#373: Marketing Minute: Book Launch Ideas for Introverts

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Hey friends. I am so excited to announce our 5th Kingdom Writers Conference and this one's going to be the book launch edition. My name is Shelley Hitz, one of your hosts here at the Kingdom Writers Podcast and also one of the hosts of the Kingdom Writers Conference, and we are just thrilled to bring this topic to you. This is one that you've asked us for. More resources and tools on on and this is going to be good. Make sure to get your free ticket. Registration is now open, so make sure to go over to kingdomwritersconference.com launch. That way you'll reserve your spot, you'll be in and you get free access to the presentations for five days, a chance to win prizes. Join us live on Zoom twice the day of the conference and so much more. So the conference is kicks off on May 4th and we want to help you discover proven strategies that will empower you to confidently launch your book to the world so you can reach a wider audience and make a lasting impact with the message God has placed on your heart. We know that many of you have a passion to reach more people and a book launch is a great way to do that. So join us, invite all your writing friends and go sign up right now at kingdomwritersconference.com forward/launch welcome back to the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz, one of your hosts here on the podcast and today we're going to talk about launching your book as an introvert. I know a lot of you are introverts and even if you aren't, listen in because you might get some tips that help you as well. For years I thought I was an extrovert and I even scored on the Myers Briggs Prior Personality Test as an extrovert. But as I've gotten older, I realize, I think as God's healed me and you know, just different things, I've become more aware. Like I am an introvert and I am social. I am a speaker, I'm an external processor, which is different than most introverts. But I am still an introvert. And so I've been really thinking about this more and I wrote a blog post all about book marketing strategies for introverted authors. We will link to that in the show Notes. But I also wanted to share on the podcast specifically how you can apply this to book launches, especially since we have now a book launch edition of the Kingdom Writers Conference, which you can get access to@dommywritersconference.com launch. So let's talk about three ways that you can launch your book as an introvert. So the first strategy is just to think about how to manage your energy. Energy management is a real thing, and honestly, it's often overlooked. When I talk about this, I almost always get feedback because people are like, oh yeah, this is something that is affecting me, but I haven't really been thinking about it. So when it comes to a book launch, when you think about your energy, you want to think about the things that give you energy and the things that drain you of energy. And if possible, you may want to try to schedule the things that drain you of energy on one day or in blocks of time so that you're, you know, you're in that groove, you're doing that thing and then you, you can rest and relax and recharge, right? So for me, I tend to do most of my recordings, my live events, zoom calls, any voxer coaching that I do with Christian Book Academy members, I do that on Thursdays. That's my current schedule. It could change in the future. But that's also why we decided to host our one day conferences on Thursdays, because that's my day, that's my on day. And then the other days I can sometimes just stay in my PJs or my workout clothes all day and I'm not having to do my hair and makeup or be on and I can maybe even just be in deep work where I'm really just focused, but also just relaxing a little bit more and not doing the things that drain me. So think about managing your energy and you know, look at the different things that you're planning for your book launch and try to schedule accordingly. Now, there will be times that maybe there's an opportunity for a podcast interview or something that you just don't want to turn down. I've done that too. Like, I will make exceptions outside my Thursday appointment day, but for the most part I really try to keep that schedule and it has helped me tremendously because when I was doing some sort of live zoom or a live video or podcast interviews every day, it was draining because I never had a chance to fully recharge. So think about your energy management. Number two. This is huge. Now this, this is, this is important for extroverts too. But for introverts, it's a spirit especially important to plan and schedule ahead. With a book launch. You can do a lot of things ahead of time and so give yourself enough time. Don't try to plan a book launch in a few weeks, give yourself enough time. You may want to take three months. So a lot of times in Christian Book Academy, we encourage you to go through each stage of the Kingdom writers path, which one of those stages is book launch in 90 day segments. So you may want to take 90 days to really focus on planning your book launch. You may want to even spread it out and give yourself six months depending on the type of book launch you're doing, if it's going to be really involved or if you just don't have as much time to devote to it. But give yourself some time and you can schedule ahead. So, you know, you can, you can write your emails, you can write your post, you can write your blog post, you can, you know, create all this content that you're going to be creating, your