The Other Side of the Writing Endeavor

Please welcome guest blogger Myra Jolivet, who is a fellow member of the Sisters in Crime NorCal chapter. A bit about her follows her answer to this week's big Q.

Q: Does Marketing Your Book Feel Oppressive or Liberating?

Vocational irony is an alternative description of the shoe-less cobbler’s wife and the cake-less baker’s kids. When you promote and market others for a living, then find yourself with a piece of you to market, it is liberating.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy building strategies for others to win political campaigns or using marketing tactics to build client databases and influence; but once I had gathered the guts to fuel my passion to create cozy mysteries, I had my own thing to pitch and push. My brainstorm sessions happen now with my committee of me and we argue about angles, differentiation and layered strategy.

I hope that every author who bleeds at a key board can find creative release and enjoyment in writing unique marketing plans. I have had incredible mentors who helped to open my mind to my own purposes. I realized that book signings can happen at unlikely places that may be mentioned in your story. Social media communities are free, limitless resources for finding your readers both live and on-demand. Imagine using Facebook live to present a targeted, virtual book signing, internationally. Or using Google+ to define market segments tweaked to your genre. Once you have them, you can send newsletters, poll them on plot developments, ask their opinions on cover styles, and promote upcoming events. You’ll notice the key word is targeted. In the earlier days of public relations, finding highly targeted market segments was much more difficult than it is today with social channels. Back then, we used six-figure surveys, scientific focus groups and huge manual efforts to find what can now be determined in an internet browser search. Finding non-fiction, fiction, romance and mystery book clubs can happen in minutes. Once you have a target audience, you can reach out to them and connect them to your books. This excites me!  It is liberating. The ability to connect, directly with those who enjoy your work product, is a rush. The freedom to experiment with marketing plans can bring creative satisfaction.

It is work. Yes, it is work. But, if you’ve ever worked endless days pushing a political candidate platform to disinterested voters or boosting a product you only marginally like, the opportunity to participate in the marketing of an extension of your time and talents, will feel like a luxury.

My committee of me is currently trying to figure out how to connect with a well-known vodka company because my amateur sleuth loves her martinis made with their product.

If marketing is not your vocation, it can become your passion when you consider the available tools to find your audience. It can become liberating to consider marketing your work, in your way, as the next step of your creation.

Myra Jolivet 

At 4 years old, I had an imaginary friend. I think my storytelling began there. Later came a career in television news, politics and corporate communications; more writing.

Working with writing coaches and editors, I began a series of murder mysteries that connect northern California to the colorful Louisiana Creole culture.

I am a Bay Area native with Louisiana Creole roots. In our quiet Berkeley neighborhood, my parents often hosted gumbo Sundays seasoned with hushed stories of relatives who spoke to the dead and had cast more than a spell or two. Those "secrets" fueled the voice of mystery and humor within me.