I definitely felt this. What kills me, sometimes, is how many times I’ve come so very close to giving up. To putting the pen down. Fortunately (I guess) I am unable to do that. Something inside just won’t let me quit even when I have nothing to show for it. I’m trying to be more interested in marketing these days, even though I am so uninterested in marketing.
I kind of hate even the word marketing, you know? Half the problem (maybe more) is that once the internet came along, the direct response marketing folks found it and that style of marketing took over. It's not the only way. But lots of people think it is. Real writers are the ones who say do you think I do this by choice? No. I can't stop. Those are the real writers. :)
I will be sure to include the Marketing Light among the talents I reach for just prior to being squeezed out into my next incarnation, because I sure missed it this time. So I am avidly looking forward to whatever wisdom you are willing to share, Linda. Yes, I have a mailing list on Mail Chimp and then there's my Substack and my subscribers on Medium, and I am so grateful to all those folks (it's a small number, but still) and yet I know I'm not connecting with them as well as I could. I don't even know what I don't know that I don't know!
I'll be looking forward to your articles on marketing. Do you submit to The Writing Cooperative or Better Marketing? I tend to get some solid traffic from those publications. I know a few tricks when it comes to book marketing, but I have no doubt you possess information I need to hear! I've had a terrible month when it comes to boost nominations, but I finally got one accepted today. I was deliberately trying to avoid my various work emails this morning just to recharge. Wishing you a happy holiday season!
I am a writer for Better Marketing, but haven't posted there for ages. I work in marketing so I run to Medium for a break but I know I should probably post there more often. Boost has been tough this month. I was glad your last post for On Reflection was accepted because wow I've had stuff rejected that I didn't think should have been. Wishing you a Merry Christmas too, Walter. :)
I'm sorry to hear that, but it's a relief to know I'm not the only one seeing good stuff get rejected. I went back to using a headline analyzer tool this week and a lot more of my stories were accepted. I don't know if it's a point of emphasis to use a good title this month, but it's been working for me. Once you get going on your marketing articles, I'll send you some questions. Some of my best performing articles were a result to long answers to what I thought were basic concepts. (here's the headline tool I use...try for 75+: https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer)
I have the paid version of that one but I use up my points too fast. I've upgraded but I still burn through them. lol. I sometimes think they have a flavor of the month with regard to topic. On the Medium blog they've been featuring top posts of the month and it seems like every month there's a heavy lean towards a specific topic. Maybe that's just coincidence, I don't know.
I have really only one good marketing experience and I just went with my gut. I only marketed through Facebook and Instagram. I tried to do TikTok too, but the time required was too much.
The marketing I did was for a local interest book I co-wrote. And my co-writer and I did NOT agree on any of the marketing... he wanted to wait until a couple of weeks before the book was published. I googled everything I could about marketing a book, and knew the sooner you start, the better. He seriously threatened and harassed me over it. (Because he’s published over 50 books and always does things the same way - and no, he is not making decent money in the least)...he basically posts the exact same thing about each book he promotes on his Facebook page... it gets old super quick. I believe he did have a “please buy my book” post last week (for a different title).
The marketing for this book I did was a great learning experience. I felt so much more comfortable marketing this book because I wasn’t exactly marketing myself. I also had a clear audience. The book is Quad Cities Beer: A History. It’s about the history and renaissance of breweries in our area.
Once we got the cover art, I went to all 15 of the local current breweries and took pictures of the cover art at the breweries. I posted every other day, and then did a second round of posts from each brewery with photos and videos - reels. I like to think I garnered a lot of interest and reached a lot of people. We had a release party at a local brewery that was pretty successful.
After this experience, I would like to think that the next time I publish a book, I will be better with being able to market it!
The part of your story that amuses me most is the co-author not agreeing with you. So many people want to keep their work a giant secret and have a big announcement when it's ready, only to discover that they are announcing their big news into the void.
Don’t write with him again. What you were doing is great local marketing. And btw, when I read he published fifty books, I question if they are actually books. 20 pages is not a book. I’ve got a few under my belt, with advances and publishers, and it is not easy to sell books- the competition is fierce. Hang in there, you’ve got the right idea.
It is funny how certain professions (often creatives) have to be marketers as well. In sports, there are scouts, always looking to identify talent and coaches to develop and hone their skills. Maybe we need a tax incentive for finding talented creatives and those who develop and hone the creative skills. The church used to provide that outlet for the world, the wealthy faithful would scour the world for artists to create works to be donated to the church by the wealthy patron. We lost that a while ago and art and invention have suffered since.
