Marketing is important no matter what stage of your writing career you’re at. It’s easy for it to turn into a huge time suck though. Researching different tactics, interacting with your target audience, creating new blog posts, it all takes time.

But it needn’t take all your time!

Here’s how to speed up your author marketing so that you can spend more time working on that great novel of yours.

Plan!

Much like how I advocate planning your novel, you should plan out your marketing, too. Know who you’re going to contact and when. Which day(s) you’re going to put new blog posts out. What you’re going to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatever else you use each day. And stick to it.

By planning as far in advance as you can (at least a month, preferably), you save time in the long-term because the ideas are already there.

How can you speed up your author marketing?

Schedule! (As far in advance as you can)

I love schedules. They make life so much easier.

Once you’ve got your plan, you can schedule in your blog posts, social media posts, and whatever else you can as far in advance as you like. Having a schedule also means you’ll know when to reshare older blog content so that it doesn’t fade into the ether the day after it’s been published!

My favourite tool for scheduling is Buffer, although Facebook does have its own scheduler. There’s also HootSuite and SproutSocial.

Enlist!

Enlist as many friends — or even fans, if you have some! — to help with your marketing as you can. However, you need to make sure of several things before you do so:

  • They’re reliable
  • They’re not just agreeing to it to make you happy, but they’ll end up being as useful as a chocolate teapot
  • They know what they’re doing or can learn fast

There’s no point asking a friend who can’t use Facebook to help with your social media. Play to your friends’ strengths. Know someone who’s good with graphic design? Get them to do your book cover, launch poster, and/or social media graphics!

If you know someone with local press contacts, use them! The more you play to your friends’ strengths, the easier the whole process will be.

Alternatively, if you have the funds, you can pay experts to do the jobs you don’t like/aren’t experienced in instead. You can find people to do just about anything on sites like Upwork, People Per Hour, or Fiverr. I’d recommend this if you have a blog that’s struggling for hits and/or SEO isn’t your (or a friend’s) thing. Good SEO makes a HUGE difference to your blog.

How to speed up your author marketing.

Delegate!

You’ve enlisted people to help you with your author marketing. Now you need to give them something to do. I know you want control, but these are people you trust. Eventually you have to put that trust into action and give them something to do.

Be Prepared!

Preparation is as important as planning. None of us know what’s around the corner, so planning for something to happen, such as you becoming ill or your computer breaking, means that if the worst does happen, your author marketing doesn’t stop because you do.

Ditch!

Don’t be afraid to ditch things that you feel aren’t offering a good ROI. There’s no point spending time on something you don’t feel is getting you anywhere. It could be that Twitter isn’t the platform for you, or the print media just isn’t interested. Don’t waste your time on things that don’t get you anywhere.

The Short of it

  • Plan as much as you can
  • Schedule as far in advance as you can
  • Enlist friends and fans to help, and play to their strengths
  • Don’t do it all yourself
  • Prepare for all things
  • Don’t waste your time on marketing projects that don’t offer a good return on investment

What tactics do you use to speed up your author marketing? I’d love to hear your tips in the comments!