images, you know, all the things. You can do all of that ahead of time and give yourself space to do that. So it's not, it doesn't feel like an urgent, you know, you know, thing at the last minute. That's like an emergency. So it doesn't feel like an emergency. And then schedule, schedule your podcast, schedule your blog posts, schedule your posts, schedule your emails. And guess what? When the launch comes, then you can focus on engaging because everything else is already done. Does that make sense? Like that's what I do with these conferences that we're hosting. We work for six weeks in advance working on all the things. And then I have a team that's with, that's working with me. So it's almost like I have triple the, the time because, you know, I have all of my team that's helping me as well. But we plan all of this and do all of this in advance. We schedule everything in advance. And then I can just focus on you that day with the conference. I can focus on any issues that come up or any tech gremlins, right? Or sometimes we call them tech demons in Jesus name, be gone. Or like actually engaging, right? Replying to your emails, replying to your comments, replying to your messages. And if you're doing all of those other things and you're trying to do, you know, handle the tech issues or engage with your readers, it'll be exhausting. I mean, it's exhausting anyways. And you know, we have really changed the way we do our Conferences because I did a big, big box conference with five days and I did all the things. It was exhausting and it took me a long time to recover from that. Where this last one was, one day you guys got just as much from was easier for me, it was easier for you. And you still got tons of value. So anyways, I can't encourage you enough. Please plan and schedule ahead so that you create that space then to have the energy to do the things that will need to be done last minute. There will be things that come up, there will be things. And then to engage, that is part of marketing and to be able to create that space and create that energy so you can engage. But then also when it comes to managing your energy and planning ahead, planning, plan some rest time. So deliberately plan in sometimes for you to recharge and whatever that looks like for you. Maybe you do want to schedule a massage the day before your launch, you know, or the day after, or, you know, you decide. But also schedule in sometimes to rest. And then strategy number three is just to use book marketing ideas that work with your strengths. So if you plan a book launch all around, you know, live videos and you're going live every day and you're just feeling so exhausted, you're not going to be at your best, first of all, right? And your audience may not connect with that because you're not putting your best foot forward because you're tired or it's not your strength. And I'm not saying not to do that. Going live at least once during your launch, whether it's on your personal profile or Instagram or somewhere, going live at least once is really a great strategy because if, especially if you don't do it often, then it will really catch people's attention. But also, I mean, you can, you can practice ahead of time, you can write things out so you, you know what you're going to say. But I digress. As an introverted writer, if that's you, you might want to consider using writing more often in your marketing. Now you have to know yourself. And we have you go through a book marketing audit in our academy, Christian Book Academy. You can also get access to that audit in the book promotion plan workshop, which is in the bookmarketing shop.com but in that audit we have, you really think about like, what are you good at? What are your strengths? And for me, I am a verbal processor, even though I'm an introvert. But what I realized is that recording audio only content is a lot less draining for me than having to do video, and I felt like I had to do video. And so when I started to switch and I would, you know, just do mostly the audio for the podcast instead of feeling like I had to do both forms of content and even, like, for our conference, you know, focusing more on the audio, it has made a huge difference for me. But for you, let's talk about, like, how can you focus on maybe your writing for your book launch? All right, email marketing, we've talked about this before, but if you're already building an audience and you have a tribe, email marketing is amazing for introverts. Now, even if you don't have many subscribers right now to share your book launch with, I want you to think about this for the future, because growing your email list will help you to be able to launch future books or products or programs or anything that you're doing much easier. Because you can just write, schedule out an email to your list, just like I've done for my conferences. If you're on our email list, you'll see that. You'll see those emails come through, and it just is much easier. But also consider guest blogging. So podcast interviews are powerful, and if you can, you know, think about scheduling a few and, you know, like I said, spreading it out so it doesn't drain you too much. But, you know, sometimes you can record them, you know, sometimes people record them, you know, in advance, too. So you won't be doing them all at the same time. But, you know, trying to get some key podcast interviews with your target audience. But guest blogging, it still can be effective, especially when you're considering SEO search engine optimization. So we have some trainings for you on this. In Christian Book