How to Make Time for Author Marketing

Emily Roberson  0:49

High

Before we get started talking about making time for author marketing, we’re going to run through our highs and lows for the week. Mine is that I descaled the Nespresso machine, which is a fancy coffee machine that we got like a year ago, and we’re supposed to do it and I had been delaying it for over a month.
It’s spitting coffee out in this sort of pitiful way. So it kept showing up on my list, and I kept not doing it. I tried to pay one of my kids to do it. And they didn’t want to. So I did it. And I feel like I deserve an absolute gold star. So that’s my high.

Low

My low is actually social media related, which is, and we’ll talk about this, I’ve been doing Tik Tok for almost exactly a year, one of the things about doing social media is you just have to know the algorithm is going to change.
All of a sudden, something that was doing great is gonna tank and you’ll have to figure something else out. So this week, I had a weird low.
I mean, I have what people that are massive influencers would call low numbers in general, but like, this was like things getting like seven views, which I think we can all agree it’s a low number, by any measure, right?
And that’s for things that a week ago, were getting 250 or 300 views. So that’s time to be like, Okay, do I need to look at this in a new way? You know, those kinds of things. So that was kind of a low. I was a little bummed that I felt sad, because I’m trying to be less controlled by things I can’t control. The algorithm is the definition of things I can’t control. But yeah, it was still a bummer. Sure.

Amy Kelly  2:35

That is a disappointment and acknowledging it and then remembering you have no control and then doing the things that you can, but yeah, still a low.

High

My high for this week is I was able to meet with my sister for lunch to celebrate her birthday, she lives about three hours from me, and we do this every once in a while, where we kind of meet in the middle and have lunch.
And so that was super fun.

Low

And then for my low, let’s see if I can kind of say this the way I want to. Okay, so back in October, November of last year, I really started and jump in on the business that I have going now, which is Accomplished Authors, helping authors with social media and marketing. And I really, by this point, wanted to have accomplished a lot more than I have. That’s due to some family things that were going on and some messy middle stressors.
So I had to put things on hold for a little bit. This week has really been the first full week that my kids are out of the house and back at college. And so it’s really the first week I’ve had back in a normal routine. Sitting down and planning and looking at what I’ve already gotten done and what I want to get done.
I think like you I felt some disappointment, but again, they’re things that were out of my control that we were dealing with a sick family member and a lot of logistical things. I just want to be further along than I am and so acknowledging it and being self aware about it and then also having grace for myself in it. It’s just a process and my progress is this: the time between being disappointed and a little irritated and upset with myself and the moment where I snap back and have grace for myself, it’s getting shorter. So it’s not that I don’t feel that disappointment. It’s just that I rebound faster. But yeah, I would say that’s my Oh, no, this week.

Emily Roberson  4:36

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. The temptation to be like forget TikTok, right?

Amy Kelly  4:43

That’s where I preach being transparent. I preach consistency, but I didn’t post for a while because I literally (and this goes back to what we talked about in our last episode) this was a season where I had I literally had zero time. And there was nothing I could do about it. It was all hands on deck here at my house, because we were taking care of a family member. So I just I couldn’t because I’m human, like we talked about, again, last episode.
So I was a human being. And now I’m jumping back on and being really honest and real with myself and everybody else here, obviously, on the podcast about it. Because it happens. I mean, it’s just, it happens. I will say, Emily, you gave me a great idea for the next time this happens. You said that someone you follow put up a little video waving goodbye, saying, “I’ll be back soon.” That’s brilliant. And it didn’t even cross my mind to do anything like that. So I’m putting that in my back pocket for the next time. Yeah.

Making Time for Author Marketing

Emily Roberson  5:44

Okay. Okay. That leads us perfectly into our marquee topic, which is making time for author marketing, at any phase of your author journey from aspiring all the way to multi published.

Amy Kelly  6:08

Right. And I think this is something you and I’ve talked about a lot, and it’s my passion project right now.  I think the issue is that in the past with traditional publishing, authors were given resources like publicists, and all kinds of help that  now those duties and that work has been transitioned to the actual author. There are some baseline things that authors have to have. And just from talking to other authors at conferences, and having discussions within our critique group, I think, and Emily, I’ll be interested to hear how you chime in on this. I think a lot of times, the attitude about it is like, Oh, this is horrible. I don’t want to do this, I just want to write or I hate this, or it’s really uncomfortable, or, you know, fill in the blank and whatever—

Emily Roberson  7:01

Like, I didn’t sign up to this to be an influencer.

