Writers, stop thinking about marketing and start thinking about connections.

Intimidating and Overwhelming

The insecure, the nerdy, the introverted, the unproven writers among us (pardon me while I raise my hand for each of those) can find the concept of marketing to be intimidating and overwhelming, a mountainous thunderstorm of unknown looming in the distance, casting its ominous shadow over the our road we want to travel.

We hear “build a platform” to “market” your books. But maybe we need to rewire.

Marketing to Connections: Rewire and Rethink

Let’s rewire our brains. Every time you hear “marketing,” replace it with “connecting”. Or connections. Or connect. Or engagement. Or meeting new people. Or relationship. Or… you get my drift. Whatever word or phrase that helps you, that makes sense to you.

Connections: Be Intentional

And, let’s be intentional. You don’t have to blindly create a blog or post daily ramblings on Twitter or have a Facebook page or a presence on Goodreads or… whatever the next piece of platform advice tells you. It’s not about blogging weekly or tweeting daily. It’s not about joining every possible writing-related group online or journeying far to make a conference. It’s not about joining the “best” critique group or becoming a super-fan of the rock stars of our industry.

Marketing: Meaningful and Individual

It’s about doing whatever makes sense for you to connect with others who have something in common with you, with your interests, or with who you want to become. That’s your platform.

Your writing is meaningful and unique to you. Your marketing — excuse me — connections — will be as unique.

And that set of connections? It should be meaningful, as well.

Conclusion

Your time is precious. You want to spend the bulk of your available time writing, not blindly building a platform with pieces grabbed randomly on some pundit’s recommendation.

In the next post in this series, let’s talk more about being intentional. Let’s consider some of the factors in choosing connections.