Wouldn’t it be nice if we writers could spend all our time weaving beautiful sentences and never have to think about getting them ‘out there’?

I doubt I’m the first person to tell you this is the stuff of fairy tales.

Maybe you’ve completed your first manuscript and you’re asking yourself, “how does a writer go about marketing themselves?” Maybe you’d like to write and you don’t know where to start. At some point, you’ll have to think about what sort of a writer you are and what sort of people will read your writing, so thinking about marketing now is a great idea. Perhaps you’re just down right daunted by the prospect of marketing yourself. People throw around terms like strategy, positioning, CRM, call-to-action, ROI and you want to give up before you start. Or perhaps you’re a little cynical. Isn’t marketing just another word for manipulation? Something reserved for big consumer brands.

If you fall into any of those categories, this blog is for you. As a writer of fiction and copy, with nearly 20 years’ experience as a marketing consultant, my aim is to demystify the marketing process, and show you how it is relevant and accessible to you as a writer.

Writers are misguided if they believe they can ignore marketing. You can spend years holed up in your room crafting beautiful writing, but what does it benefit the world if no-one hears about it and reads it? Unless that’s your goal. In which case, I’d say you’re journaling, not writing.

Marketing can seem scary when you don’t know where to start but it’s definitely not irrelevant to the creative individual, especially when done right.

Marketing is often misunderstood. And misused to manipulate instead of build relationship – maybe one reason for its bad rap. You do need to do the work of figuring out which marketing strategies will work for you as a writer. But I don’t believe it’s rocket science. And you ignore it at your peril.

On this blog I share insights, tips, resources, and personal experiences about the best marketing strategies for you as a writer. I write about things like: creating a marketing plan, developing your brand, writing copy rather than fiction, and speaking confidently in public.

Thank you for reading and welcome!