, again those you have and those you want to develop.
Then, for each item on either list, brainstorm again — and keep a running list — of sales and marketing activities related to these items.
So, if you are already a great public speaker, or if you would like to become a better public speaker, use the promotion of your book and expertise as an excuse to do more public speaking. Ditto for teaching, networking, blogging, creative sales approaches, or any other specific ability or interest.
You like joining book clubs? Focus on visiting book clubs as an author and having groups read your book.
One author I’ve published with an interest in old movies has written multiple books on narrow subjects in this area and spends weekends furthering this hobby by meeting and selling books to like-minded fans at collectibles shows and conventions.
Another author I’ve published twice had a skilled amateur’s interest in photography while he was writing his first book, Graveyards of Chicago. The photos in that book were basic, documentarian, a picture to fit the historical text he had written. BUT, pursuing that interest led to becoming a highly skilled photographer, and his second book over a decade later, Seattle Neon, a full-color book of over 400 of Seattle’s best neon signs is a true work of art and now he also sells prints of his stunning photography along with the book.
4. The needs of your books, their content, and your customers
This one is fun because it makes distinctions that a lot of authors may not have thought about: Customize your book promotion and author career efforts by serving the needs of your content, your readers, and your customers.
Let’s start with what those things mean.
Readers read books. Sometimes they buy them, but they may not. They might get your books as gifts; check them out of the library; borrow them from friends; get them secondhand at Amazon, church rummage sales, or used bookstores (so they do buy them but at places where none of that income trickles back to you); find them at a Little Free Library.
Customers buy books. They may read them, they may not. The important thing is that this is the class of people who opens their wallets for you, who spend money on purpose on behalf of your book: individual customers, libraries, bookstores, gift shops, corporations, sponsors, book clubs, and museum stores are just some examples.
Third, your content has needs. Needs and wants. Your content is a collection of messages, information, and experiences that desire to be spread and shared. It was written down for a purpose and it must reach those who need it.
From a big-picture perspective, a book that makes a breakthrough contribution to its field needs a heavy publicity campaign aimed at those who care about that field and keep up with its developments. Readers of hobby books always need more ways to pursue and enjoy their hobby. If most of your customers are retail stores, perhaps they need display stands, shelf cards, bag inserts, window signage, coupons, or social media support.
One baseball historian I know has been doing media interviews at the start of baseball season every year for over 15 years; radio stations, TV shows, newspapers, and magazines all needed expert baseball commentary for their customers every March and April.
Back to readers specifically: They’re important because they’re your true fans. They think about your book, talk about it, review it, post on social media about it, wait for your next one to be released. Even if they never spend a cent — but they often do — they and their word-of-mouth style are critical to your overall success. So, for your book: Who are its natural readers, what are all the categories of possible and likely readers, and how can you reach them? If the TV show Stranger Things were a book, its readers might be lovers of the paranormal, Indiana residents, anyone who grew up in the 80s, D&D players, Winona Ryder fans, followers of government conspiracies, etc.
Customers. Who will spend money buying your book/s and why? I once published a book called A Cook’s Guide to Chicago. Its individual customers were avid home cooks as well as wannabes. They were Chicago fans who prided themselves on knowing obscure nooks and crannies of every neighborhood. Retail customers beyond bookstores included spice shops, specialty kitchenware stores, restaurant supply companies, ethnic food markets, knife sharpeners, and really any vendor that was mentioned in the book. Volume customers included cooking schools as well as planners for conventions with food themes. The author was also a customer of the book because she re-sold them at private events and food demos she did.
How do you serve your content? What messages does your book hold that need to be spread as far and wide as possible? Lately, I’ve read a number of business books by female entrepreneurs with similar, overlapping messages, which amount to: There are easier, chiller ways to run businesses and make money than the tech bros who run Silicon Valley would have you believe. That is a whole ball of content just yearning to find receptive ears and, as such, needs service with specialized sales and marketing approaches.
5. Your values and priorities/what matters to you
Align your sales and marketing activities with your values, your priorities, and what matters to you. When it comes to building an author life you love, you can’t underplay this one.
