WriterDojo S3 EP17: Intro To Marketing (with Jack Wylder)

This  week, hosts/authors Steve Diamond and Larry Correia go over a few of the basics of Marketing with that Jack Wylder guy and discuss the need  for personal branding, the importance of an author’s website, and more. 

If  you would like to join our supporters, you can support this podcast  with a small monthly donation to help sustain future episodes at:  https://anchor.fm/writerdojo “Word Mercenaries” (the WriterDojo theme) is by Craig Nybo https://craignybo.com 

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This  week’s episode is sponsored by *The Lone Star, the Tricolor, and the  Swastika: Republic of Texas Navy Book 2* (by D.A.Brock)

Autumn, 1939…

The war that the Western nations have long dreaded has erupted in Europe. After the conquest of western Poland by Germany, the war on land settles into the so-called ‘Phony War’.

But the war at sea is anything but phony. Especially when the French Government accuses the Republic of Texas of providing aid to Germany. The tension escalates, and Hitler fans the flames for his own nefarious purposes.

After a devastating sneak attack, Commodore Karl von Stahlberg is thrust into command of the Texas battle fleet. Can he defend Texas against the enemy’s onslaught, or will Texas be defeated?

– available on  Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Dvizou (affiliate link)

WriterDojo S3 Ep18: What's In A Name? (The Importance of Character Names)
WriterDojo S3 Ep16: First Person Narrative

7 thoughts on “WriterDojo S3 EP17: Intro To Marketing (with Jack Wylder)”

  1. “Don’t worry about marketing until you’ve finished writing your first book.”

    Can’t say I agree with that, Jack O_O

    You should be getting people onto your list WAY before your book is ready. Why? So you have those people ready to buy it when it does release, AND so you have people who’ll be willing to leave reviews. I’d argue that list building is the most important part of marketing, at least early on as a new author.

    You probably also want to be splitting some of those people onto a separate list for beta reading duty as well, assuming you don’t have any already.

    Sure, when you start marketing directly (ads, social media, whatever), you want a finished book to sell to people who are interested. But the best way to ensure you already have people who are interested is to get that list going and start building rapport first.

    This of course ties back to earlier in the video where they talk about having a website, which is where you’ll have your list sign-up page. Write a short story or a prequel that’s related to your book and use it as an opt-in to get people interested and signing up for the list.

    Your email list is your most important marketing tool as an author, it’s YOURS, it doesn’t belong to a social media company, and you can transfer it to a new service if your current one goes woke or otherwise does something stupid (hi, MailChimp).

    Look after your list and your list will look after you 🙂 Note also that even if you’re aiming for tradpub, having your own email list is still hugely important, especially since a lot of publishers don’t bother doing much marketing on your behalf (meaning your book doesn’t sell, which leads to not getting another contract).

    And if tradpub doesn’t work out (more likely than ever these days, especially if you happen to be straight/white/male), then hey presto, you have a pre-built list of people who’ll buy your books when you selfpub them 😀

    1. I’m not saying live in a cave until the book is done- I’m saying your focus needs to be on writing. Spend that 10-20% of your time I spoke of and no more. I stand by that statement. As for the mailing list, I agree completely- that’s what the whole Digital Sharecropping screed was about. YOU need to own that land you’re planting crops on.

      1. BTW: you guys mentions a Rebecca Hassel/Hastle for typography? But a search only brings up people that are to do with fashion.

        Just a suggestion that the show notes cover the stuff mentioned. Not a complaint, just an observation that might be worth doing.

    2. I’m only part way through this episode, but to be blunt Jack seems intuitively correct. If you don’t have a product that’s almost ready to hit the market, what would you be marketing? As you mention, Jack already talked about having a website, and building a mailing list. Beyond that, my take away is there’s no real point on doing a full on marketing push until you are expecting something to actually be available soon to sell.

  2. I disagree with the claim every story has already been written. It’s more that every story that isn’t based on current events and new technology has already been written. I would advise not being the one to write those stories unless you have a very quick turnaround from project start to project publication (like web comics, online satire articles, or South Park) since they become very dated almost immediately.

    1. I have to say, I’ve yet to seen that old adage proven wrong. Even modern events ones are just trying to put a modern setting on an old story.

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