Story Ideas – Online Marketing for Writers, Part One

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Story Ideas – Online Marketing for Writers, Part One

By Deb Gallardo

In today’s fiction market, when U.S. publishers annually put out hundreds of thousands of books, yet devote promotional funds to only their top authors, getting the word out about your writing has never been more important. That said, here is a bold statement: Today is the absolute best time to be a writer. Here’s why.

As the Internet continues its explosive growth, the publishing landscape is evolving. Even big name publishing houses are scrambling to keep up with the many ways the buying public wants to consume the written word. Hometown newspapers are struggling more than ever before to stay afloat. Because studies show that 40% of Americans read 1 book or less per year, none of us knows how all this will shake out in the coming years.

Three things are certain, however.

There has never been more of a need for good writers, both fiction and non-fiction.
There has never been more of a need for those writers to be able to market their own work.
There has never been a more lucrative, accessible and affordable marketing medium than the Internet.

This article is the first in a series on Internet Marketing for writers. Although the focus of fiction writers normally is inventing colorful characters, believable plots and authentic settings, to earn a living wage from our writing we must see beyond the fictional worlds we create.

Unless we’re independently wealthy (I’ve yet to run into any writers in this category), we can’t afford to say, “I just write. I can’t be bothered about promoting my work.” That would be like a talented artist painting masterpiece after masterpiece that no one buys because the artist can only create, not promote.

One cannot pay the rent on such a noble and unrealistic attitude. At the very least, writers and artists can hire others to promote our work, but even agents have limited influence.

Self-promotion isn’t such a new concept for fiction writers. In the romance genre, for example, for at least two decades respected authors have been advising fellow writers to do their own publicity.

But beyond the “out there”-type promotions that send some writers’ psyches fleeing from the light of day, writers who want to be published must all learn to write compelling query letters, as well as master the art of writing tight, elegant outlines for book proposals. Much as creating these may take many of us outside our comfort zone, these sales skills – for that is precisely what they are – are ESSENTIAL to our success at getting published.

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