Super stoked to have indie author and Wonder Heart Society (a publishing company) co-founder Amara Luciano talking about marketing today! Amara is amazing at marketing and has helped so many authors, myself included, figure out how to be authentic with our marketing, so this is a post you won’t want to miss!
HOW TO BECOME A MARKETING SENSATION WITH OR WITHOUT A BIG 5 PUBLISHER
One of two things happens when marketing comes up:
- Some authors go into a frenzy, watching videos on writing fast, building a platform, nurturing a following, and getting a third of the way through their manuscript… and then putting their book away for a year.
- Other authors end up wearing my mom’s face when I put any leafy green vegetable in front of her.
Marketing is the thing everyone tells you is necessary. You buy into the word so readily, consume all the mind-numbing mumbo jumbo on the subject.
Your research is supposed to runway walk you to your success, every strategy effected to perfection.
And then… crickets.
So you jump on stories and share “vulnerably” (see: big messy sobs) and you tell the world that no one is interested, selling books is hard, and writing may never flow like it did.
But what if we could skip all that melodrama?
What if massive interest in your work was simply standard?
And you didn’t have to fight anyone for it, read PDF guides until your eyes bleed, nor wait for permission to start?
FIRST, YOU’VE GOT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT MARKETING IS.
The reason you full body cringe when you have to sell yourself is the same reason your KDP dashboard needs some love.
Marketing that works is not writing “buy my book” 50x like your teacher might’ve made you in school.
It’s not slipping into someone’s DMs with an amazon link or throwing amazon gift cards in their laps for a review.
Marketing is just intentional, interesting, repetitive communication. It’s saying the same things over and over again without boring yourself to death.
And you know how that happens?
Do you know how wildly epic marketing campaigns are born?
Take a piece of yourself and MAGNIFY what you’ve got.
With confidence.
The world takes notice when you project your best self without permission or apology. When you say the things you know to be true and put your inherent magic behind the words.
Find a few adjectives you want to embody and then create things for your readers to consume around those words.
When they repeat those adjectives back to you, you’ll know you’re becoming KNOWN the way YOU designed.
OBSESS OVER YOUR ZONE OF GENIUS.
Pick where and how you want to market.
If you’re really good at shaking hands in person instead of online in your underwear: go join writer groups, speak at schools and libraries, set up signings, and attend conferences and book events.
Don’t just jump onto social media and be one in a million with fluff pictures and yawn-inducing captions.
Don’t lobotomize your creativity just to do things the way you think you should.
The truth is there is more than one path to success—and regurgitating the same moves as someone else only makes you a shadow unworthy of the limelight.
Yes, social media marketing is the easiest and most lucrative when you decide to be consistent and ground-breaking with it.
But if you’re spinning your wheels and no matter what you learn makes you want to cry, it’s time to switch up the playing field and try on a new set of rules.
I was talking to an author the other day and I asked her
WHAT WOULD THE BESTSELLER VERSION OF YOU DO?
And she said she’d be sipping a lemonade somewhere on the beach while her assistant updated her on her social media analytics.
And I was like, you can totally hire a social media manager to manage your online presence the same way you would hire a publicist when you don’t want to do your own PR.
You’re not hurting any expert, serving any readers by putting up anything less than what you truly believe in.
You’re not creating ground-breaking impact with your work when you show up in half-measures and pour all your energy asking for how-tos all day long.
What does the bestseller version of you want to be doing?
What decisions would she be making, tasks would she be outsourcing, media would she be dominating, resources would she be absorbing?
What sandboxes would she be mastering?
What rules would she be breaking?
I promise you the bestseller version of you doesn’t concern herself with bots and trolls, or well-meaning family or friends with shitty things to say.
She doesn’t bother with strategies and advice that don’t feel good to her.
The bestseller you carves her own path. Leads her life when others just follow theirs.
The big secret to marketing yourself with professionalism and authenticity is this:
Own what you say and think and feel. Reassure yourself when no one else will. Trust your own creative voice.
Embody your best qualities and project them outward all the time.
Embody the bestseller you.
Amara Luciano wants to live in a world where you can trust that “writing gets to be easy,” “marketing is always effortless,” and “you are always worthy.”
A beloved mentor and high-stakes fantasy author, she helps authors sell books that matter and has reached Amazon’s Top 100 in Dark Fantasy with her book, Heirs of Fate.
When she’s not at her keyboard or delivering empowering IG lives, she’s on her couch streaming a Christmas rom com or a kick-ass tv series.
You can find more of her work at amaraluciano.com or visit her company at wonderheartbooks.com.
books by s.r. 
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