I’ve been a freelance writer for 39 years. During this time, I’ve had various business cards designed, printed information cards to publicize books, and printed bookmarks. Maybe it’s due to sheltering at home, but I had a creative spurt, and wrote three books for children. All are in production now. Clearly, it was time to plan and unify my book marketing materials.
To begin with, I had a graphic designer create a logo. It is double H with my name beneath. The color of the letters matches the color of the sweater I’m wearing in my photo. I’m pleased with the logo and the eye-catching teal color. This logo appears on the back of my business card, and the masthead of my new newsletter.
I had been thinking about writing a newsletter for some time. A few weeks ago, I acted on the idea. My newsletter is about 600 words long, the word count of an article. Recurring columns give the newsletter continuity. As my needs change, the column headings may also change. My granddaughter, an independent photographer and artistic person, designed the newsletter masthead.
We decided to include the covers of my latest books on the masthead. One glance and readers have an idea of what I write. The covers also add color to the masthead. Writing a short newsletter is time-consuming and, as soon as I finish one issue, I start work on the next. This is a time-consuming process because writing short takes more time than writing long.
I’m feeling pretty good about book marketing. After years of fumbling around, I have my act together. Do you have a unified marketing approach? Is your business card current? Are you willing to spend time on an E-newsletter? If you’ve going to compete in today’s market, you need to answer these questions, and allocate money to marketing.
You can do it!