Academy, Heather Hart created a training on SEO for authors. And then I created an SEO toolkit. You can get the SEO toolkit in our shop. But SEO search engine optimization is how you can attract new readers. So when you're doing the guest blogging, not only will you attract the attention of of the current followers of that person and that blog, but if you're optimizing it for a keyword phrase, you know that we teach you how to do, you know, when you're doing SEO search engine optimization, then that post can continue to introduce new people to you for years to come. Now, that's not always going to happen, but it can. So that's definitely something to think about. Guest blogging is something that you can still do. You can consider doing email swaps so, you know, swapping with another author and sharing their book with your email list and they share yours with theirs. You can also do social media takeovers. So you take over someone's social media for a day and they take over yours. Again with these things, think about how you manage your energy and how you can plan and schedule your in advance. So you're planning and scheduling in advance with these Collaborations can really take the pressure off. You know, you can create the content and schedule it in advance. Now you know there's many, many things you can do. But if you have time, what if you considered publishing a short Kindle ebook on a similar topic? So it would be a topic that would lead in to your main book. This doesn't have to be a huge project. It could actually be content you're repurposing from other things you've already created, maybe blogs or emails or other things that you've done. And it can be 10,000 words. I mean I have some short Kindle ebooks that are 6 to 7,000 words. It doesn't have to be long, but it just has to create value.

Consider creating that book around a keyword phrase people are searching for on Amazon and you can find that out with a publisher rocket. And we'll put a link to that in the show Notes and it's my affiliate link, but that's something that you can use to see what people are searching for. But that way when people are searching for your topic, your free, you know, your, your short little Kindle ebook comes up and you can have it there for 99 cent and then make it exclusive to KDP Select. So if, if you have this content as blog posts, you may have to put those blog posts on draft. Only 10% of that book can be available online if you put it in KDP Select. So I've done that before. I actually took blog post and created it into a book that I wanted to put in KDP Select. I just put those blog posts on draft and so that I could use this specific strategy. And then you can put it on free. So you can have that book for free during your launch. And then that book, it advertises your next book. I always recommend in your books putting a link to your lead magnet as well in the front and the back. But you can also let them know about this other book. And so we also have information on how you can actually make that book perma free. So if you don't want to go through the thing of making your blog post drafts and all of that, I get it. We have went through that before too. And instead of Using KDP select, we've made it perma free. Now, this is a whole other strategy. It's too much to really go into detail on this podcast, but if you want more information, join Christian Book Academy, ask me about it there, or we have some other resources that we can point you to. All this to say, if you're an introverted author, there are ways to work with your strengths. You do not have to do all the things. Now, I do encourage you. Stretch yourself, do a few podcast interviews, go live at least once, share a selfie on social media. Um, we have, in Christian Book Academy, as well as in our shop, we have a book buzz toolkit about all about launching your book. And it, it gives you the strategy of sharing a selfie and it gives you the templates to use and how to do it. And it's been very effective. So, I mean, stretch yourself a little bit. I know, I know you want to stay in your shell. You want to stay just with the writing and make that your focus 80% of the time. But what if you stretched yourself and 20% of the. A few things that are outside your comfort zone but are very powerful. You know, when you go outside your comfort zone, make it count. You know, if you're going to do a podcast interview, try to get one that has a good following that, that you know isn't brand new or you know, isn't just listened to by a few people, but try to really make it count right, so that you make your energy matter. All right, let's recap. So the things I talked about when you're an introverted author to consider when launching your book is, number one, manage your energy. This has been key for me. It has literally been a game changer. I know that word has been overused, but I truly, truly believe that because I've been managing my energy, it's allowed me to continue to be as prolific and productive as I am. I think if I wouldn't have really gotten this insight from the Lord, I believe probably in a business meeting with God, right. I would probably stay still, be floundering a little bit and not getting as much done. Number two, plan and schedule ahead. Oh, my goodness. I cannot tell you how key this is. It will free you up to be your best self during the launch when everything else is already done, it's already scheduled, and you can just focus on what you need to focus on during the launch and then use book marketing ideas that go with your strengths that you can, you know, focus on writing and the things that