How do and where can your values, priorities, and what matters to you intersect with selling and marketing your products and services? If increasing your income is of utmost importance, which it is and needs to be for many of us, then don’t pretend it’s otherwise. Keep focusing on those activities that bring you more money and don’t distract yourself with nonpaying gigs. This typically means speaking events, tangential consulting jobs, high-traffic booths and conventions, and making sales in bulk.
An author I worked with a few years ago, as an example, valued excellent work and community contribution. His priorities in retirement included refining his photography craft and supporting nonprofits whose boards he served on. He produced beautiful hardcover photography books and donated all his proceeds to these organizations that meant a lot to him.
Another example: I recently talked to a woman who wrote a children’s book about a kid with food allergies (like her own daughter), and in thinking about sales and marketing, it wasn’t too hard for her when considering a whole field of promotional options, to focus on those that aligned with what mattered to her: keeping parenting her top priority, easing life for other children with food allergies, and educating parents and teachers on food allergy issues.
6. Your short and long-term goals/desired benefits of being an author
We’re over halfway through! I hope the wheels are spinning for you and you’re getting lots of new ideas as well as new ways of thinking about and approaching book marketing and sales and your author life as a whole.
Number 6 is base your marketing and sales choices on your short- and long-term goals and your desired benefits of being an author. This is another opportunity for those of you who love Venn diagrams. Let’s start with a notion of author expectations, your desired benefits of being an author.
One of the most interesting and complex aspects of having been a small-press publisher for over 25 years, one who had lots of direct contact with her authors at all stages of the publishing process, were authors’ expectations.
As you might know from firsthand experience, authors have an assortment of hopes, expectations, and big plans pinned on their book. This is not a problem and, as a fan of authors, I say, you deserve all the things you want considering the time, effort, expertise, polish, and passion you put into your book. But start a wish list. And be specific.
And turn those into goals.
Because without a bit of reflection, those author desires may remain ethereal, grand, and amorphous: to be wildly successful, to be a life-changing experience, and — the one we all think but often barely admit to even ourselves — to make a lot of money. Sure, and to squash the existential pain inside while we’re at it.
Lofty expectations are not in themselves a problem, but non-specific, non-explicit lofty expectations can be. How else can you measure whether what you’re doing is bringing you closer to your desired outcome? How else will you know that you have met them? When can you savor the wins and take proper satisfaction at that?
I’ve kept an evolving list of 52 benefits I’ve seen different authors enjoy over more than two decades and hundreds of books, whether or not these results of writing a book were specifically desired or made explicit.
My not-so-crazy idea is that the earlier in the publishing process you as an author define for yourself what you want out of your book, the better able you are to marshal the resources necessary to achieve them (including the publisher where appropriate), the greater your results, and the greater your satisfaction. And, bonus, you will also enjoy plenty of unexpected rewards as well.
These 52 benefits fall in four major groupings: Community/social benefits; personal/internal; Career/business; and Financial. Under community/social are things like:
Gaining entry into the club of writers.
Joining the conversations related to one’s book/topic.
Correcting misconceptions and exposing injustices.
Entertaining and delighting others.
Capturing stories and history before they’re lost.
Amplifying one’s social network.
Under personal/internal benefits, are things like:
Expressing oneself and creating something original, beautiful, provocative, or important.
Achieving something significant and experiencing elevated self-esteem.
Basking in the prestige, making a name for oneself.
Living a fuller life.
Leaving a legacy.
Under career/business benefits, are things like:
Establishing one’s authority on a subject and showing expertise in a field.
Contributing to a body of knowledge.
Complementing one’s primary business.
Enlarging one’s professional network.
Developing a side business.
Building a platform, growing an ongoing audience.
Finally, under financial benefits are things like:
Earning passive income in the form of royalties. (And, It’s only passive income after you’ve done loads of unpaid work first, right?)
Increasing income through turning one’s book into a part-time or full-time business through re-selling, speaking fees, and otherwise monetizing your expertise and authorhood.
Reaping the rewards of the content’s secondary markets (movie rights, reprint rights, etc.).
Finding a better-paying job (with new skills and an enhanced resumé) or justifying a pay raise (increased value to one’s company).
Now, back to Venn diagram: What are your short- and long-term goals for yourself? Personal and professional, book-related or not?
Here it is: Simple though not always easy: Use your book to accomplish those goals and meet your author expectations.
