Self-Publishing Your Book: Counting the Cost (Part 4 of 4)
FEATURE: Author Jacquelyn D. Murray on promoting her book, Cancer With Grace.
Since the debut of her book Cancer With Grace, edited and published through Adam Colwell’s WriteWorks, Jacquelyn D. Murray has sold 350 copies, mostly through face-to-face sales after speaking presentations. I sat down with her last week…and asked her reveal both the triumphs and challenges she’s faced in promoting her memoir since its November 1, 2015 launch.
“Promotion so far has been mostly through word of mouth from others and myself,” she said. “I have such a large circle of folks! They knew I had a book coming and everyone couldn’t wait for it to come out. Online pre-promotion through Facebook and speaking in California one month before the book came out also gave me 100 pre-sale orders.”
“Once it came out I was bombarded. I remember going to the post office and apologizing to the people in line behind me because I had so many individual packages of my book to weigh, stamp, and ship.” She laughed. “It was kinda nice, though.”
Jacquelyn’s website, built and maintained by her husband Barney Hilton Murray, features a link to her Facebook page and shows the post feed from it, allows visitors to purchase her book directly from her website and includes a special gift set offer, and provides a way to sign up for her weekly blog sent out to subscribers by email through Constant Contact. Her blogs are also posted on the site itself and allows readers to comment and engage in discussion with her.
“I was a little intimidated at first because I’d never written a blog, and I still don’t know if I consider myself a blog writer yet. But meeting with Andrea Arthur Owan took all of the intimidation away. She was easy to work with and the training went well,” she said.
“The first couple of blogs I wrote were relatively easy. The first introduced me to the readers as Jacquelyn Murray the woman, not the cancer patient. It discussed who I was as a child and who I am as a wife and mother. The second one described the type of rare cancer that I had and its significance to my story. Since then, it has been more challenging to write new copy for the topics Andrea and I came up with for the ongoing blogs.”
Jacquelyn admits to falling far short of the desired goal of ten to fifteen hours a week spent on promotion. She says she’s done a few hours each week, and knows she needs to step it up. “I am focusing particularly on increasing my work to request speaking engagements where I know I’ll sell the most copies and share my story in person. I have two events set up so far, one in March and the other in August, and I am looking to increase that to at least a couple each month.”
As I worked with Jacquelyn on this project, we discussed how she’d see a spike in sales the first few months, followed by a lull that needed to be offset by her promotional efforts—and that is exactly what’s happened. “The buildup to the launch is past and I’ve made those sales, so now I know I need to work harder,” she said. “I normally don’t have trouble talking to new people, but the problem I need to overcome is the sense that I’m selling ‘me’ rather than the book and its message. I feel I need to try to convince someone to allow me to speak at their church, and I need to change my mindset to be focused on the fact that I am promoting my story, not me.”
As Jacquelyn moves forward with her blog, social media, speaking, and other networking efforts, she is upbeat, optimistic, and excited by each new story she hears of someone reading the book and being inspired and drawn closer to God by her story of unwavering faith.
“I remain determined, and I encourage anyone who is thinking about writing a book, is already writing one, or is promoting themselves through their own platform to remember this: you can do it! It may seem to be such a huge task, but once you start the work you will gain momentum and learn more discipline.”
Next week, we’ll move on from self-publishing for awhile as I share my four keys to making your memoir memorable.
I want to hear from you!
What mindset change have you made in promoting yourself as a writer, author, or speaker?
5 Comments
Frederick (Rick) Adams
March 11, 2016at 5:11 pmI am in the beginning stages of promoting the book I have written. Unfortunately the book has been out for three weeks. I have a marketing manager and she tells me what I must do, but I have a problem doing some of the things she talks about. I have a money problem and I am not very computer literate. I had someone help me design the website, http://www.believingbrethren.com and now I am having problems getting MailChimp installed on my website. If I had very much hair left I would be pulling it out. I have finally put together a schedule for posting to the blog and to Facebook. There is always something else to do. So, I’ll just hang in there!
Adam Colwell
March 11, 2016at 6:51 pmAtta boy, Rick! That’s the attitude. Working out technical issues (such as the one you mentioned with MailChimp connectivity) and learning new technology yourself can be discouraging – especially when you want to hit the ground running with sales. The best antidote for this type of discouragement, though, is perspective. Technical issues are to be expected. A slow learning curve on new technology is to be expected. Slow sales out the gate, minus working pre-launch efforts like Jacquelyn did, will happen.
The marketing work you are likely being asked to do require patience and persistence. In truth, your promotion efforts will never end…but that’s not a negative thing. This is what you’ve been working toward! You now have a book to sell! Remember the passion you felt as you wrote the book and anticipated the lives that were going to be impacted by its message – and let that renewed excitement carry you onward in every marketing task. Your readers are out there. They just need to know you are, too.
Andrea Arthur Owan
February 29, 2016at 11:41 amHi Adam,
It’s always great to get an author’s perspective on the labors, and pitfalls, of self-marketing! As Christians writing and speaking about what God has done for and through us, we need to remind ourselves often (and be encouraged) that we are promoting God! So often, we feel as though we’re promoting ourselves, and all of the “business” of writing and speaking makes us uneasy, and queasy! Yet, 65-80% of our time, at least in the beginning stage, needs to be spent on marketing. Like evangelizing, we are planting seeds. And we pray that God opens those doors where our message and story need to be heard. We become professional story tellers; and we’re promoting the stories God has written through us. Our name may be printed on the jacket cover, but God is the real author! Remembering that can put it all in perspective, and make our labors more enjoyable and fruitful!
When I first started, I had to force my brain to make a big paradigm shift. Now I look at it as God’s business, which helps me be more proactive in marketing the business and writing He has designed for me to pursue. Remembering that encourages me to be responsible to, and proactive for, my Boss!
Thank you to Jacki for her transparency in her author journey!
Andrea Arthur Owan
Adam Colwell
February 29, 2016at 6:43 pmGoing about God’s business – now there is a perfectly Divine perspective. That changes our mindset, reduces our frustration, and increases our endurance. Well stated. I will use that as a constant reminder as I go about my marketing efforts (and somehow carving out all of the time for it) so I can execute it with an excellence that honors God.
Andrea Arthur Owan
March 8, 2016at 8:20 pmRight on, Adam! And it also increases our joy and peace, too!
Andrea