166. Auditing Your Book Marketing Strategies with Shelley Hitz

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So with all the many ways to market books these days, how in the world can you sort through them to find what's best for you and your readers? Y' all know my favorite is podcasting as a host and guest. But as I look ahead to marketing my own book once it's finally written, I also know it's a journey and there are different marketing strategies for different seasons. Plus, once you decide on one, how can you keep up with it without taking too much time away from your writing? That's what we're talking about today as we revisit this past episode with my friend Shelly Hitzone. Shelley is an author of Too Many Books to Count, co host of the Kingdom Writer Podcast, and co founder of the Christian Book Academy membership, which I highly recommend you check out at the.

Link in the show notes because I.

Joined it this year too. On this episode, Shelley shares how to evaluate your book marketing and get a baseline so you can see what's working and what's not so you don't get distracted by those shiny objects or what other authors are doing. And then Shelly's going to share how to move forward with marketing strategies that work best for you and your audience, and most importantly, how you can make sure you're on track with what God wants you to do with the message he gave you. Y', all, you're in for a treat today, so let's get to it.

Hey.

Hey Shelley. Welcome to Book Marketing Mania. I am so glad you're here to serve our listeners today.

Thank you so much, Kim. I'm so excited that you invited me and to to share all about the book marketing things because I know you love talking about this as well.

I do, yes. So y' all heard me gush about Shelli in the introduction. And Shelli, as I've talked to you about, I know our listeners just keep talking about how they really want to market their books, but they don't want it to take all their time. And I think, you know, that's A valid concern. Right. But also, I think sometimes we have to kind of back up and really look at how we're spending our time and then, you know, what's working that we are doing and what's not. So that what Shelly and I wanted to just dive into today, and I'm going to let Shelly talk about how we can do kind of an audit of our book marketing strategy, what we're doing today, what might need to be changed, and just some other really important things that maybe you haven't thought about when you look back on what's going on with your marketing. So, Shelly, I'm just going to let you take it and run with it.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Kim. And when we talk about book marketing, it's a huge topic. And I always say it's a marathon, not a sprint. Right. But you can train for a marathon in a way that's good for your body. You can recover. Well, my husband is a competitive runner. He's a running coach. So I know all these things and he's coached me before, too. But, you know, it doesn't mean you have to just, you know, burn out and hit the wall. And, you know, all the things like we can do book marketing in a way that's joyful, that we enjoy, and that actually works. And obviously there are going to be things that we have to try. We have to, you know, test track and tweak is like what I like to say. But one of the things I've noticed, I've been working with writers since 2010, so almost 13 years now. And one of the things that I notice is it's so easy to get caught up in the bright, shiny object. Have you noticed that even with yourself, Kim?

Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're all guilty of that, right? Yeah.

And it. And I have to like, fiercely unsubscribe and, you know, I stay with the ones that, you know, the emails and the social media accounts and the things that are really helping me. But, you know, if you're having all of this noise come in, it's going to be so easy just to like, flip to this technique and then that one. And I'm going to take this course, I'm going to try this thing. And whereas sometimes you might just want to just take a few steps back, like you said, and, and consider a book marketing audit. So this is especially for those of you that have been doing this for a while, but you can start this if you just published a book. So you have kind of a baseline. But the first Thing I encourage writers to do is like, to really look at your numbers. And this is sometimes hard. Yes, I know, because, like, you may have sold maybe one book this month, or maybe you didn't sell any. And it's like, it's heart shattering sometimes to look at the statistics. But, you know, I, I think, you know, God has really shown me over the years not to be afraid of numbers. Numbers just provide information. So numbers do not give us our value. It does not say whether we're a success or not. You know, a lot of times God shows me that success is obedience. But numbers can help us to know what is working and what's not. And so it's good just to know, like, where are you at? Like, how many, you know, books have you sold? You know, get kind of some baseline numbers for your author platform and where you're at so you can kind of see how that grows. Your email list, your website visitors, social media. That's kind of what I'm referring to with an author platform. But, you know, really, you know, kind of digging down, looking, how many reviews do you have? And you know, what, what are you doing now to market your book? And what has worked well in the past and what hasn't? So sometimes I think we just kind of, like I said, we just jump from thing to thing to thing, and we don't really look back to say, did this work?

Yeah, that's so true.

I started doing this with my launches, whether it's a book launch or not. And it's so interesting, the thing that I discover and like, I'm like, oh, wow, this thing really worked. But this didn't, or this seemed to work better than, you know, than this. And so I think it's just, it's just a simple thing to do and to, to get started just to, to look at what is working. They say the 8020 rule. So 20% of your efforts are going to produce 80% of your results. You have to dig sometimes a little deeper to find out what is that? 20% for me. And so I really encourage you just, you know, if you're a spreadsheet person or if not, you can get out a journal and just kind of write this down. And maybe once a quarter, you don't have to do this all the time. At the very minimum, once a year, but kind of re. Address your numbers and kind of look at that. But really knowing, like, what is actually working and then what's not. And don't give up too soon either, because you might say, oh, you know, I was, I was trying this thing on TikTok and it's not working. But you just started it last week.

