Becoming a Better Marketer makes you a Better Author

This is a very paradoxical thing – Focusing on marketing for a bit, will actually make you a better author

Many authors try to avoid Marketing and Sales

1. Some think that time spent on marketing and sales is time taken away from Writing (which it sort of is)
2. Some think that Marketing and Sales is not required (could not be more wrong)
3. A few think that Marketing is a bad thing. That a product should sell itself (never happens)
4. Some just hate marketing and sales and will find any excuse to avoid doing marketing
5. Some are scared that they will find out their book is unsellable (better to find out early than late)

In reality, there are some very big advantages of understanding marketing

The Big Advantages for Authors who focus on Marketing and Understanding Marketing

1. Perhaps the biggest is that you understand that the Market decides. It does not matter what you think or want or desire. It does not matter what your view of reality is. It does not matter what you think works. The Market will buy what it wants to buy and you must listen to the market if you want to sell
2. After understanding that the market determines everything, you can do proper market research BEFORE you decide what book to write. Which is a fancy way of saying – Write what the Market is asking you to write

The market buys what it wants to buy and you cannot change its mind

1. Perhaps the second biggest is that you understand what sells and what doesn’t. After you’ve found a market that works, and you start working on getting your book to sell in that market, you learn very quickly what sells and what doesn’t
2. After understanding what sells, you can focus on that while writing your book

You must write what sells

1. Perhaps the third biggest is that you realize you have to have products to sell to your customers. The more books you have, the more you can sell
2. Once you realize this, you understand why nearly all the successful authors are ones who have lots of books and/or series of books

The more books you have, the higher your chances of success (provided you are writing high quality books)

1. Authors who learn marketing understand that they are creating a product. It is not a hobby or a passion – it is a business. You are creating a product, which has to provide some value to the customer. If it does a good job of providing value, then it will sell more and more
2. Once you realize it is a business, you start behaving differently in all your interactions

You are a business. You are a mini CEO. You are not some customer buying toothpaste at a grocery store – you are the person making and selling that toothpaste

1. Getting Better in any one of the 3 Core Skills (Knowing What to Write, Writing Very Well, Marketing Very Well) teaches you skills that often translate into the other Core Skills
2. Gaining skills and expertise in Marketing Very Well (Knowing How to Sell) makes you better in Writing Very Well and it makes you better in figuring out What to Write (i.e. what market to write for)

There are things that Marketing will teach you, which will make you a better writer and also better at finding the right markets. Things that often you cannot learn any other way