One of the reasons I absolutely hate, loathe, and despise marketing is because I feel like a sleezy salesbag.  I know I’m not supposed to feel that way. I’ve read all the books. Like… all the books. I’ve taken so many classes, they make my head spin.

But I just recently took a class that finally made sense to me. Not the whole class. It was a lot of money to get one thing out of. But the big takeaway for me was that I didn’t need to sell myself. I needed to build relationships.

Now, okay. I see your reaction. I do. I reacted the same way. “I don’t have time to do that!”

But then I sat down and sketched out what this plan would actually look like. I showed it to you last week in the Deep Dive portion. It will take me four to eight hours a month, depending on how much time I invest in video that month. Once I get it started, maintaining it will only cost me four hours a month.

I’m pretty excited to put this into action and test-drive it to see how it works. Buy This! Buy This! Buy This!

We’re told we need to keep our pages active. We’re told we need to get our ads out there. We’re told we need to get in front of people. The problem is that everyone is telling everyone to buy everyone’s stuff, and the buyers are weary. They’re everyone’s money machine, and they’re getting nothing back for that. So, your voice is getting lost in the sea of hawkers and it doesn’t matter how great your cover is or how amazing your book is.

There are still people who claim they get really amazing ad buys and they’re making the lists and they’re amazing.

But those are the authors who have already built these relationships with their readers. And those relationships were forged before everyone became weary to the sound of the Buy Me crowd.  

Where To Start

If you’ve been following my Ideal Reader articles, you’ve probably gleaned that’s where you start. Last week, I offered the topics and focuses I’m using to connect with my readers where they care.

I also outlined what days I’m scheduling what posts. What each theme will be each week.

And, if you notice when reading them, there are zero mentions to my books. It’s Witchy Wednesday where I talk about witchiness, not Whiskey Witches, my series.

So, how can I make sure my readers understand that, yes, I am sharing this awesome tidbit with them, but don’t forget I can offer more in my books?

Not by telling them to buy my books.

I’m putting my logo on some of the graphics. I’m referring to my characters from the books. I sometimes even pull conversations that happened in my books, or giving them excerpts that tie in.

I’m finalizing the first set of these – the February set—this weekend. I’ll be launching these as the month progresses, but it certainly feels right.

And I’m going to see if it works.

“Come on, weary readers. Let’s have a conversation.” That’s what I want to do. We need to elevate our readers so they feel like they’re more than the money cogs in our author machines.

Discussion

How do you think this is going to go for me?