Book Marketing Pep Talk: Yes, You DO Need to Invest
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I generally try to keep the advice I give here practical, upbeat, and encouraging. But every so often, when talking to an aspiring author, I hear something that sends me into rant mode.
Fear not, in keeping with my British upbringing and natural communication style, I remain unfailingly polite to the author themselves! However, behind the scenes, the wonderful and long-suffering Mr. Wiles tends to get the full benefit of my feelings on the matter.
So today, a pep talk, one in an occasional series, about the daft desperately damaging mistakes and misconceptions that I sometimes hear in author circles.
“If my book takes off, then maybe I’ll invest in a proper website”
I was having a lovely conversation with an author I really liked. He has a high quality book, that he’s excited to bring into the world. I know that giddy phase, where you’re finishing a manuscript, choosing a cover, deciding whether to publish exclusively with Amazon or “go wide”, and all those other tasks that pile up for a first-time author.
Somehow, he had got the message that an author website would be a good idea. Yes, it would indeed! See why I think so, and why every other book marketing professional will tell you the same.
But he was getting scared about the amount he was investing overall, to bring this book to life.
We talked about my approach, and I’m sure I mentioned the immense satisfaction my clients get from working as a team with me on a strategic, highly personalized, thoughtful, beautiful, launched-in-2-weeks author website. And yes, we talked about a ballpark investment for what he would need.
And then he said: “Okay, well, I’ll wait and see if my book takes off, and then maybe I’ll invest in a proper website.”
I will pause and let you think about that.
Can you imagine talking to a running coach, telling her you’ve signed up for a marathon in 3 months’ time, and, if you complete it in under 4 hours, then you’ll invest in running shoes that fit?
Would you spend years getting a law degree, print your attorney business cards, then decide not to rent an office until you’ve got twelve clients signed up, and suggest they meet you at Starbucks, in the interim?
Would you craft your perfect lemonade recipe, and start offering it at the end of your driveway, with the notion that if you sell ten thousand cupfuls, then you’ll look into putting up some posters around town?
Here’s what I know for sure: if you don’t invest in your dream, you are 90% likely to fail
I can’t promise you that a strong author website will make you a successful author. Absolutely not.
But I can promise that if you insist on doing everything as cheaply as possible, even though you haven’t got the skills or time to fill that role yourself, you will need a lightning strike of luck in order to succeed. Sure. Your niece might bump into Oprah, while getting her flu shot. Your Halloween cat-with-pumpkin video might go viral. But probably not.
When I look at my clients who get serious traction with book sales, reviews, and reader engagement, what they have in common is they are committed to putting in the time, effort, and usually some budget, to get things going. And then to keep that momentum building.
So a strong website and a willingness to invest do not cause author success. But they certainly correlate with it.
(Hop over here for the difference between correlation and causation, explained with ice cream as a variable!)
You poured your heart and soul into your book. Now, give it the best possible chance of making a difference in the world.
I get it. Investing can feel scary. But hopefully it should also be exciting, self-validating, highly motivating, and a little bit exhilarating. It will likely provide a dose of accountability — work with me, and it certainly will.
There should also be a sense of relief, knowing that you’re in expert hands, getting strategic advice for marketing your book that you’d never even considered, and knowing that your author website is one less thing that you need to worry about.
Full disclosure here: I’m a website designer, and that’s how I earn my living
I am predisposed to think that a high quality website is a necessary business asset for any serious author. Naturally, if you hire me to work with you, you’ll get a stunning and strategic result.
But high quality doesn’t have to come with a big investment, if — and it’s a big IF — you have the natural talents to plan, design, build, and launch your author website yourself. (And if you do, shoot me a note when you decide, like I did, to quietly retire from authoring and become a website designer instead!)
If you don’t have those natural talents, then you’re either going to need to learn, or you’re going to need to get help.
You can manage your budget by starting with a very simple website. You could also hire a website designer who is earlier in their career, although if you do that, you’d better know what to ask, and how to spot the mistakes that rookie website designers make all the time. Get my free guide for this, at the bottom of the page.
I don’t want you to hire me if you have to go into debt to do it.
I will actually turn a client away, if I don’t sense you are excited and ready to invest. We’re a team and life is too short for me to drag you along in our project. (Yes, the “luxury” of declining work is as a result of the investments I’ve made. More on that below.)
And realistically: there are some types of books where your “return on investment” from working with me will likely come in the form of professional pride, self-actualization, and knowing you’re making a difference to your audience, not money back in your pocket from direct book sales.
But my overall point is, if you’re not ready to invest in yourself, why would the rest of the world take you seriously?
The alternative is you’ll launch your book with a non-existent or lame author website. Every potential reader who looks you up will infer your book might be lame, too. Every podcast host that you pitch is going to decide you’re unprofessional. Every panel moderator is going to question whether you’re in it for the long term.
Related: 40 Reasons you don’t actually want an author website
The biggest shifts in my business have come after I invest, not before
Let’s peek behind the scenes of my business, for a moment.
Every time I have seen a step-change in my success, it has come soon after I’ve made a decision to invest.
Whether we’re talking about Paige Brunton’s course for Squarespace designers, Web Designer Academy from Shannon Mattern, or even just my recent willingness to get a small amount of help from a virtual assistant, there is a shift that happens in me when I decide to go for it, invest some money, and believe that results are possible.
For most of us, having some serious skin in the game (aka money) is a huge incentive to put the work in, stay the course, and believe in the possibilities.
I can attest, once I stopped watching every penny, spending hours switching tools to save $100, trying to reverse engineer everything I needed to learn, and got some expert 1:1 coaching, everything changed.
I’m typing this post in 90 degree heat, but I have all the work I want for 2024, booked in my calendar with clients who are keen to begin.
And I want success for you, too.
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