Writers Unbound

The Market is Open

Monday morning. Freelance writers groan, yawn, grab their robes and pad into their kitchens, stand waiting as the coffee brews. Computer flickers on and one hand meanders with the mouse while the other holds the PopTart away from the keyboard.
Five job sites to check, a few good possibilities for the day. Ten minutes later, there are ten tabs open, a half-consumed strawberry frosted square sitting by the notebook and a hand alternating between pencil-scratched notes and mouse clicks.

It’s Monday. The market is open. What will you do this morning? Do you have a plan? Do you have an inkling of what your week holds? Are you squeezing in an hour or so before it’s off to your real job? Are you feeding and dressing kids before you get some silence and time to work?

Don’t Write!

Two suggestions for the way you spend your writing time today:
1) Market
2) Manage

Egads, Batman, I didn’t even say write! I know, I know. Let me quote a few people who know lots more than I do about this sort of thing.

You Could Take My Word For It, Or…

Seth Godin, for example, whose interview in the 2008 Writer’s Market got me thinking about this writers-need-to-market-more topic. Of course, writers marketing themselves isn’t a new idea. We talk about it, blog about it, write about it. There’s the whole universe of blogs about blogging. Marketing is necessary. Often, though, we still don’t give it enough attention or don’t give it the right kind of attention.

A Decent Marketing Plan

The interviewer of the Writer’s Market article, Anthony Tedesco, asks this question of Godin: “What marketing plan would you recommend for an author who has time but not money to spend?”
Answer: “Build a blog and a squidoo lens. Contribute to bulletin boards and forum. Give help, don’t ask. Build a permission database of people who want to hear from you. Then write.”
Then Tedesco asks another question: “What’s the best book marketing plan when the budget is somewhere around “sky’s the limit”?
Answer: “Same.”

Don’t Be Cheap

One word: networking. But not sleazy, slicked-back-hair, “Have I got a deal for you” networking. Ew. Don’t be the QVC of the writing world. Have a little class. I think the key is this four-word sentence of Godin’s: “GIVE HELP, DON’T ASK.”

In this post, Godin elaborates: “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success. So, if you’re going to write a book in six years, please start now and focus on hard work, breaking new ground and being a standup guy.”

Marketing is only as good, valuable, and effective as the product it seeks to promote. If you cheat on marketing by posting a few comments here and there, polishing up the surface of your site, and then shamelessly self-promoting, you will end up with, possibly, an initial rush of interest followed by silence.

So. The lesson, in brief? Dedicate significant time from your week (start today) to helpful marketing. Read, and leave insightful comments. Answer questions. Offer help. Guest post for no charge. Follow up with people. Get cards made, and give them out but only when appropriate. Make the other person’s interests more important than your own.

Manage Yourself

I didn’t forget Suggestion #2.

Take at least an hour on Monday to create a plan for your week. Set goals, make a list, block out time, brainstorm ideas, construct outlines, gather resources.

That’s it. The rest is up to you!

By the way, if you still don’t like wasting all this time on Monday, then go ahead and write on Mondays. Just do your marketing and managing on Sunday night.

Make it a good day!