How Smart Writers Sell More Books — Even When they Avoid ‘Marketing’

Spend more time writing and less time promoting with one simple strategy

You’re a writer. I’m a writer. We love writing. We could probably write all day if left unsupervised. But when it comes to book promotion, the cold hand of procrastination presses down our shoulders and prevents us from doing the work we should to get the sales results we want.

I hear this a lot.

Writers email me and tell me they’ve written a bunch of books —even big back-catalogs with traditional publishers, but they’re making just a few bucks a month. Traditional book promotion feels like torture to these introverted folks. All they want is to keep writing, but find a way to sell their books without having to sell their books.

To many writers, selling feels gross.

Some people are born to sell. The act of selling gets them out of bed in the morning. These star salespeople love the thrill of the hunt, and although no one likes rejection these stars know they must collect the right number of no’s before they can reach a yes.

Most writers aren’t natural salespeople.

They’d rather live in their heads, working on their craft, connecting with readers, and keeping themselves from the spotlight. The problem is this quiet lifestyle doesn’t move books. If these writers want to support themselves from their noble craft, they’ve got to sell the books they write.

We’re commercial writers.

We do (or aspire to) make a good living from our writing. We deserve to earn a proper wage for the effort we place on our craft. But there’s still the ‘commercial’ part that doesn’t feel good to many writers. We all know we’re supposed to sell our books. “Buy my book” posts on social haven’t ever worked, so how are we supposed to sell our work if we hate selling?

There’s a great answer. A better answer. A simpler answer.

Writers who hate marketing do very well with email

Email marketing is old, but it works. In fact, it’s making a comeback with a vengeance, because advertising on social is skyrocketing. Why not reach your readers for free instead? And why not own your platform instead of running the risk all your income is cut-off over night, using another’s platform.

We have the advantage over most businesses. We’re writers. Email is all about writing — selling in print. If we can make plot twists, compelling non-fiction, and stories that sell, we can write email like the best of them.

Yes, email is a separate writing skill which needs to be honed.

But once you set up your automated email marketing sequence, most of your marketing will be hands off. All you have to do is bring new readers into your pipeline. And that we can do with our content.

Email marketing is not easy. Or magic. Or fast.

There are many people on the internet who would love to sell you something that feels like a push-button solution, but looks more like a Lego set when you take it from the digital box.

Don’t get me wrong. You’re still in charge of promoting your work no matter what marketing method you choose. But unlike book tours, public speaking, podcast tours, YouTube, paid ads, and endless social begging, email does all the heavy lifting for you. Email asks for the sale, not you. Every reader gets the same, measured experience once she enters your pipeline.

List-building takes time, but it’s not impossible.

We all start at zero. Every. Single. Author. Some writers are able to build lists quicker than others, but the size of the list isn’t as important as the quality of the list. There are six-figure writers with lists of 2,500 people. And people with huge, weak lists who don’t do well at all.

It’s time to start your list.

Email is portable

When you own your list you can take it with you. Get fired from one platform? Your customers belong to you. Stick them in your backpack as you walk out the door with your head high. You can’t take you social followers with you. You can’t take your Amazon buyers with you.

As a writer, your only insurance against overnight financial catastrophe, is your list.

When you build a list of readers who love your work, it doesn’t matter what platform you choose for selling your books. You’ve got instant access to your die hard fans, on a level playing field with all the major publishers. And your email is more personal. It’s not like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King will write you back. But you’ll respond to your readers.

Email builds connection.

Want to keep your readers coming back a long time? Build an email list. Think of email as a long, continuous conversation, with one person, over coffee. Yet, we get to have this single conversation with thousands of people at once. The experience for the reader is individual. Her name’s at the top. We use the word ‘you.’ Email isn’t like interruption advertising. This is a welcomed bit of content.

You can spend thousands of hours building a platform on social, only to have it taken away overnight.

Maybe you post the wrong piece of content and someone complains. Maybe you sell books with adult language. Maybe someone flagged your account because they felt like sabotaging your work. When this happens you’re the one who must prove your innocence even if you’ve done nothing wrong. You can literally lose all your followers and all your income overnight if you rely on social media for all your income.

Email moves books

Got a back-list? Email will sell them. Especially if you create high-value book bundles. Got a new release coming? Email’s got your back. Want to sell more than just books to your treasured readers (like merch, courses, and special events where they get to meet you in person)? Email’s got it right again.

If you craft your letters correctly, providing high-value in an entertaining way, your readers will keep coming back.

It’s called info-tainment. Like wrapping carrots with candy. We teach our readers something new, but deliver the email content in an entertaining way. Perhaps telling relevant stories, or using humor to lighten the mood. Our readers have limited time and they won’t waste it on self-promotion.

If we give the readers what they want they’ll help us get what we want.

Email (when done correctly) walks your readers through a series of gentle steps, with no hard selling on your part. All you do is tell them about your work and give them links to your other books, asking them to check them out if they’re interested.

We can sell even when we hate selling.

When we put our email lists to work, when we automate the sales process — we build good relationships with our readers and make a good living, simultaneously.

You’ll have more time to do what you love most — write.

Email multiplies your efforts. Instead of writing a single wasted social post, you can write one email and use it forever. You can build relationship after relationship, with each reader moving through your welcome sequence. All with a hands-off approach that takes a few minutes per day to monitor, taking little time from your writing.

We’re waiting for you.

(tap here if you’d like to get started building your indie author email list)

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +432,678 people.

Subscribe to receive our top stories here.