Here's the interesting part of the story you mentioned. The artist basically had to work on demand. Because if you were an artist back then - yes, that rich man found you. And that means you can eat. But it also means you have to paint what he wants you to paint. It's the other golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. Would Van Gogh have sold paintings in his lifetime instead of dying in poverty if he painted baby Jesus instead of girl with a pearl earring and starry night?
Probably NOT! As for music, Mozart NEVER got a patron - so he died young (while writing his very famous - and fabulous - "Requiem"). J.S.Bach, on the other hand, was a church musician (which I was, too) and that was one excellent way to get paid - and ALSO to be heard! I didn't get paid A LOT, but I could play classical to a live audience weekly, on both piano and pipe organ!
Dec 23, 2023·edited Dec 23, 2023Liked by Linda Caroll
Hey Linda, maybe I saw some wonderful examples, but I see marketing as something that can be fun! I do feel more comfortable promoting other people's stuff than my own, though. Aside from Medium, I'm on Ghost and Convertkit. I'm growing my email list by using the ambassador strategy, where I DM friends to ask if they would be interested in joining my newsletter. (I explain what it's about). Then I conclude by telling them that it's totally ok if they're not interested. With this strategy, I've grown my email list by about 60 ish subscribers so far. Maybe that doesn't sound impressive, but if you consider how I got just 37 ish subscribers on Medium from after almost 2 years of posting, then gaining 60+ subscribers in a little over a month is amazing. XD This is a Convertkit newsletter.
Also, I Tweet and comment on Tweets on Twitter, to grow followers, make connections, network, maybe find collaborators and interested readers in the future, etc. I may not be skilled at marketing, but I really enjoy networking. Even the experience of chatting with people about our common interests is a joy. :)
I really look forward to reading your article on marketing without being distasteful! Yes, more people should know that marketing doesn't have to be spammy or obnoxious. Just like ads aren't all intrusive and offensive.
Right now, I'm really only marketing my newsletter here on Substack.
I'd say my (rough) breakdown is:
75% on Substack itself via Notes
20% on Threads
5% on Twitter
My Medium articles also have a CTA at the end, but I'm writing about 1-2 articles a month, if that. Most of time on the platform is spent editing and Boosting. Like you, I've had several high quality pieces shot down this month. C'est la vie, I guess?
Yeah it's hard to publish much when you're also editing and nominating at the same time! I was never very prolific, but my publishing speed has gone down even more ever since I became a nommer, lol. I've been using Ghost, Convertkit, and Twitter. I just joined Threads, but haven't really used it. I can't keep up with all of these platforms. 😂
P.S. Is anyone still using Mastodon these days? It seems like I rarely hear about Mastodon anymore.
I’ve been writing forever and never really got anywhere with it. Sometimes I stop for a while and give up, but then I have to write again. I use Substack but I only have a handful of subscribers. Marketing feels like either desperation or slimy lies. I’d love for it to be different.
I hear you. So many writers tell me the exact same thing. One writer told me she'd stop writing before she's start marketing and I laughed. Told her she can't stop writing because it's in her blood, but there is a better way.
I use Substack myself and I'm planning to do a lot more with it in 2024. This past year has really made me aware that I can't rely on Medium, much as I enjoy it. The new membership policies make it a lot harder to share pieces for casual readers and I don't love that. Substack isn't perfect either but at the end of the day I'm glad to have my own email list of interested readers.
I learn something new each time I read you and hope to learn more in the future :)
One of the platforms I write on is Substack - have a relatively small but dedicated audience - my niche is relationships (lol no surprise there) - I do a bit of self promotion on social media but my audience is mainly in house
I am curious, do posts that receive high engagement automatically get disqualified from the boost nowadays? For example, I thought this was a good post with a glimpse into navigating love in the context of a conservative culture with deep rooted societal norms and belief systems - though it connected with the audience, it was a no go for the boosters https://medium.com/p/36664bd5d22c
What they tell us is that engagement has nothing to do with whether a post gets boosted. They said sometimes readers enjoy a post and it does well, but that doesn't factor into whether it gets boosted.
I'm really keen to see your thoughts in January. I worked in marketing for years before I started freelance writing so I have no excuse not to market my work. I just hate doing it so I pretend I don't need to lol. The way it works now is so false, and the market is full of spammy chancers.
