Belief
I worry a lot. An awful lot. This whole self-marketing thing has been hard for me, first in admitting it’s not egotistical to list my podcasting achievements, to acknowledge that I speak to a large audience, and then in having the brass ovaries to talk to that audience and tell them, in no flowery language, that I believe in my book enough to encourage them to buy it.
This is the thing about podcasting-or any self-publishing, because podcasting your fiction is simply free self-publishing in audio format-if you do the work and don’t tell people you’ve done the work, and that the work is worth their time, no one will pay attention. So no matter if your insecurities loom large, and your ego is a forgotten raisin under the fridge of your psyche, you have to be able to market your work.
And to do that, you have to believe in it. When you believe in something, you can make others believe in it too.
This summer, my friend JC Hutchins came out with a podcast where he discussed how “disbelief is the enemy.” He and I talked about this some, and it seems to be one of those totally true things that you don’t think about till it’s said aloud. When you do this thing, this content creation, and then the self-marketing, you have to believe in it – every aspect.
I always wondered why the NPR pledge drives work. My local NPR phone number is drilled into my head (1-800-962-9862) because of their pledge drives. It drives me mad. I can’t stand it. And yet, I give. I give because I know these people pushing it believe in NPR, and I do too. And I realized our marketing is the same; we believe in our work, and we have to do the NPR thing to make a splash, to make people remember us (1-800-962-9862), but those true fans that we have believe too, and they tolerate us. Because they know we’re our own best cheerleaders, because they know we believe in our work, and because they believe too.
When I did my marketing on twitter and my blog last year at Playing For Keeps’ launch to hit as high as I could on Amazon, I was terrified I’d turn people off. And I’m sure I did. In fact, I know I did. But the little raisin ego tried to understand that I can’t please all people, and that if I get ten fans behind me, supporting me, it’s worth losing the one who got sick of me promoting. Because if I don’t believe in my stuff, and tell you that I believe in it, no one else will.
So it was with interest that I watched JC’s marketing efforts of his new book, 7th Son: Descent, which came out two days ago. He tweeted and he blogged and he encouraged others to play too, pretending to have their twitter or facebook or blogs hacked by one of his characters. He started the day with the caveat that if someone wants to unfollow him to avoid the deluge, then he wouldn’t take it personally. He believed in this book. And he had fans who believed in the book. And goddamn did they deliver. To sum up (from JC’s site):
- 188 overall, up from 209 at 11:55 pm (we started yesterday at 3,711)
- 31 in Science Fiction/Fantasy (up from 34)
- 11 in Science Fiction (up from 12)
- 3 in Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > High Tech
- 55 in Mystery & Thrillers (holding steady)
- 36 in Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers (holding steady)
- 14 in Hot New Releases (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) (up from 16)
- 3 in Hot New Releases (Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction) (up from 4)
- 39 in Hot New Releases (Mystery/Thrillers) (holding steady)
- 26 in Hot New Releases (Mystery/Thrillers > Thrillers) (holding steady)
- 6 in Movers and Shakers (down from 5)
Note: Since some books in the Amazon charts are free Kindle titles, I’ve adjusted the list below to reflect what positions we “earned.” When these free titles are removed…
- 20 in Science Fiction/Fantasy — 11 free titles were removed
- 5 in Science Fiction — 6 free titles were removed
- 1 in Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > High Tech — 2 free titles were removed
- 50 in Mystery & Thrillers — 5 free titles were removed
- 2 in Hot New Releases (Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction) — 1 free title was removed
- 38 in Hot New Releases (Mystery/Thrillers) — 1 free title was removed
I watched with glee as my good friend who wrote a damn fine book finally saw some print success after years of building his podcast and his audience, and it really made me think about the concept of belief. This is not snake oil sales, cult-building bullshit “belief.” This is not seeing who you can fool, who you can scam. This is honestly believing in your work, and honestly telling people about it. And that they should believe too.
He believed in 7th Son because it was a good book. And he made us believe. So if you don’t believe yet, check out the PDF below. It’s free, and it’s the first 10 chapters of the book. And if you believe, pass it around, and pick up a copy yourself.
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Nicely done, Mur.
It’s hard to argue with any of the above. What you may not know is that, to this listener, at least, you always *sound* incredibly confident, on your blog(s) but especially on your ISBW podcasts. You’ve mentioned or alluded to (“Criminy”) on Twitter professional setbacks as well as the good stuff, but I would have placed money that you prospered in podcasting *because* you’re fairly extroverted and have a high degree of confidence in yourself and your work. If that’s wrong, consider it a compliment that you consistently pull it off.
You’re right that the self-promotion can get carried to an extreme and start to turn people off. But that’s true for anything – how many ads for Stephen King’s latest book does anyone want to see? I certainly would rather see or hear a Mur Lafferty promotion than a Grisham ad because I know there will be more King books whether or not there’s an ad campaign, but without reader/listener support I can’t be as certain about a sequel to Playing for Keeps, or a print edition of Heaven.
And the cross-promotion thing works, too. I received my copy of 7th Son yesterday…and I never would have heard of Hutch had it not been for ISBW.
Damn straight and Amen!