you really enjoy, you know, whatever your strengths are. If it is like me, if it's audio, it could be that you consider doing more podcast interviews or you maybe do a private podcast as a bonus for your book launch. And I mean there's all sorts of things that you can do once you really dial in and you have that awareness. And that's I think the biggest thing as, as we kind of conclude this podcast is really just having awareness of you, of your strengths, of your energy, and like really paying attention to those things. Like what is draining you so much. Maybe there's something that you can outsource. Maybe some of the draining part is the technology and maybe that's something that you can actually do, a swap. Maybe you barter for that or you hire someone. Maybe there's even a teenager in your town or maybe you find someone inexpensively on Fiverr. I mean, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, right? We want to keep our arms and our legs, but it doesn't have to cost a lot. But you know, once you start to become aware, then you can meet with God in your business meetings and say, okay, what do I need to do moving forward? That's what I continue to do. When I feel that rub, when I feel that like something isn't working right, it's like, okay, something needs to change. Just like I mentioned with our last conference in September, the big box five day conference is like, okay, something needs to change. This was amazing. It was so powerful. It worked so well. But is there a way to do it that works even better for me, doesn't exhaust me and my team, but also doesn't overwhelm you? And I really believe we found like the perfect, the perfect combination of a really, really, really small micro audio summit and a really, really big box summit. And it all happened because I was simply aware. So sometimes you need to just stop, create some space, recognize when you are drained of energy and say, okay Lord, what is the solution to this? Is there something we can do differently? So I know I've talked a lot today and I want to just close in prayer and just pray that God would give you wisdom. So Lord, thank you so much for everyone listening. And I just pray whether they're an introvert or an extrovert, Lord, you would bless them as they plan their book launch, that you would give them wisdom, that you would give them guidance and Lord, that you would be with them, Lord, that you would show them the way and give them the strategies that are going to work best for them, but also for their audience, like where their audience is hanging out, where their audience will connect with them. And so Lord, thank you that you have all of this taken care of. We don't need to stress, we don't need to get into that place of overwhelm. We can manage our energy. We can plan and schedule ahead. We can use the book marketing ideas that work with our strengths and we can follow you so that you can use us to impact even more lives and get the message that you've put on our heart to more people. So Lord, thank you. Thank you for this privilege. Thank you that we get to steward the message you've given us and we can do that well and we just praise you for all you're doing. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Friends, I hope that this episode blessed you. Now go over sign up for our conference all about book launches to dive into a lot more topics and I think you will get a lot out of it. So go sign up kingdomwritersconference.com launch and make sure to share with all your writing friends. All right, I will see you in the next episode. Would you like more? If you are enjoying this podcast but want more, I have something exciting to share with you. We have released what's called a private podcast. So a private podcast you will not find by searching in Apple. You have to know specifically how to subscribe to it. It's more private and exclusive and it just can be more relaxed behind the scenes. And my new private podcast is called Hits Blitz and it's wisdom for writers that you're going to learn from my 18 plus years of experience in publishing and online marketing so that you can move forward in God's call to write. I am best known for injecting energy and enthusiasm into everything I do and inspiring those around me to take action. So I encourage you to listen in to this exclusive private podcast. It is free. 100% free. You don't have to pay for it and be prepared to be inspired by my next Hits Blitz so you can sign up@trainingauthors.com hits and if you have any other writing friends that you think could benefit from it, definitely share it with them. They can go to the Same link training authors.com forward/hits blitz to get access. Again, this is a private podcast so you cannot get access to it any other way. It's completely free. All you have to do is sign up and then you'll get all the information on how to add it to your podcast player of choice so I can't wait for you to join me over there. I share a lot of things behind the scenes and more content just in a real time basis. So it's more like chatting with a friend or following someone on stories on social media. Except you don't have to get caught up in any of the algorithms. You'll just have this in your podcast player and be able to listen in wherever you're at, whatever you're doing. Some of the listeners told me this week that they were listening while waiting in the Target parking lot, while brushing their teeth. You can fit this into the pockets of time that you have, so I hope you'll join me. Come over to trainingauthors.com hitsblitz.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers.