If you are feeling overwhelmed by your book marketing, it can be hard to make any progress. There is so much to do, that instead of making any real steps forward, you can find yourself treading water, doing little bits here and there, rather than being strategic with your time.
If that’s you, hopefully some of these suggestions will make a difference and get you back on track again.
Braindump
Sometimes the thing that can stop us making any progress is that all of our ideas are in our heads, making our thoughts feel scattered and chaotic. The first thing I suggest when an author is feeling overwhelmed is to get everything out on to a piece of paper.
Don’t just write down your marketing activities, either, as often they are just one small part of a huge number of tasks that need to be done. Get all of the thoughts floating around on to a piece of paper (or task managing tool like Notion) so that you can see them all in one place.
Prioritise
Next, prioritise. It might be that, once you’ve written your tasks down, some of them might not even need to happen, or could be done well into the future. What would be nice to have, if you get time, versus what is essential? What is time sensitive and needs to be done sooner, rather than later?
Delegate
Once you have your prioritised list, are there any that you can delegate to other people? Is there someone you can reach out to – a friend, partner or family member – to help with some of the personal admin you have on your plate? Could you book a food delivery box or get your groceries online for a few weeks? If you don’t have a virtual assistant, could you bring someone on to your team for a few hours a week to help?
Often we can become very tied to the idea that everything is On Us. It is fine to ask for, and receive, help. What could you take off your plate and ask someone else to help with?
Time block and diarise
Next, think about when you are going to do the tasks on your list. Estimate how long each task with take, and then double that time, as things always take longer than expected (and if they don’t, you can use your buffer to either relax, or do something else on the list). Add the time into your diary and try to stick to it as best as possible.
If you have a lot of one type of thing to do – for example, if you want to create some images in Canva, or need to create some posts for social media, create them all in one batch. Although it is nice to feel like we are being spontaneous, particularly on social media, sometimes the pressure to create content, when we are in a launch period, can really add on stress. If you can create some of these posts up front, it can make a huge difference.
Think big picture
When you are feeling overwhelmed, it can be hard to look at the bigger picture, but asking yourself why you are doing this, and how this piece of marketing activity will help you acheive a bigger goal, can be really useful.
Remember that your launch week is important, but you want your book to continue selling for a long time to come. If something doesn’t happen now, that doesn’t mean it will never happen. If spacing things out, and taking things more slowly means you don’t burn out and you have the energy to continue talking about the book in the months to come – do that!
Need some support?
If you want help figuring out which marketing to prioritise, and want to set aside some time to do the work, along with a supportive group of other authors, and regular office hours with me, come join The Book Launch Club, my group programme for authors! It’s a 3 month programme, starting in the autumn (September 2022), and I would love you to come join us.
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