Amy Kelly  7:04

Right, right. Or this is what I’ve heard: “I’m trying to spend less time online, not more,” those kinds of things. And I think our perspective on this is very different, very different.
I think, for me, I look at social media as a gift, because it is free advertising. For authors. For anyone, really, it’s free advertising. Get on and talk about your book and do all kinds of things and promote your work. All the author marketing things. And I also think it’s an amazing tool that cuts out the middleman as far as connecting, right? And readers, right? Like connecting with people who actually have your books in their hands.

Emily Roberson  7:45

Well, and it also does this amazing thing where it makes it so that even if let’s say you are an aspiring author, let’s say you haven’t written anything yet, I think the old ways of doing things would be like, there’s a lot of shame attached to that, or maybe you shouldn’t talk about it.
But if you are aspiring (and we will talk later about the best ways to figure out what to share and what not to share).
As you share the steps of your author journey, you are building a community of readers and fellow authors who are really invested and excited when your book comes out.
So it turns from something that’s maybe something you feel weird about doing into something that can actually be a really helpful way to engage with readers.
This is being able to flip the script and think, “Wait, this is a tool that I have that I never would have had before.” I think for many of us, it’s understanding (and I can say this is true for me, as a woman from Arkansas), that without social media, this career might not even be possible. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a bold—

Amy Kelly  9:02

…statement. But one I can totally get behind. Because again, I didn’t know anybody, you didn’t know anybody.
Without the support of your publisher behind you, like funding and providing marketing resources, then yeah, this is this is your key. This is the ticket to it, and I think it goes back to the mindset.
So how are you looking at it? And also, the mindset of this is a business. This isn’t about sharing what you had for breakfast. (Although if you’re a foodie, that might be something that you share.) It’s about being super intentional, and showing up for your audience, making those connections and really carving out a place for yourself online.
And I think, to be fair and transparent, it’s not easy. So I would consider myself an ambivert. I get energy from being with people and also from being by myself. I would say for the introverts that I’ve known, this is a challenge. I guess that’s the best way to put it. It’s absolutely one that you can overcome.
And, I believe you will be surprised at how many other introverts you’re connecting with when you start cultivating your online presence. But yeah, it’s gonna take some effort, it’s gonna take planning, but it’s absolutely worth it. And the way I like to look at it is just imagining talking to that person who’s like, oh, my gosh, your book changed my life. Oh, my gosh, your book was so amazing. Like, um, I think I haven’t had that experience yet. But I think you have with some of your readers. So I would love for you to kind of share that, because I think that’s been made possible in a lot of ways because of your presence online.

Emily Roberson  10:53

Absolutely. And I think the way it allows readers to find you and to engage with you online is really important. Having readers be able to say your book absolutely spoke to me, and they wouldn’t have found it otherwise.
I would say the other piece for me, that’s really important for me, is to give yourself so much grace on this. Have some compassion for yourself. I’ve absolutely loved Social Media for the opportunity to meet other authors.
So both connecting with readers and connecting with other authors, the danger is that the marketing can’t replace the writing. The writing is the main thing, right? If you’re not writing, you’re not writing. But because of how the algorithms are designed, it is very easy to slip into compare and despair.
We are not saying you need to spend 20 hours a week on marketing. Around the time my book, Lifestyles of Gods & Monsters, came out, my family would argue that I was on social media too much. And they probably were right, because I was I was trying to do everything. People tell you not to try to do everything because you can’t.
And yet I was still doing that. So I think if you find that it’s creating all the negative things that social media can create—

Amy Kelly  12:25

-Step back, yeah, and step back.
The thing that I would offer when you talk about doing all the things. I would say, if you haven’t started cultivating a social media presence, pick one platform, figure out where your readers are, and use that platform.
And they may be in more than one place. And lucky you, you get to choose which one you want to be on. So I know and this is going to be in future episodes, Emily is very active on TikTok. Whereas I am very active on Instagram.
And we are actually going to be sharing kind of our experiences and tools and information on those in future episodes.
But just pick one and get to really know it well and see what you can learn there and get really good at it. Even if you’re just on that one platform. Emily said, Compare and Despair, and I really like that. If you find yourself falling into, that there are strategies that you can use to minimize it. For example, set a timer and only stay on for five minutes. Or there are lots of other things that you can do that we’ll talk about at a later date.

