Best Practices for Literary Marketing

Here are a few best practices for your marketing, gathered from twenty years of creating content online:

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

This is especially true when it comes to social media. It’s better to get something mostly complete posted and out to an audience than trying to make it perfect. Social media these days values a less polished appeal, so try making a video or try out that Canva template and just see what happens.

Approach marketing with an experimental mindset.

You will not find your style, voice, or branding on the first try, nor will you know what type of content attracts your audience on the first try. Keep trying new things to see what resonates with your audience. One of my clients once said to me after we had worked together for a bit that she tried one post, and it didn’t get the engagement she wanted, so she was going to try something new next time — and that’s when I knew she got it!

You must be consistent.

You often hear “the algorithm rewards consistency,” and yes, the more consistent you are, the more the algorithm will show your content to others. But any relationship is built on consistency. If you’re consistently showing up on your subscribers’ social media feeds or in their inbox, they’ll be more likely to engage with you than someone who shows up once in a while.

Learn the technology enough so you don’t hinder yourself.

You don’t have to become an IT expert to send a newsletter, update a website, or create content on social media. But you do have to understand it to a certain extent so that you’re not hurting your marketing efforts. For example, you may use a third-party site to cross-post your social media content to make things easier. However, if you’re not aware that different social media requires different aspect ratios, you may end up with posts that don’t fit the screen. It will look unprofessional and people will scroll on by.

Ignore social media to your own detriment.

I was reading submissions for a lit mag once and on the cover letter it asks for your social media handles. This author had written, “I’m happy to avoid all social media.” That’s fine, and maybe the right decision. But by actively avoiding social media, you’re actively avoiding meeting and engaging with a huge chunk of your audience. You can’t get readers if you’re not going to where they are to find them.

Be creative and make it fun.

Marketing can be a really fun extension of your already creative spirit! I’m a novelist and once upon a time wanted to be a graphic novelist, so putting together graphics and using my copywriting skills to share things with the world is really fun for me! (This very document was fun to put together because it combined my writing skills, fun graphic design work, and a topic that I just nerd out about!) Use your writing and creative sense to create nerdy content for your followers!

Always provide value to your audience.

Yes, you’re telling the world about who you are and what you do, but you need to provide value in how you do it: educate them, entertain them, teach them something new, tell them a story, give them ways they can improve their own life or solve problems. Think about the newsletters and social media posts that are most interesting to you and provide you the most value, and go be the same for others.

Hi! I’m Jessica, and I help literary businesses, organizations, and authors build and execute their marketing strategies. If you'd like to learn how to do this 👆, come work with me!