Marketing Delirium
- Connie Inglis
- Jan 4, 2022
- 1 min read
Updated: Feb 1, 2024
As a newbie author, I'm not a fan of marketing. Yesterday I had an especially bad day with it.
Part of me felt like I was being thrown into the middle of the ocean with only a flimsy lifejacket--that I was expected to first figure out my bearings as far as knowing which direction to swim and then to swim with the hope of reaching shore, any shore.
I have learned that writing is a good way to process. For me, that often takes a poetic form. So, this morning I wrote a poem--from an inverted nonet to a nonet (In an attempt to get a shark-like, or at least a fish-like shape). Warning: It's not a happy poem.
Marketing Delirium
Point
Nemo.*
Nowhere drop
off, no one knows.
Yet, I'm here--maiden
author, abandoned; a--
drift on wave upon wave of
marketing madness. Miniscule
me, sinking, safe haven not in sight.
"Swim," they say. "Swim to the blissful shore
of sales and success--of landed
dreams and delight." But no. I
find myself lost on this
ocean. Point of no
return. Waiting
for sharks to
arrive.
H
E
L
P!
*Point Nemo--the point in the ocean that is the farthest away from any point of land.
While I know I'm NOT alone on my author/marketing journey, sometimes it feels like it--especially when my emotions are prickling just below the skin, waiting for a chance to surface. And yes, that's where my emotions have been for a few weeks. Thus, my poem vent.
But what about hope? Don't I always write about hope. Hmmm. Hope is a vulnerable act. So, I write my feelings. My frustration. My hurt. My ugly. You can judge me if you want. God doesn't. And there's the rub--there's the hope.
Beautiful poem, I was right there in the 'lostness' with you. But so glad you continue to have that hope! :)
This is so relatable. Over the years, as I've launched my own books, and talked to writers, this is the vollective feeling toward marketing. Lostness. Confusion. Pressure.
Remember the goal and purpose for your book, and let that guide you. It might be sales, but it might not.
Especially at the beginning, it's easy to forget that, and to feel the pressure to reach "the shore" of some big goal, but I have found that it's more of a journey than a destination, with each new day offering a new horizon as I slowly make my way somewhere.
In the words of Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. "
You're doing much better than…
Connie, I know where you are coming from. I managed to sell some books for Christmas, but the well went dry a week before Christmas. So now it’s down to the nitty gritty if trying to market to people who never heard of me. It is a challenge for sure. But Gof will make a way where there seems to be no way.
Connie, I love the poem. It so vividly describes how you're feeling and gives such a good sense of it. I'm so sorry you're feeling discouraged with this crazy marketing stuff. You are in my thoughts and prayers and I KNOW you will prevail! Remember Winston Churchill! :)