The First Step to Marketing Your Story
Getting the Word Out There!
Welcome to the Apple Hair CANON!
Here, I’ll explore creating a fictional universe, and I’m hoping you’ll follow along with your own world. I’m by no means an expert, so let’s discuss how to create a believable, magical, and captivating world. Let’s be storycatchers together!
Want to read Apple Hair, the boy band fantasy novel, from the very beginning? You can start here! Apple Hair is a fictional, Asian American boy band from Hawaiʻi.
Welcome to the newsletter, and I’m excited to lay down the foundations of our storyworlds together, one word at a time.
Hi, storycatchers! In the last edition of the CANON, I talked about creating a Sunday reset that works for you. This time, I want to talk again about something different from the writing craft. I’m going to be talking about marketing—the M word that all indie authors fear. As creatives, we may have a bit of fear around this word. We think of big graphs, lots of money draining away, and handling a dozen social media accounts. But what if it doesn’t have to be like this?
Do you have some bad feelings about marketing? Or perhaps you enjoy it?
It wasn’t until I watched this video by StoryGrid that my view on marketing changed. Tim Grahl, an author and book marketer, talks about what book marketing boils down to. To put it simply, it’s this: getting your book in front of the person who wants to read your story, and asking them to read it. How many times have we complicated marketing into a thousand steps? I feel like the key is to just focus on this—one person at a time, and one book at a time.
In the video, Tim Grahl goes into how the book industry celebrates those who make a large amount of sales in one week—as seen in lists like The New York Times Best Sellers. But what about the books that are quietly succeeding? An interesting thing that’s happening is that there are thousands of books that are selling very well, but we hardly hear of those titles. So, chasing the big lists is not the goal here—but steady exposure. Tim Grahl says that we should think of a book’s launch window as two years.
With Apple Hair, I thought my launch window was very narrow. But this video gave me new insight. I’m realizing that marketing is a thing that I can get better at. I don’t have to knock it out of the park immediately. I just need to find the readers who love YA and K-pop, who also appreciate a touch of magic in their novels.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway I got from this video about marketing was a mindset shift. Tim Grahl says that there’s one thing successful authors have in common—those who go out to sell many copies. The one thing is this: they believe in their story, and they believe that the reader will be better off after reading it.
This changed so much for me! How many times did I doubt myself?
But I can say with confidence: I know that Apple Hair is a great book. I know it is worth reading, and that readers will leave entertained and with new insight into Hawaiʻi and the K-pop industry. With this, I can keep going in my marketing efforts. One book and one person at a time.
Do you also struggle with marketing? What is one thing you want to get better at in the marketing space? For me, it’s the practice of outreach—making the ask about grabbing a copy of Apple Hair.
I’ll share one more marketing resource. Or rather, a marketing gem. Marketing by Shelby on Instagram has been a huge help in changing my mindset about marketing. Making it more about sharing my unique story, and treating social media as a great opportunity and privilege to share my book.
Thank you very much for joining the CANON this week. What would you like me to discuss in the next post? Comment below. Or jump into my Chat or on one of my Notes, and I’ll be happy to hear your input. Let’s talk to one person this week and ask them to take a chance on our story!