What are your short and long-term goals for yourself, in general, and as an author and a human being? Direct your efforts to bring you closer to these things. Instead of feeling yourself slog through mundane sales tasks, experience them as inching you closer to your goals.
For example, I’ve seen countless writers and journalists leverage their book, blog, or column — its reputation, visibility, and the new skills it brought to them into better-paying jobs. Just as many authors have discovered in these experiences an expanded social network and interesting new friends. Other authors were surprised at how diligent promotion turned them into recognized authorities on their subject in a relatively short period of time.
7. Your connections/how other people can help you
Number seven: Activate your connections and how other people can help you.
Make a list of everyone you know… everyone. Get out your address book and your holiday card list. Add your email contacts, your phone contacts, and your Facebook friends. Whether you know 100 or 1,000 people, or more, I suggest contacting all of them individually in a systematic way over the next month or months, be it one a day or five a day.
For some, you will be asking for something specific that they can do for you: Will you show my book to that bookstore at the end of your block? May I sign books at your gift shop on a holiday weekend? Are there opportunities for me to speak about my work to your group, club, organization?
For others, you can ask more generally: May I send you an invitation to my library program? Will you consider writing an Amazon/GoodReads/Library Thing review for my book? Would you mind sharing the Facebook event for an upcoming popup sale?
Next, think of the group platforms you have, both online (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn groups) and offline (clubs, teams, organizations etc.). As appropriate, create a multi-month campaign to ask the group or group members collectively for something (once, once a month, four times a year, whatever makes sense). Is anyone here willing to read my book and write an online review? Do you belong to any organizations that are looking for guest speakers in my area of expertise? Do my products fit with the merchandise at any stores you regularly patronize? Does anyone you know need my services at the moment?
The key takeaways here are:
Get comfortable asking for help.
That’s easier when you also know how to give help and participate in mutually supportive relationships whether they’re strong ties or weak ties
Maintain the habit of cultivating new connections.
Nurture your network so it’s also there for you.
8. Your current life and schedule/your desired life and dreams
Finally, number eight: Build around your current life and schedule, with an eye towards your desired life and dreams.
Choose marketing and sales activities that work with your life and its constraints. Better yet, pick activities that both fit with your current situation and where you’d ideally like to go, whether that’s a modest shift or a grand one. Are you a stay-at-home parent who does a lot of shuttling of children and feels torn by the wasted time? Commit to making sales calls from the car every time you’re waiting for the kids. Are you retired and increasing your travel schedule? Plan speaking events or writing workshops at your destination in advance. Visit stores on the road to drop off review copies and ordering information.
As an example in this category: I worked with an author who had three young triplets at home the year his book was released. He scheduled book events after work with 2–3 clubs a month for a couple of years and cherished the extra cash and every adult-filled conversation those opportunities provided.
There you go. Eight ways to customize your sales and marketing to support an author life you love, to increase your sales and exposure, up your fun, meet other life goals. To review, those are:
Engage your strengths.
Orient towards how others see you.
Use your interest and skills — both those you have and those you want to develop.
Serve the needs of your content, your readers, and your customers.
Align with your values, your priorities, what matters to you.
Base on your short- and long-term goals and your desired benefits of being an author.
Activate your connections and how other people can help you.
Build around your current life and schedule, with an eye towards your desired life and dreams.
Again it’s easy in its simplicity, but it is work. Tap into who you are and where you’re at, consider all of the above, then make your plan for action — to bring what you have to the world. Because when you bother only with the substance, you are optimizing your efforts and that tends to deliver not just more money, but more good things all around.
Thanks for reading! Step 4 coming next.
The Substack Subscription That Comes With Guarantees! (through 12/31/2024)…
Please check out how my December special can get you a copy of my new book FREE, a week before it’s officially released. Now through 12/31/2024.
It involves my brand new Profitable Author Life Subscription (and Community) here on Substack. Please do yourself and your author business this favor. It comes with guarantees (plural) and a free copy of my new 500-page book, bonuses that will not be part of the subscription after January 1. It comes with group author business coaching, the ability to ask me the questions that pop up in your day-to-day work of marketing your books and building your author business and more.
This is the perfect holiday gift for you and your author enterprise!
Give yourself the gift of support, inspiration, knowhow, and author success for all of 2025.
Request it from a loved one who wants all the best for you.
Cost is $6/month…less than 20 cents/day.