🎱 Outlook good

It is decidedly so. View in browser Hey there, So I wrote out this 800-word email on how thinking traps can hold you back… and then deleted it. I know, right? Boooooorrrrring.  I can sum it up in one line anyway: don't be so close-minded when it comes to marketing your books; be open to anything. Please note that doesn't mean you should do everything, and that distinction is crucial. Because my brain has the multi-tasking ability of a cheap set of Christmas lights, I am limited to properly focusing on one thing at a time. But that can help avoid overwhelm. With one novel I might be focused on improving characterization. The next might have dialogue getting the old lickety-spit. In an early book I might be working on making my descriptive passages read well, and in a later one I might be ensuring they aren't just filling gaps between set-piece scenes but actually advancing the story and revealing character too. Or I might wake up one day and decide that I've never written a really good villain and my next book has to have one. You get the idea, I'm sure. Ideally, I would like all my books to have all those things (and I would like a pony too), but I also recognize that learning the craft of writing is a life-long process and a good writer continually seeks to improve. So it goes with marketing. There's always something new you can learn – especially in the world of digital marketing where best practices change and evolve much faster than the world of writing – but there is a real danger in trying to do everything at once. Usually you end up getting good at nothing and wasting a lot of time flitting between things. And aside from your own limitations, it's also good to recognize what strategy or tool is more suitable for you – both in terms of how your own stupid brain works, and the stage you are at right now also with your career and your business. I put together a 30-minute video going over every single way to market a book that I could think of – breaking down not just what works, and what doesn't work, but also what might work best for you depending on your individual mindset, your level of experience, and the kind of books you write. This is the first video where I've done a little post-production in terms of adding graphics here and there, chapters to the video, etc. I think it looks good! Anyway, one thing I didn't get into in the video so much is that muddled thinking we can fall into with, well, anything. And the thing about thinking traps or logical fallacies or cognitive biases is that they are fiendish. Much like propaganda, logical fallacies can often affect intelligent people more because they think they are immune. (No one is immune.) I include myself there too, by the way. One example: because I used to work for Google Ads and saw endless people try, and fail, to advertise their books with the platform, I made the mistaken assumption that Facebook Ads were equally useless – something I doubled down on after I first tried the platform, and didn't generate any sales. After making that mistake approximately 1,000 more times, I decided to learn from it. I wasted years with these thinking traps I built for myself – no one else did it for me. I strongly recommend skipping that stage, if you can, and being open to anything when it comes to marketing. Just don't go too far in the other direction and think that everything can work for your books – some marketing strategies will suit some authors and some types of books more than others. And definitely don't try to get good at everything all at once. My recommendation is to do quick survey of what is working right now, and then pick one or two things thing you want to really focus on. (This is a process I repeat every year or so.) Don't be afraid to backslide! Maybe you will start fiddling around with Amazon Ads and then decide that your brain just does not compute… but take much more readily to BookBub Ads instead. That's perfectly fine! You only really need to be good at a couple of these things to get your career moving. More is always better, of course, but you can take it slowly and build up your skill set strategically – working on the things you find most useful and most enjoyable at any one time. Overall, no matter what you write, I think you should shoot for mastering one method of attracting readers (so: deal sites, Amazon Ads, BookBub Ads, Facebook Ads, or content marketing) and one method of retaining readers (so: email marketing, social media, content marketing, or releasing very bloody fast). Focus on getting good at one of each – and don't worry if that takes a while – before you even think about moving onto the next.  (Spoiler alert: you might not even need to add more strings your bow either. For example, if you get great at Facebook Ads and email, that's a killer combo which can take your career very far indeed.) Don't be distracted by the winds of fashion or so-called market trends – they are utterly irrelevant. One month, some authors pronounce BookBub Ads are hot, and the next month they apparently are not (and these sentiments are rarely rooted in real data). People are always pronouncing things as "over" and it rarely means little more than "I have stopped getting good results with my Facebook Ads and I don't know why." You'll probably get deeper analysis from a Magic 8-Ball. Things change, yes, but the underlying fundamentals of marketing don't change that much. Don't work yourself up into a tizzy trying to catch the "Amazon Ads wave" before it fades. Focus on yourself, on your strengths, on what you need to work on for your business and your own development. And don't get stressed by all this stuff. Marketing really is fun if you approach it in a relaxed manner. If some specific aspect of it isn't fun for you personally, ditch it! There are so many different ways to reach readers that you really don't need to spend time doing anything you hate. Never forget: how you spend your days is how you spend your life. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Duke Ellington with Ring Dem Bells. DavidGaughran.com Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin, Ireland You received this email because you signed up at DavidGaughran.com. Unsubscribe