I have one that went down well but I'd appreciate it if you could take a look to see if it might be boostable:
I would like to provide a couple links for you to check out as potentially boost worthy. I appreciate you putting out so much information on boosts and that you look for them. I played with the titles a little so they are a bit different than the ones listed in these URLs. Have a great weekend!
lol, I have done that, too. Changed the title and then they didn't match. Thanks, I will have a read. I have a whole day off tomorrow to play on the internet.
It's sometimes a dilemma between more straight forward vs more creative. Depending on the audience, one may not work as well. Anyway, I look forward to your thoughts.
"I read about a guy who uses ChatGPT to write ten or twenty posts a week to drive traffic to a site where he sells affiliate programs and I get it, we all need to eat. But Christ, we need more real artists to float to the top."
As a mere internet user, this frustrates me. So many times these days, when I'm trying to find information on something I don't know much about, I end up on some website which was obviously written by ChatGPT (or some similar AI software) and even as someone who doesn't know much about the topic I can spot logical inconsistencies. Which makes me wonder if websites which also have trash AI-generated sources but lack the obvious red flags are disinforming me without my awareness. It's pushing me to be even more careful about my online sources than before, which can be tough to do when I lack the background knowledge.
You make a very good point, Sara. I saw a job posting on a writing board -- it was looking to hire someone to add personal bits to ChatGPT posts so it was less evident they were AI written. We all need to be really careful with sources now. More so than ever.
I definitely felt this. What kills me, sometimes, is how many times I’ve come so very close to giving up. To putting the pen down. Fortunately (I guess) I am unable to do that. Something inside just won’t let me quit even when I have nothing to show for it. I’m trying to be more interested in marketing these days, even though I am so uninterested in marketing.
I kind of hate even the word marketing, you know? Half the problem (maybe more) is that once the internet came along, the direct response marketing folks found it and that style of marketing took over. It's not the only way. But lots of people think it is. Real writers are the ones who say do you think I do this by choice? No. I can't stop. Those are the real writers. :)
This feels very validating, thank you. 🤗💕
Linda is magical at her craft. Join her magic.
Thank you David, what a nice thing to say. I've been meaning to email you. I will do that today or tomorrow so look for me in your inbox. :)
I will be sure to include the Marketing Light among the talents I reach for just prior to being squeezed out into my next incarnation, because I sure missed it this time. So I am avidly looking forward to whatever wisdom you are willing to share, Linda. Yes, I have a mailing list on Mail Chimp and then there's my Substack and my subscribers on Medium, and I am so grateful to all those folks (it's a small number, but still) and yet I know I'm not connecting with them as well as I could. I don't even know what I don't know that I don't know!
If I didn't do it for a living, I'm not sure I would either.
I count myself lucky that you do.
I'll be looking forward to your articles on marketing. Do you submit to The Writing Cooperative or Better Marketing? I tend to get some solid traffic from those publications. I know a few tricks when it comes to book marketing, but I have no doubt you possess information I need to hear! I've had a terrible month when it comes to boost nominations, but I finally got one accepted today. I was deliberately trying to avoid my various work emails this morning just to recharge. Wishing you a happy holiday season!
I am a writer for Better Marketing, but haven't posted there for ages. I work in marketing so I run to Medium for a break but I know I should probably post there more often. Boost has been tough this month. I was glad your last post for On Reflection was accepted because wow I've had stuff rejected that I didn't think should have been. Wishing you a Merry Christmas too, Walter. :)
I'm sorry to hear that, but it's a relief to know I'm not the only one seeing good stuff get rejected. I went back to using a headline analyzer tool this week and a lot more of my stories were accepted. I don't know if it's a point of emphasis to use a good title this month, but it's been working for me. Once you get going on your marketing articles, I'll send you some questions. Some of my best performing articles were a result to long answers to what I thought were basic concepts. (here's the headline tool I use...try for 75+: https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer)
I have the paid version of that one but I use up my points too fast. I've upgraded but I still burn through them. lol. I sometimes think they have a flavor of the month with regard to topic. On the Medium blog they've been featuring top posts of the month and it seems like every month there's a heavy lean towards a specific topic. Maybe that's just coincidence, I don't know.
I have really only one good marketing experience and I just went with my gut. I only marketed through Facebook and Instagram. I tried to do TikTok too, but the time required was too much.
