Up to your ears in marketing, social media, tweeting, blogging, networking etc. etc. when what you really want to be doing is write? Tell me about it!
I’ve found an excellent article online – at http://bookpromotion.weebly.com – that may help you and me both. Its author rightly points out that “Authors who don’t plan their pre & post-launch marketing can end up spending a lot of time and money trying to play catch up after publishing their books”.
The author also estimates authors spend 70 per cent of their time marketing, leaving only 30% for writing.
Here’s the (abridged) article:
The 10 Tools Every Self-Published Author Needs To Save Time
Authors who don’t plan their pre- and post-launch marketing can end up spending a lot of time and money trying to play catch up after publishing their books. If you don’t plan properly, marketing can take twice as long as the writing and publishing process. Feeling late to the game? Don’t fret. The following list of resources will help save yourself from considerable frustration that most authors encounter along their literary journeys. Both new and veteran authors alike can benefit from these online marketing platform building techniques.
The 10 tools offered cover the gamut of marketing options at you disposal, ranging from social media, website and email to traffic, press releases and book clubs. They allow for the pre-launch of your book, pre/post launch and post launch.
An excellent article! Again, here’s the link: http://bookpromotion.weebly.com -Lance
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Morcan Books & Films 
Self published or commercially published — all the same. You spend a lot of your own time and money promoting it. Those who don’t, won’t sell books. Having written two NF books, I’ve lived this firsthand already!
Food for thought. Re yr comment “Those who don’t, won’t sell books.” – that could be amended to read: “Those who don’t write or publish a series won’t sell books.” Readers seem to love series. Certainly many (or most?) of the bestseller success stories on Amazon are series. So maybe the best thing a writer can do is…simply keep writing.
Very good articles. Thank you!
Thanks Christine. -Lance
[…] Here are two very good articles I picked up from Morgan Books and Films Blog Marketing vs. Writing: the author’s dilemma. […]
Thanks. Pls note our blog is Morcan Books & Films…not Morgan. Best, Lance & James
Sorry, typo. I’ll correct that!
[…] For a direct link to the book promotion article they posted click here. […]
‘Marketing vs. Writing…’ Should read ‘Marketing and Writing…’ They have always been joined -part and parcel, you might say – for successful writers since time began 🙂
That’s debatable I reckon. Not sure how much marketing Michener, Hemingway or Mark Twain needed to do. I think they were too busy writing. As per an earlier post…”maybe the best thing a writer can do is…simply keep writing.” Hopefully, the quality of his/her work will rise like flotsam to the surface. The better the writer, the less marketing/tweeting/demanding attention he/she needs to do. That’s one theory anyway! -Lance
Thanks for following my blog. Hope some quips fit your interests and/or concerns. Best to you and your blog.
Many thanks!
Marketing, like brushing your teeth should be done every day . Twice a day when your Editor/ mom is watching.
It keeps your career minty.
But spending the whole day in the bathroom is OCD.
Marketing is preparatory. Writing is living.
Mmmmmmaybe…’Tis very easy for the lines to become blurred and for the marketing to become all-consuming. It’s a fine line I guess. Perhaps quality writing naturally rises to the top and therefore doesn’t need to be marketed ad nauseum? Maybe we writers should just do what we do best and write, and let the market speak. Not sure…just thinking aloud. -Lance
I think it probably depends on the level of anxiety to sell.
I am lucky that I have no financial goal. If your writing is funding other projects then I think yes marketing can become all consuming and exhausting.
It really does depend on what you want.
I think it is quite important to re-visit what you want on occasion. You know, just to make sure you are getting it.
Cream does rise.
Sadly so does poop on occasion.
Both have worked to my advantage on times (smile)
Same here come to think of it!
This is awesome! Thanks.
Thanks — both for this useful article (as the author of three books, I know I HAVE to market, but it doesn’t mean I have to like having to do it!) and for following my blog!
Thanks Wynne. Good luck with those books! – Lance
I was in South America when email first exploded onto the scene, I deigned to get a cell phone only because my nervous husband wanted to keep track of his pregnant wife–it’s pretty amazing that I found this blog post at all! Thank you for visiting my blog, and for the link to this great article about all the stuff I didn’t know I didn’t know.
Our pleasure.