Do you want to know a secret? I find marketing exhausting, annoying, and down right rude.

This coming from a marketer…

It’s true, though. Marketing is a tough cookie to crumble. It’s like one of those cookies you forget about. The one that you leave in the oven too long…and then falls behind the microwave…and when you find it, five years later, it’s tougher than concrete.

Author Marketing, oh boy, don’t get me started.

I know you feel my pain. Your pain is even greater because you probably have no love for marketing. I do. It’s my passion. For you, your Author Marketing is a means to an end, so believe me when I say this…I know how frustrated you are.

Author Marketing is Frustrating – Accept It

The thing they don’t tend to teach you about marketing is this: it’s not so much about getting things right, it’s about making mistakes, but understanding where you went wrong – and then improving everything.

I created a post recently aimed at Entrepreneurs that looks at mistakes. We need to make them, and Mr/Mrs Author, you need to make them, too.

The difference between good marketing and bad marketing is this. A good marketer measure what they do, unearths why things are happening, and looks to improve.

You can make the bad turn into good

You can turn the good into great

This is what marketing is about. This is how you need to see your Author Marketing. And this, I’m afraid, is why it will be forever frustrating.

It Only Gets Worse

There was a time, so I’m told, that had certainties. You put your Brand on TV and good things happened. These days it’s not that easy. Things are too crowded. When it comes to being a writer, wow, things are intense.

It might be easy to publish, but it isn’t easy to sell.

If you want to stand out in the modern world, you need to be creative. You need to take time and try new things. Every now and then you hit a winner. HOWEVER, you will hit some walls, too.

Please, for the love of God, accept this and move on

How Author Marketing Can Be Less Frustrating

These tips won’t eliminate it, but it should make it more bearable. If you want to sell books, you need your Author Marketing to rock. This post isn’t about finding the right tools. It’s about releasing some of that frustration.

This is what I suggest:

Accept Mistakes: they will happen. The idea is to avoid the big mistakes, but you can only do this by making some small ones. Sure you can learn lessons from others, but everyone needs to make their own errors.

Measure Everything: bad marketing is when something goes wrong and you don’t recognise it. If you keep making the same mistakes, you’re in for a long ride. When you do some kind of Author Marketing – whatever it may be – measure the results. Track things and analyse them. This is how good marketing is born.

Understand What You do: seeing a mistake is one thing, not knowing why it happened is another. Ignorance isn’t bliss. If that Facebook campaign you did bombed, fine, but understand why. Ask your readers, analyse the numbers, and research away. Figure out what went wrong.

Don’t Give up: your writing and author marketing isn’t that different. If you get a rejected manuscript, do you give up? What about a bad review? No, you keep going. Success takes percerveirence and Author Marketing is no different. Keep trying things and keep going. It’s a marathon.

Like I say, these won’t remove the frustration, but it will help ease it. Just remember that your Author Marketing will never be perfect.

You will make mistakes

Things will go wrong

Any marketer who says everything went perfect is a liar. And you can tell them that from me.

Turndog Millionaire – @turndog_million