The marketing I did was for a local interest book I co-wrote. And my co-writer and I did NOT agree on any of the marketing... he wanted to wait until a couple of weeks before the book was published. I googled everything I could about marketing a book, and knew the sooner you start, the better. He seriously threatened and harassed me over it. (Because he’s published over 50 books and always does things the same way - and no, he is not making decent money in the least)...he basically posts the exact same thing about each book he promotes on his Facebook page... it gets old super quick. I believe he did have a “please buy my book” post last week (for a different title).
The marketing for this book I did was a great learning experience. I felt so much more comfortable marketing this book because I wasn’t exactly marketing myself. I also had a clear audience. The book is Quad Cities Beer: A History. It’s about the history and renaissance of breweries in our area.
Once we got the cover art, I went to all 15 of the local current breweries and took pictures of the cover art at the breweries. I posted every other day, and then did a second round of posts from each brewery with photos and videos - reels. I like to think I garnered a lot of interest and reached a lot of people. We had a release party at a local brewery that was pretty successful.
After this experience, I would like to think that the next time I publish a book, I will be better with being able to market it!
The part of your story that amuses me most is the co-author not agreeing with you. So many people want to keep their work a giant secret and have a big announcement when it's ready, only to discover that they are announcing their big news into the void.
Don’t write with him again. What you were doing is great local marketing. And btw, when I read he published fifty books, I question if they are actually books. 20 pages is not a book. I’ve got a few under my belt, with advances and publishers, and it is not easy to sell books- the competition is fierce. Hang in there, you’ve got the right idea.
It is funny how certain professions (often creatives) have to be marketers as well. In sports, there are scouts, always looking to identify talent and coaches to develop and hone their skills. Maybe we need a tax incentive for finding talented creatives and those who develop and hone the creative skills. The church used to provide that outlet for the world, the wealthy faithful would scour the world for artists to create works to be donated to the church by the wealthy patron. We lost that a while ago and art and invention have suffered since.
Here's the interesting part of the story you mentioned. The artist basically had to work on demand. Because if you were an artist back then - yes, that rich man found you. And that means you can eat. But it also means you have to paint what he wants you to paint. It's the other golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. Would Van Gogh have sold paintings in his lifetime instead of dying in poverty if he painted baby Jesus instead of girl with a pearl earring and starry night?
Probably NOT! As for music, Mozart NEVER got a patron - so he died young (while writing his very famous - and fabulous - "Requiem"). J.S.Bach, on the other hand, was a church musician (which I was, too) and that was one excellent way to get paid - and ALSO to be heard! I didn't get paid A LOT, but I could play classical to a live audience weekly, on both piano and pipe organ!
Hey Linda, maybe I saw some wonderful examples, but I see marketing as something that can be fun! I do feel more comfortable promoting other people's stuff than my own, though. Aside from Medium, I'm on Ghost and Convertkit. I'm growing my email list by using the ambassador strategy, where I DM friends to ask if they would be interested in joining my newsletter. (I explain what it's about). Then I conclude by telling them that it's totally ok if they're not interested. With this strategy, I've grown my email list by about 60 ish subscribers so far. Maybe that doesn't sound impressive, but if you consider how I got just 37 ish subscribers on Medium from after almost 2 years of posting, then gaining 60+ subscribers in a little over a month is amazing. XD This is a Convertkit newsletter.
Also, I Tweet and comment on Tweets on Twitter, to grow followers, make connections, network, maybe find collaborators and interested readers in the future, etc. I may not be skilled at marketing, but I really enjoy networking. Even the experience of chatting with people about our common interests is a joy. :)
I really look forward to reading your article on marketing without being distasteful! Yes, more people should know that marketing doesn't have to be spammy or obnoxious. Just like ads aren't all intrusive and offensive.
Sieran, I like your idea of networking to get followers - even subscribers. Though I'm not looking to managing subscribers.
Right now, I'm really only marketing my newsletter here on Substack.
I'd say my (rough) breakdown is:
75% on Substack itself via Notes
20% on Threads
5% on Twitter
My Medium articles also have a CTA at the end, but I'm writing about 1-2 articles a month, if that. Most of time on the platform is spent editing and Boosting. Like you, I've had several high quality pieces shot down this month. C'est la vie, I guess?
Yeah, c'est la vie for sure. But it still sucks. I'm trying for at least one a week on Medium but I think it's time to put more thought into Substack.
Yeah it's hard to publish much when you're also editing and nominating at the same time! I was never very prolific, but my publishing speed has gone down even more ever since I became a nommer, lol. I've been using Ghost, Convertkit, and Twitter. I just joined Threads, but haven't really used it. I can't keep up with all of these platforms. 😂
P.S. Is anyone still using Mastodon these days? It seems like I rarely hear about Mastodon anymore.