Emily Roberson  13:28

I know people are really worried about showing pictures of your kids, or having to learn dance steps if people are on a platform. I think one of the things you can do is identify what are the pieces of your work that you’re excited about sharing? So if you write about your travels, maybe you just post once a week, a picture from one of your travels. And then, in the caption, you talk about how it ties into your work in the same way we talked about last week. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, in the beginning, hardly anyone’s seeing it.

Amy Kelly  14:18

Right. You just have to try to have fun with it. Yeah, enjoy it. Have fun with it, for sure. And I would even say like what will help you have fun with it for me, I actually run two accounts.
One is for Accomplished Authors. One is @theishgirlreads, which is more my writing one. One of the things that I love, love, love to do is play around in Canva, which is a graphic design software program. And what I have done is I’ve made my feed into art basically. I’ve found different quotes from young adult books centered on different topics.
So I’ll do nine posts, that all have to do with it. My latest one is dreams for the future. I’ve done things on grief, you can go @amykellytheishgirl on Instagram and see it, but I have so much fun doing that.
And it’s very simple to create all nine posts and then schedule them out for every other day. So I don’t even have to think about posting it, it’s one and done. I just I enjoy it so much. So, find your thing. And I know once (and I’m just going to say this in the positive, affirmative way) once I have published my book that I’m working on, once it is out there, then I may shift that a little bit.
Or I may just start including quotes of my own work to point towards my books, and then use different facets of Instagram like stories and reels to cover some of the other things. But it’s really what you want to make it.

Emily Roberson  15:56

So, and I have two final points that I would make about this. If you are finding yourself super, super, super like mad that we’re suggesting this or feeling like you don’t have time, and you don’t know who to do it (which is totally where I was in the beginning of this process, and especially on Instagram, where I’m still finding my feet, and Amy and I are gonna do a podcast about). If you feel that way, just take that same gentle curiosity that you brought last week when you ask yourself about your writing time to really look and ask yourself, what is it that I am so afraid of here? And why? Maybe for you it’s not fear. For me, it’s always fear.

Amy Kelly  16:37

Maybe say resistance,

Emily Roberson  16:42

Asking what I was so resistant to, I realized, for me, it was the idea that people were going to be commenting on my face. I did not want to be subjected to other people’s opinions about what I look like, and that it was keeping me from doing anything.
Once I identified that I could be like, well, one thing I do is just not show my face, although that is not a great plan. Because people love to see your face.
So can I number one go to therapy. So I’m less freaked out about my own face, which is for sure. But part of this journey for me was getting to where I could just be like, No, this is what I look like.
Number two, can I figure out a way to think about this that doesn’t make it so scary?
The other big tip I have this as a selfie-related tip. When you are figuring out taking selfies, First, there’s a book called Take Your Selfie Seriously by Sorelle Amore. Then there are other places on Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok, where people talk about how to take selfies. You can do that. Absolutely. And get a good light, get a good light that will make all the difference in the world.
Then after you take the pictures, wait at least a day before you look at them. Do not go to post them right away. Because something weird happens in your brain that a day or two of time helps.
So those are the tips from someone who was at the point where one of my friends was asking, Emily, how many more cups of coffee are you going to show? Because I’m taking pictures of writing at the coffee shop.

Amy Kelly  18:50

But I’m gonna jump in on that one, because I the coffee shop picture was your foot in the door, right?
Like that was the way you kind of progressed to where you were researching how to take a good selfie, you were looking at lighting and all of those things. So I think what I would say and I think you would agree with this too, find a teeny tiny place to start. Even if it’s like a picture of your backyard, or have your coffee in the morning, or have your dog and you’re talking about how your dog is your coworker because they’re the ones who are with you when you’re writing all day or you’re bringing everything back to your writing.
So just start small in that way. And I think that is probably the best piece of advice that we can give you because sometimes it’s like the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. He calls them atomic in the sense of teeny teeny tiny steps.
What is the smallest piece that you can actually do that will move you forward and will help you get that one baby step further along the large learning curve so that you can start to get more comfortable with it.
And I’m just going to ask you this to Emily, as for your concern about people commenting on your appearance, which was the cloud hanging over your head, the dread. Have you ever gotten any of those kinds of comments?

