Imposter Syndrome and Marketing

• Every day I write, and I love the creativity, research and the process of getting a novel or story together.
• Every day I write up a list of things to do. Most tasks are related to finishing a chapter, doing editing, researching or reading something that has to do with my work in progress.
• I also add a marketing task but it’s amazing how often I just don’t get around to marketing. I can go for weeks/months and not do marketing. Now I have to ask myself why?
• I’ve blamed my ignorance of marketing skills for my tardiness. But I should be learning those skills, shouldn’t I?
• I’ve blamed time constraints, but I do put time aside for marketing, but it still doesn’t get done.
• I’ve blamed the complexity and difficulties of navigating a strange and incomprehensible system of social media influencers, sites that promote your books, hashtags, blogs and newsletters. It is a complex subject, but I could be exploring marketing.
• I argue with myself that creating a manuscript is so much more fun than marketing it. But why write if you don’t put it out to be read. We need marketing to get our novels and stories into the hands of readers.
• I’ve blamed everything except what I’ve come to realise is the real problem – Imposter syndrome.

It’s the new catch phrase. According to many articles, Imposter syndrome has become a thing. It describes a crippling anxiety that comes from the fear of negative judgement. It involves the internal messages we give ourselves. I’m fudging, I’m not good enough, my writing isn’t good enough. So instead of marketing, we don’t market and hope that we will be discovered, or our friends and family will be enough, or word of mouth will get our books into readers’ hands.

 BUT WHAT IF WE MARKET INSTEAD.

Writers tend to be isolated perfectionists who are extremely skilled at procrastination. Imposter syndrome slips in and eventually adds to our self-doubts.

On reflection what I find the most difficult task in marketing is self-promotion. I’m English and from an older generation that is prone to the idea that self-promotion is boasting. Nice British, and maybe nice Australian people, don’t boast. The Americans seem to promote themselves with aplomb and the younger generations with lifelong self-aggrandizement on social media don’t seem to have the same problems. But telling people how good you are just isn’t easy for me.

I hate having to discuss my personal work style, where I get my inspiration, my writing history and why I write. My thought is ‘who cares’, and I freeze up and don’t put out a personal post on Facebook. The idea of actually making a video of me on TikTok or Book Tok talking about anything to do with my writing and books, horrifies me.

But marketing is important.

Consulting with Google AI gave me some surprisingly helpful advice.

• Reframe – focus on what you are proud of and can market easily. I love my characters and they are a lot more confident than me. So, market through your characters. I’m going to give it a try.
• Explore and try out marketing platforms – attend author presentations and plan your own, start a newsletter or e-mail list. Build a website and open a social media account. Just do it.
• Embrace data – use reviews, book sales, competition wins, published works as proof you are a writer with gravitas. It’s OK to boast when you’ve got something to boast about.
• Seek out information and skills for marketing and try them out. Bad marketing is probably more effective than none and you can discuss what’s worked for you and what hasn’t on your preferred marketing platform. I’m going to enroll in a daylong seminar at the RWA conference in Darwin so hopefully will get some more information there.
• But most of all let’s start talking about marketing. Sharing what works and what doesn’t. How to start up a writing blog, a website, an author page on a social media. Let’s plan some writer’s events and support each other. Just do it.

Cheers Elsie King