Or it takes several months, right, to see some results. So like with podcast guesting, right?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

A lot of times what I see, and you've probably seen this too, Kim, is I just see authors giving up too soon.

Yeah.

So when I'm saying what's working and what's not, I'm not saying just give up on the thing either if you don't see the results in the first couple months and you know, it depends on the strategy, but really looking to see where you're at. And then something that I don't think a lot of people are really talking about is like what marketing strategies work best for you, for your personality, for your energy, for what you enjoy, and then what works best for your audience. For example, I had a one on one coaching call with a author at one point and he wanted to start a podcast. And so we were talking about it and he, he, he basically was wanting me to help him set up a podcast. I'm like, well, let's step a few steps. Let's, you know, move a few steps back and who is your audience? And we started digging and digging and his audience was retirees and most of his audience just don't listen to podcasts. The specific audience he was, you know, targeting. And so it's like, you know, that's probably not going to be the best use of your time for that specific audience. Doesn't mean that you can't get results from that. But like, you know, what is, where's your audience hanging out? What's going to work best for them? But then one thing that I've really honed in for myself is, is what works best for me. And I think that we just try to do the things that everyone is saying you're supposed to do. And yet it doesn't mean that you have to do live videos all the time. Right. Or you even do the podcast guesting, or that you have to do blogging or that you have to be on social media. I mean, there's a lot of options when it comes to marketing and looking at like, what are you actually good at? Like what are your strengths? But then what, what do you enjoy and what gives you energy? What drains you of energy? And for me, I used to do a ton of live videos and I just realized those are very draining for me. And yet I can do audio and do that all the time and it doesn't drain me as much it was just such an interesting thing to see and yet I never really stopped long enough to really think about that for a while. Right?

Yeah.

And you know, so I think when you really dial into like, first of all, what are your strengths? I know some of you are really good at graphic design, some of you are really not.

Uh huh. Yeah.

And some, like some of my Christian book academy members will say I love designing graphics and things like that. And you know, then that's something that you can really say, okay, maybe Pinterest, you know, maybe that would be a great platform for you. Or maybe you are a video person. So, you know, maybe you want to do YouTube or writing. Maybe you say, shelley, I'm a writer through and through to my core. Well, there's so many ways you can do marketing with writing, including blogs, including SEO, including writing a short Kindle ebook that's free permanently, or just sometimes with the KDP select program and then it promotes your other books through your email marketing. There's so many ways that you can use your writing to actually do really effective marketing. So you know, I think that sometimes we just think, oh, marketing, it's when we dread it, right? And we just think it's so hard and I just don't want to do it. But what if you really found some things that you enjoy? You know, then you're going to want to do those things more often. And so, you know, I think just looking into to yourself what you enjoy, but also like what are your resources. A lot of you have other jobs, you have other responsibilities, you have families, you have volunteer, you know, responsibilities. And so, you know, committing to do like a huge summit with 30 speakers, that's going to take you three months, you know, to really plant, that's going to be a huge commitment. And to really think about doing something like that just isn't going to fit in the time commitment you have. But you could maybe do a one day audio summit, right? You know, it doesn't have to have an all access pass, it doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles. You could do something that does work in the resources that you have as far as time. And you know, you can also, you know, adjust as you go. The thing is like I always say, test track and tweak. And so as you're going to be looking at like, how did that go? What did I like about that? How can I do it differently? So Kim, you were a speaker at our Kingdom Writers Conference and that was so fun. Yes, it was a really Big one. We had a lot of speakers, I think almost 30 for that one. But it was like, it was a five day conference and, you know, just a lot of stuff going on. But I was totally toast afterwards. Yeah, I'm, I'm really an introvert. I'm a speaker, I'm a communicator, but I'm an introvert. And so I, I said, okay, this worked really, really well, but it drained me and it took me a long time to recover. What can I do differently? And so this year I've. I've pivoted to a one day event and it's smaller with eight speakers, and it's one day. We still meet on Zoom and everyone loves it and it's still a really good quality 10. And it's fun and prizes and all the things, but it was like, not draining to me at all.