Emily Roberson  20:20

What comments do I get? I get two things. One is, every time I post with a writing related hashtag, I get people asking me to promote on their sites —

Amy Kelly  20:33

Right, yeah, I don’t even want to say the name of them. Because I get those too. Yeah.

Emily Roberson 20:38

When I first started, I was confused about that. I thought I needed to do something with those. You don’t need to do anything with those. And then the second thing I get is some very weird like, of all things, sugar baby requests, which I’m like, way too old to be me.

Amy Kelly  20:54

But is that even okay? Yeah, it’s weird. I don’t even know what that is.

Emily Roberson  21:06

[unclear, Emily attempts to explain a sugar daddy]

Amy Kelly  21:12

Oh no! Block them. Block them.

Emily Roberson  21:16

Yes, your sugar daddy requests guy is not a reader.
So just the thing I would say to remember is, this is actually your storefront, on the internet. Yes, this is your playground. So you get to decide, Amy and I don’t get to decide, you get to decide.
But I would say there’s a danger in too much research. Amy and I both are really, really bad about it.
So yes, put a limit on this, but if you have a general sense of what kind of books you would like to write, and who the authors are that you are the most excited about, the ones who write that kind of books that you would like to write, go and find five of them.
And just look. What you probably will see is number one, there’s a really wide variety of what people post, how many followers they have, how regularly they post. None of it matters. All this is doing for you is providing a home base where when people want to engage with you, they can find you. It’s your garden.

Amy Kelly  22:26

The other important piece is, whether we like it or not, I feel like this is where the agent that you query, the editors that you put your work in front of, or the publishers that are looking at you, they’re going to try to find you on social media. Even just to glance at it, and you want to be able to be found. Whether you’re posting once a week, once a day, whatever it is, it’s a baseline, you have to have that presence. It’s just a little—

Emily Roberson  22:55

home base on the internet. And the other thing, the single biggest thing on this, too is that it’s not the same as your personal page. No, not at all.

Amy Kelly  23:15

It’s a business mindset, it’s a business.

Emily Roberson  23:19

And then you can absolutely baby step, like we’re saying, but (and I would say this gets back to something we will talk about in a later episode about calling yourself a writer), do make sure that when you start this, that you make writer part of your identity from the get go.
Because what you don’t want to do is build a following that is attached to you as  a reader or a knitter or a baker, when what you want to do is be a writer, so just lead with the writing.

Amy Kelly  23:52

That’s good advice. That’s good advice. I think I need to tweak mine. My @amykellytheishgirl reads one, does say that I’m a writer, but also I’m transitioning from a business where I was mainly podcasting and doing nonfiction-type things.
So and that’s the other thing that’s not wrong, that I don’t have it on there.

Emily Roberson  24:21

This is the other thing, you can delete things.
I know the internet is forever and sure the internet is forever. But like, absolutely, if I have a post that like just not doing well—
Now TikTok, we will talk about this later. TikTok is a whole other thing, don’t delete your TikToks. Just leave them up there unless you are morally opposed to them for some reason. Just keep them up.
But other things you can delete them. If it’s something where you’re like, oh, I don’t really like this, just delete them, pull it off, pull it off.
Our message is that rather than being something that is made to torture you as an author, this is your opportunity to meet and connect with fellow authors and with other readers. There are a few New York Times bestsellers who have someone running their social media, but they’re still having to pose for the selfies, guys, they’re just have someone else taking them. But the rest of us, including most people who were doing really well, they’re all in the same boat. Everybody’s in the same boat, for sure.

Amy Kelly  25:28

And let me just throw this in, somebody said to me, once, “when I’m a really big author, then I’ll get somebody and I’ll pay them to do this for me.” But I think that’s kind of putting the cart before the horse. I think, again, this is a baseline. And even if it’s small baby steps, and the minimum amount possible, like there is a minimum requirement, this is something you need—

Emily Roberson  25:53

Even if you’re paying someone to do it for you, you are the driver. This is the thing. Your readers want to connect with you as a human. So it’s almost like someone else couldn’t do it for you.

Amy Kelly  26:11

Yeah, I agree with that. And the other thing I would say, even if you can afford to pay for somebody to do it right now, right this second, you want to know enough to be dangerous. You want to understand exactly what they’re doing for you; to know that they’re doing it the way that you want and the way that you want to be represented. You have to know what you want your posts to be about: the kinds of pictures that you’re going to share, the information you’re willing to share about your life or not.

