when to start thinking about marketing

No matter which publishing pathway you choose, as an author you’ll be expected to be the face and driver of your own book marketing.

A lot of authors bemoan this, and harken back to the days when the publishing companies did it all.

But I think it’s exciting.

And here’s why: no one is as passionate about your book as you.

No one cares more than you about your book reaching as many of its right readers as possible.

So: when should you start thinking about marketing?

The answer is, honestly: it’s never too early.

It’s never too early to start learning book marketing.

When you start seeing yourself as both an author and someone who is in charge of your author presence online, your opportunities increase a thousandfold.

That said, I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about when it makes sense to start building an audience of readers.

Here’s my answer.

If you’re writing nonfiction, a traditional book deal will hinge on your online presence. (In other words: start building that immediately!)

If you’re writing fiction, I think it makes sense to start building an audience (if this is your first book) when you have a finished final draft – if not before.

If you’re aiming for a traditional book deal, it can take one to three years from a finished draft to get an agent, get a book deal, and get the book released.

And if you’re aiming to self or hybrid publish, you’ll want to build in a six- to nine-month runup to release day in which you’re actively building your audience and marketing your book.

Generally speaking, books are easier to market ahead of their release, although there are certainly lots of strategies to sell backlist books that have released more than a year ago.

Next week I’m going to walk you through my #1 secret to learning book marketing.

In the meantime, I want to tell you about my colleague Shelby Leigh.

Shelby taught a session at the 2024 Writing Brave Summit called Build Your Author Platform from Scratch. (If you’ve got an all-access pass, pop into the portal to watch that talk!)

I tell my authors all the time that selling books on social media is HARD. Building an engaged audience of readers on social media is HARD.

And Shelby has cracked the code, with numbers that don’t lie:

• She’s built a reader audience of 500,000 across platforms 📈

• She has sold more than 60,000 books on social media, with no paid ads 🤯

• She’s helped 8,000 authors and creatives feel confident about marketing

If you’re ready to dip your toe into the marketing waters and start (or continue) growing your reader audience on social media, you need Shelby’s Social Media Suite (that’s an affiliate link).

It’s a suite of 280+ done-for-you (human-made, designed & created) social media graphic templates, captions, video scripts and ideas to help you grow your reader audience on social media… for an entire year.

Lots of people ask me to share or sell things to my community, and I say no to a lot of opportunities that aren’t the right fit or timing.

Shelby’s results speak for themselves.

And this offer, at $37, is an absolute steal. Plus, she offers a 14-day happiness guarantee – so if you get inside and the Suite isn’t for you, she’ll refund you, no questions asked.

Snag your copy of the Social Media Suite here for just $37.