Yeah, I think that's so important. Yeah. I love that you talked about the energy aspect because I always think, like, with our resources, I always think of just time and money. You know, like, time and money are just always in the forefront. But I have been reminded so much recently that, you know, we really have to give the attention to the energy. So even if we have the time and even if we have the money, we may not have the energy. And I'm so glad you gave us that example of your conference because, yes, your conference is amazing. So, everybody, I'll be sure and put a link that you definitely want to stay in touch with, Shelly, and get on our list so you can learn about the next conferences if you haven't attended them. But I would love for you to share a little bit too, Shelly, because you made me think about, you know, what you were talking about. A lot of times we, you know, have all these distractions and, you know, these squirrels that we see everybody doing all these things and we may see a particular author that it looks at least like leading up to a launch, like they are doing all the things they could possibly do. Right. And they may really be, but, you know, sometimes those people are someone that's been at it for many, many years, and they would, they would tell, you know, some of our listeners that are maybe just getting started that they, you know, they didn't do that in the beginning. There's no way they could have. And I think about you, you've been at it a while with lots of books, you know, and in the beginning, I just don't think you can do all those things. And now maybe as you're doing more and more it's because you're able to maybe bring on some help. So can you just kind of talk about, like, just think about, you know, sharing for the people that are just kind of getting started and they do see somebody doing all the things that maybe it's not, you know, you don't see, you know, see what's really going on behind the scenes. But also you just have to remember they're, they're further on down the line than you, you know, and so how can we, how can we see that but not be discouraged and feel like we're not doing enough?

Yeah, I think, you know, we all are at different stages and I can look at someone else that's further along than me and say, whoa, like that is amazing. Whereas other people might look at me and say, whoa, look at what she's doing. But yeah, I do have a team of virtual assistants now and so I can do the things that I do. I do this full time while, you know, I mean, so give yourself some grace. Realize that you have a limited amount of time of energy and resources. But we also have the King of Kings, right? We have Jesus on as a resource as, as Christians, as believers. And so, you know, God can give you those God ideas instead of just good ideas. And so we recommend that you have business meetings with God. So what does that mean? That just means that like even here, like when you're, you're sitting down, you're doing an audit, you're looking at your numbers, you're looking at what's best for you, what's best for your audience and what's worked, what's not. And you're really like, I encourage you to write it out like you're journaling and, and so that you can, can look at those things and then compare when you do it again. But ask God what would be the 20%, what would be, you know, I have this many hours that I can devote. What is going to give the best bang for that buck? Right. You know, or for that time and ask the Lord and just start journaling. And what I have found is that it's like a two way journal. It's where I'm writing out my, my prayers and my plans and things to God. And then as I get quiet, as I sit that I listen to what he's saying and then I write out what I sense him saying now. And sometimes it's, it takes a while, like, you know, because we're just getting the cobwebs out of our mind and we're, you know, I'll just sit down and I'll just start planning. Like, even this morning I was writing out like the different months of, you know, the rest of this year and some of the things I was planning and then I just kept writing and, and rewriting and moving things around and praying and it's still not finalized. But, you know, coming to God and asking him for wisdom and for guidance because we can't, we cannot do all the things and that you are seeing do the things. They, number one, are probably able to do this full time or they, and, or they have a team that they can, they can pay and they can, or they hire that can do some things for them. But there are a lot of ways that you can also have, you know, just little shortcuts like using templates or, you know, getting on Canva, you know, they have a ton of things that you can use on there. For infographics, we provide like in our academy and Christian Book Academy, also in our book marketing shop, we provide a lot of like, little templates that you can edit and then put it in your own voice, but not starting with the blank page. Whether it's a, you know, a pitch email, like what you do, or if it's, if it's, you know, an email to send out during a launch or a promotion or whatever, a social media post, there's so many things that you don't have to start from scratch. And so, you know, you can, you know, you can get help. And you know, there's, there's different ways, but to really just take a deep breath, give yourself some grace and ask God, like, if I can only focus on one thing right now, you know, what would would that be? And, you know, I've just found that I get clarity as I take action. My friend Shay Bines from Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur says God can't direct a parked. And I share that quote a lot because so many times we're just paralysis of analysis. And so if you just start, you know, you know, have a business meeting with God, say, these are all the things that I'm doing. What is really, what really seems to be working, what's rising up to that 20%, that's really working, maybe Instagram is really working for you. You're getting a lot of dms, you're getting a lot of clients, or at least some, you know, sales or, you know, some things, people are interacting with you there. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a ghost town and you're spending five hours a week on Instagram where else. Could, could you maybe allocate that five hours a week maybe on Amazon ads? You know, maybe if you really spent some time learning Amazon ads. That's, you know, one of the ways we, we sell books. And so, you know, there's just things that as you start taking action and as you start doing the things that God will begin you and showing you where to spend your time. And I just think that's, that's, it's just a fun adventure because we're doing it with him.

Yes, I totally agree. And I think that's what we all want to, you know, do. This book marketing thing is we always want to make sure that we're honoring God with it because it's his message that he gave us, but that we're honoring our time as well, you know, and especially our time and energy that.

Kind of go together. Oh, gosh. Isn't Shelly the best? I hope you'll check out her Christian Book Academy membership in the Show Notes. I joined a few months ago and I'm so blown away by all the resources she provides to help us go from writing our first draft to actually launching our book and marketing our book in the future. And she includes coaching calls, prayer meetings, virtual writing retreats, hands on workshops. It just goes on and on. It's truly priceless. So I'm going to put a link.

To that in the show notes so you can check it out.

But thanks for tuning in to book marketing mania today. And as always, I'll be there for you next episode to help you reach and serve your readers one podcast at a time. See you then.