I’ve been writing forever and never really got anywhere with it. Sometimes I stop for a while and give up, but then I have to write again. I use Substack but I only have a handful of subscribers. Marketing feels like either desperation or slimy lies. I’d love for it to be different.
I hear you. So many writers tell me the exact same thing. One writer told me she'd stop writing before she's start marketing and I laughed. Told her she can't stop writing because it's in her blood, but there is a better way.
Brenda, you might just gain ONE MORE SUBSCRIBER - from another Older Woman in Denver.
Dana Bennett
I use Substack myself and I'm planning to do a lot more with it in 2024. This past year has really made me aware that I can't rely on Medium, much as I enjoy it. The new membership policies make it a lot harder to share pieces for casual readers and I don't love that. Substack isn't perfect either but at the end of the day I'm glad to have my own email list of interested readers.
That being said, here's a Medium piece that never got boosted but it's a topic that's important to me and I worked hard on it so I shall link it, since you kindly asked. https://medium.com/@amycolleen/i-would-rather-elevate-the-good-than-play-whack-a-mole-with-the-bad-505726aa2840
Have a great holiday, Linda. I really enjoy this newsletter and I appreciate all the work you put into it every week!
Thanks Amy, I will go give it a read. And yeah -- I plan to lean heavier into Substack too. At least the list is mine.
I learn something new each time I read you and hope to learn more in the future :)
One of the platforms I write on is Substack - have a relatively small but dedicated audience - my niche is relationships (lol no surprise there) - I do a bit of self promotion on social media but my audience is mainly in house
I am curious, do posts that receive high engagement automatically get disqualified from the boost nowadays? For example, I thought this was a good post with a glimpse into navigating love in the context of a conservative culture with deep rooted societal norms and belief systems - though it connected with the audience, it was a no go for the boosters https://medium.com/p/36664bd5d22c
What they tell us is that engagement has nothing to do with whether a post gets boosted. They said sometimes readers enjoy a post and it does well, but that doesn't factor into whether it gets boosted.
Really enjoyed this article! Am tempted to submit something to your pub. I've been not writing on Medium lately because I' working on a book.
Oh fun -- how is the book going?
I'm really keen to see your thoughts in January. I worked in marketing for years before I started freelance writing so I have no excuse not to market my work. I just hate doing it so I pretend I don't need to lol. The way it works now is so false, and the market is full of spammy chancers.
I have one that went down well but I'd appreciate it if you could take a look to see if it might be boostable:
https://medium.com/educreation/why-online-writers-should-take-a-do-no-harm-approach-8f391a81a824
Thanks
Thanks, I will give that a read!
Hi Linda,
I would like to provide a couple links for you to check out as potentially boost worthy. I appreciate you putting out so much information on boosts and that you look for them. I played with the titles a little so they are a bit different than the ones listed in these URLs. Have a great weekend!
https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/choosing-self-care-why-i-stopped-going-home-for-christmas-0ff3a16822ba
and
https://medium.com/thirty-over-fifty/i-dated-my-plumber-even-after-he-nearly-blew-up-my-house-1f1caf1a1d06
lol, I have done that, too. Changed the title and then they didn't match. Thanks, I will have a read. I have a whole day off tomorrow to play on the internet.
Glad I am not the only one! lol
It's sometimes a dilemma between more straight forward vs more creative. Depending on the audience, one may not work as well. Anyway, I look forward to your thoughts.
"I read about a guy who uses ChatGPT to write ten or twenty posts a week to drive traffic to a site where he sells affiliate programs and I get it, we all need to eat. But Christ, we need more real artists to float to the top."
As a mere internet user, this frustrates me. So many times these days, when I'm trying to find information on something I don't know much about, I end up on some website which was obviously written by ChatGPT (or some similar AI software) and even as someone who doesn't know much about the topic I can spot logical inconsistencies. Which makes me wonder if websites which also have trash AI-generated sources but lack the obvious red flags are disinforming me without my awareness. It's pushing me to be even more careful about my online sources than before, which can be tough to do when I lack the background knowledge.
You make a very good point, Sara. I saw a job posting on a writing board -- it was looking to hire someone to add personal bits to ChatGPT posts so it was less evident they were AI written. We all need to be really careful with sources now. More so than ever.
Climate change!