Want to hire a book marketing coach? If you’re reading this post I’m going to guess you fit one of the following:
- You’re seriously considering hiring me as your book marketing coach and want to know what to expect. (Great – I love a client that does their research
) - You’ve already committed to working with me and so excited to start that you’re reading everything you can about what we will get up to. (I’m excited too! We’re going to have a blast AND make a real difference to your author marketing!)
- You’re curious about what working with me looks like and if a book marketing coach might be right for you. (Sensible. Read on, my friend
)
Whatever your reason for reading this, I’m going to walk you through the 4 things that make or break my work with an author.
Here’s the list, then I’ll explain each one in detail:
- Committing to taking consistent, imperfect action
- Having the mindset of a scientist (and an attitude of stick-to-it-iv-ness)
- Committing to going beyond your comfort zone
- Taking responsibility for your success – but letting me support you!
Let’s dive in!
1. Commit to taking consistent, imperfect action
There’s no one-size-fits-all book marketing solution and I don’t have a magic wand that will make all your marketing woes disappear and your books start selling. What I do have is a background in marketing, a heap of experience working with authors and a well-stocked marketing toolkit.
I can help you identify the tools and strategies that are going to be the most effective for you, but in order to find out if they really will be a good fit, you’ll need to do some work.
That means taking consistent, imperfect action as you try out new things. I don’t expect you to know how to do everything right away or get things right first time. Instead, I will encourage you to aim for progress over perfection.
If you're not taking action because you’re paralysed by fear of not being perfect, we can talk about some of the mindset gremlins that are holding you back. But if you’re not taking action because you’re not willing to try or to make time for your book marketing, that won’t wash. Get ready for some probing questions!
Here are a few tips to ensure you take action:
- Take notes of any agreed actions or homework. All our sessions will be recorded, so you can always watch it back if you’re not a great note-taker.
- Review your notes before each session and talk to me about what worked and what didn’t, and why you think you may have struggled. This will help me and you find the best way forward.
- Prepare for each session by bringing a list of questions or things you’d like to work on. I have a framework for my coaching program, but I also want to make sure you’re getting all the help and support you want from our time together. If I think you’re focusing in the wrong place, I’ll soon bring you back to what’s important.
2. Have the mindset of a scientist (and an attitude of stick-to-it-iv-ness)
I don’t talk about this as much as I probably should, but there’s a reason why SmartAuthorsLab is called SmartAuthorsLab.
If you hadn’t guessed, it’s short for Smart Authors Laboratory, as in, where scientists work. Why? Because I want to encourage authors to experiment with their marketing. While I don’t talk directly about experimenting very often, I do promote the idea of finding what works for you. That will likely involve some experimentation.
How do you know what will work and what you enjoy unless you try things? And by try, I mean give it a really good go. Take consistent, imperfect action for at least 30 days before declaring something a failure. For some things, you will need to try for longer than that before you see results.
That’s where the attitude of stick-to-it-iv-ness comes in. Learning something new is rarely easy. People often talk about the baby learning to walk – they fall repeatedly, but they don’t give up. If they did, we’d be a world full of crawlers and bum shufflers… imagine that 
.
Ok, let’s not get sidetracked. The point is, you will need to be willing to experiment and try new things, and when those things feel hard, you can’t give up at the first hurdle. That’s where it can really help if you hire a book marketing coach. I can help you understand whether it’s hard because it’s not a good fit, or because you need to give it more time.
And I can hold you accountable and give you the support you need to keep going. Ever taken a course but not finished it because everything got too difficult or time-consuming? That won’t happen with me as your coach. We’ll either find a way to push through or identify your best next step in a different direction.
3. Commit to going beyond your comfort zone
Ooh, the cozy comfort zone. Let’s be clear about one thing. No one likes stepping out of their comfort zone – because it’s uncomfortable, right?
So unless you’re an adrenaline rush junkie and enjoy doing things that scare you, I’m going to assume that you have a comfort zone and you want to stay in it, thank you very much.
But here’s the thing I’ve learned about comfort zones. They can stretch. If you push at the edge of your comfort zone a little, you’ll find it grows. So next time you can stretch it a little further, then a little further.
I won’t ever force you to do something that pushes you so far out of your comfort zone in one clean sweep that you feel like you can’t breathe with anxiety. But I will encourage you to push yourself a little and test what you think you can do. You’ll be amazed by how much your comfort zone grows in 6 months of working with me 😉
4. Take responsibility for your success – but let me support you!
When you hire a book marketing coach, you’re not hiring them to do your marketing for you. When we work together we’ll agree a plan of action that will allow you to achieve your goals, but it will be up to you to implement that action plan.
I will do all that I can to guide you as you build your author brand and business, and I’ll be your biggest cheerleader. But ultimately, your success is down to you.
That’s no different whether you hire a book marketing coach, take a course, or join a membership. What you get out is directly related to what you put in. If you don’t take that consistent, imperfect action we talked about above, you won’t see the success you want.
Taking responsibility for your success means you need to turn up to your coaching sessions on time and be ready for an active session, do any homework action items we agree on, and reach out to me for support as much as you need.
It also means owning your decisions. I have a lot of opinions on book marketing and I’ll gladly share them with you. But I don’t want you to blindly follow my advice without thinking about whether my suggestions feel right for you. You may be paying me for my experience and expertise, but that doesn’t mean I always know the right thing for you in a given situation. So feel free to push back and challenge my ideas if they don’t sit right. But expect me to challenge you too if I think you’re avoiding something for the wrong reasons or going down a rabbit hole that leads nowhere.
I also want you to bring your own ideas. They are the ones that will feel most right to you; that you’re most likely to take action on and ownership of. It doesn’t happen often, but my most challenging clients are the ones that sit passively waiting for me to spoon-feed them a book marketing plan. If you’re not bringing ideas we can discuss or asking questions about my ideas, it’s hard for me to know what lights you up. And if it doesn’t light you up, you won’t stick with it for very long.
I’ll guide you, but ultimately you have to make your own decisions and feel good about them. Because it’s your business, not mine. And I won’t be with you forever (unless you want to pay me forever, of course), so my aim is to help you find your own two feet. That way you can learn to stand, walk and then run on your own. You’ll be able to trust your own judgment and know what to do when. You’ll also know whether you should invest in that new fancy tool or spend time on that shiny new social media platform as and when they come along.
So, what’s next?
If you’re already signed up to work with me – hurray! We’re going to have SUCH a ball together.
If you’re thinking about working with me or still trying to decide if you even need to hire a book marketing coach, download my Author’s Guide to Investing Your Book Marketing Budget. It takes you through the various book marketing help options available and guides you to make the best choice for you.