Emily Roberson  26:39

Anyone who doesn’t know, Amy Kelly, has a business that will help you, and has helped other authors, to identify these questions. And we will have future episodes about figuring out what to post –

Amy Kelly  27:03

Yeah, this is just about baby steps. And I will say one baby step that you can take. I  have a freebie where it talks about if you have no idea where to start as far as what to post, I have some ideas for what authors can post, you can pick that up www.theishgirl.com and just go into accomplished authors and find that freebie.
I’ll put a link to in the show notes on this directly to that freebie. But again, baby steps, easy stuff that you can do. Yeah, baby—

Emily Roberson  27:31

steps. So yeah, and just back to the whole idea that what’s the minimum you can do to get started? Because as hard as it is, and it is hard, as I just clarified, I could not take a picture of my own face in the spring of 2019. And now I post TikToks every damn day, which are just my face.
So it does get easier. Or some pieces of it get easier.

Amy Kelly  27:59

Some pieces of it get easier for sure. For sure. So proud of you. Um, all right. So thank you guys. We’d love to hear from you. Let us know and hey, tag us with the hashtag #timetowrite so that we can see what you’re posting once you take those baby steps. We’re super excited about that. And

Stories That Have Saved Our Lives

Emily Roberson  28:17

Please let us know what book changed your life. Hey, Amy. Any books changing your life today?

Amy Kelly  28:22

Oh, today today today? Oh, let’s see. One that I’m super super super duper looking forward to that I know will change my life and actually I’m reading the previous book that I already read last year when it came out is Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Thorns is about to come out. And I’m reading to kind of refresh my memory is the one before that I think it’s Chain of Iron. So yeah, I’m loving it like every time I read any of her things I’m like oh, this is the kind of author that I want to be. She’s phenomenal.

Emily Roberson  28:53

I’m reading Lee Bardugo’s Ninth House right now which is same. The world building is so good and then also I just love her stuff.

Amy Kelly  29:11

I have that downloaded it that’s on my to be read list because it’s on Kindle Unlimited right now in case you’re wondering.

Emily Roberson  29:20

I am the world’s most ADHD reader so I’m actually reading it out of order. Sometimes I’ll read backwards. I read the last chapter and then some reading back to where I —

Amy Kelly  29:48

Okay, so you, you read the last chapter first?

Emily Roberson  29:51

The last chapter and then I read the next the last chapter and then I read backwards. I do this all the time.

Amy Kelly  29:58

Okay. Did not know that about you. We’ve been critiquing together for like seven years now. I had no idea you were read the last first kind of girl.

Emily Roberson  30:06

Well, I do it anytime I get distracted. And believe me, people, I get distracted at the literal drop of a hat. Anytime I get distracted in a book, I’ll go and I’ll always read the last sentence. And that’ll tell me whether or not to go on. I’m not saying I get bored because I don’t get bored. It’s like, I get like, anxious, and my brain just fritzes. There’s something about the end of Act One where my brain just goes off line. So I’ll go and read the last sentence. And then if I’m like, oh, yeah, I really want to, then I’ll read the last chapter.

Amy Kelly  30:38

That is fascinating. That is super fascinating.

Emily Roberson  30:42

I don’t care about spoilers, I like I don’t care about spoilers.

Amy Kelly  30:45

Okay, I totally do, just for the record. I really do. But I will say I know there’s a book that we both there was a series where we both got snagged at the same book. It’s the what is it? They just came out with a TV show for it. Three Pines. What’s her name?

Emily Roberson  31:01

Oh, they are the Inspector Gamache books—

Amy Kelly  31:02

Louise Penny. Thank you. So we both got caught at the fourth book. Did you do that with that one? Did you read the last line?

Emily Roberson
100%.

Amy Kelly
Okay, I haven’t done that. And you still didn’t remember yet. And you didn’t go back?

Emily Roberson  31:19

I didn’t. At that one. I just read the last chapter. And then I didn’t read the whole book. I’ll read the intervening pages in between where I got to and where I went off line,

Amy Kelly  31:30

And then you you read the last one and then you go back. Okay. Hmm. I may have to try that. That’s interesting. Very interesting. Although I have to say my TBR pile is so huge. That’s not at that super big top of it right now. So, okay. Can you tell we totally get sucked into book talks like total book talks? All right. Thank you guys so much for hanging out and we will talk to you next week.

Emily Roberson  31:56

Thanks, babe.