Marketing or Promoting?

What is the difference between marketing and promoting? I actually found it difficult to distinguish between the two. That was until I starting marketing and/or promoting my novels to a larger extent.

In any case, I did a search to answer the above question and thought I'd share the results from Wikipedia. They are always correct, right?

          Promotion is one of the market mix elements or features, and a term used frequently in   

          marketing. The marketing mix includes the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place.^[1] 

         Promotion refers to raising customer awareness of a product or brand, generating sales, and 

         creating brand loyalty.

Okay, so I am mostly promoting my work, but I am still marketing. And this work isn't easy. Since I have started to take the promotion of my novels to a new level, I have found the time I spend far surpasses the time it takes me to write a novel. If you include proof-reading and editing my literary works, I probably spend twice the time promoting and marketing.

I am also learning a lot as I go. I think it is time for me to share some of what I'm learning. However, I do not want anyone to jump the conclusion that I have been successful at what I've been doing. It's been more a learning experience of what I probably won't do again.

First, once word gets out that you are trying to promote your work you will have many people interested in offering their services. If you are like me, you will determine what you can do for yourself.  I paid for six months with one promoter and did not sell one novel. Maybe because it wasn't a new work, but I don't think that made a big difference.

I realized this promoter was as much trying to promote me as she was my work. This is very important, especially if you are pretty much an unknown, like I am. You need to get your name out there and hope people remember it. In a good way! So don't get arrested or anything.  Making the evening news for something bad won't help your book sales. Besides, I've heard you can't keep the profits from anything you write while in prison. So, why go to all the trouble?

You can establish a name by making sure you are seen. You can do a lot on Social Networks like Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, plus a large number of other sites. However, don't make my mistake of starting out using it as a professional network, while being social with my friends. It would have been far better for me to have started with a separate page for my work and kept the social page, social.

Today, you will find I have a Facebook page and a Facebook promotional page. I spend less time on other social sites, so I currently keep most of my posts to strictly business.

While talking about Social Networks, my next bit of advice still relates to those people offering you their services. Be very careful how much you spend in the name of growing your network. There are hundreds and hundreds of groups that are dedicated to writing, writers, and readers. Paying for a list of those groups definitely cuts down on the time you will spend finding them, but many of these lists are carelessly compiled and not up to date.

I have found that once I started joining groups I found more similar groups coming up in the sidebar. I may not have joined all of them, but I have all I can handle for now. Once you join you will need to learn what the groups permit and what they don't. Some urge self-promotion. Others down right forbid it.

One thing to remember about these writers groups is that most of the members have the same goal as you. So if you think they are going to run right out and by your latest novel, think again. They will run out and buy it about as fast as you run out to buy there's.

I think I've given you more than enough to get started promoting your work. In my next article I will discuss some other ways to promote your work. And trust me, these are just as time-consuming. But a lot more fun!

You will find Pam Garlick novels here.