Not everyone will have to go through the process of marketing their own book, but I feel that these are skills that will benefit even a writer with a publisher ready to back them and market their work for them. There is also the factor that, as expenses and priorities change for publishers, they require more and more from their authors in the way of self-marketing, even going so far as to ask for a marketing plan along with a manuscript.

When I studied marketing as part of my college education, it was impressed on me that there are four parts to a marketing campaign: “Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.” When you are planning on getting a book to market, you may need to be conscious of the fact that some books may be easier to sell than others. During a one-on-one with well-known Edmonton author Rudy Wiebe, she explained that what the publishers were really looking for was novels. However, it was more important to me at the time to document and distribute books about my recovery from a mental illness. This goal didn’t mean I had to fork over large amounts of cash for publishing and then give copies away, but it did make me mindful that I had to look at a different marketing plan if I wanted to earn a living writing.

Part 1: Product

Being aware that my product (creative nonfiction books regarding mental health) was different, I focused on some other ways to target buyers and readers. One part that was very beneficial to me was that many libraries — once they were made aware of my work — were willing to purchase my books. Also, using my sales skills and public speaking skills (thank you Toastmasters!), I booked a few speaking engagements at universities in classes related to mental health. The bonus was that I was paid a little for speaking, plus I was getting word out about my work.

One of the key lessons I learned at this time is that a writer must keep putting out books. Every work of nonfiction has a life cycle. What you choose as your ‘product’ or work of literature will be up to you, but it is key to understand different products will be received in different ways and that you need to plan accordingly.

Part 2: Price

The next step in marketing, price, was a bit more difficult than it may seem. I first printed copies of my book, “Through the Withering Storm: My Teen Years with Bipolar,” years ago. I started out with a price printed on the cover of $22.00 Canadian but later, I realized how much easier it was for people to pull out a $20 bill, have me sign their book, and to have them walk away hopefully excited about reading it.

The disadvantage of having the price printed on the cover was that now, with the prices of everything going up, it is almost impossible for me to raise the price of my book to cover inflationary expenses. This pitfall is also a good reason to not print more copies of your self-published book than you can sell in a few months in case you need to change either the price or any content.

This is one of the reasons I like dealing with Kindle Direct Publishing. You can order any amount of copies after editing and formatting your book, and the only cost is a significant discount for author copies. It was hard at first putting a book out without help, but I have gone on to sell hundreds of copies of the book in the end.

Part 3: Promotion

Promotion of your self-published book is the next critical aspect of publishing. What I have found in my years of writing and selling books is that I do my best sales on a one-to-one basis, directly with my readers. There have been times when companies bought copies of each of my books in bulk (for which I gave them a small bulk discount), but most of my sales have resulted from me meeting the reader, explaining the book and signing it for them.

So many people love the idea that I sign my books. Sometimes I even give them the bonus of writing a short poem only for them, which is one of the best ways to seal a deal.

Situations like this can be set up at bookstores where you come into their location, set up a table with your books, and the store processes your sales and later sends you a payment minus their costs. This approach can be an excellent way to get your book known, but not the best way to make money off your book, at least not directly. Most bookstores will take 45% of your sales for doing the processing, and you still must factor in what your cost is for the book.

Radio, TV and Public Speaking

Another marketing method is to contact radio stations (community radio stations, not ones who mostly play popular music) and ask about being a guest, explaining your work and why you think their listeners could benefit from it. I have had some great results being on National Public Radio in the US and being a guest on some local stations in Edmonton. Anything you can do to put your name on people’s minds will benefit you in the long run. I don’t know how word got to them, but last year someone far away in Vancouver was looking for public speakers who lived with mental illness, and my name was put on a contact list. I was invited to fly to Ottawa, stay in a beautiful hotel and speak at a conference. The organizers paid me a little for speaking, and I sold many books. It was also one of the best vacations I never had to pay for.

In addition to being on radio, I have been able to book appearances on two TV programs. One of them was the CBC News, which made my story into a mini-documentary, and the other was a local independent TV station in Edmonton. The feedback I received was that people were very grateful to learn more about mental health, that it is a topic that needs more awareness and exposure. The mini documentary is also now my calling card that I send with emails when I want people to understand my work.

Business Cards

Promotion comes in many forms. One of the simplest things you can do is print up business cards, especially if you are writing nonfiction. Novels are wonderful, easier to conventionally publish, and if they are good, the hope is that they will rise to the top and make money for their author. But you don’t market them in the same way. Creative nonfiction books like the second book I wrote about my recovery from mental illness, called “Inching Back to Sane,” have helped establish me as someone who has lived experience with mental illness who has come through the other side to live a full life. Having business cards means when I meet someone who may benefit from my talks or books, I don’t have to go about the awkward and often ineffective process of giving them my contact details. I also like having business cards because I can stick up a few of them on a bulletin board in a school, mall, restaurant or library for people to take if they are interested in my writing.

Leveraging Your Network

It can be so important that all your friends and acquaintances know about you being a writer. Sometimes this mission can mean giving out a free book or setting up a website or blog as I have done through Substack.com where paid memberships are optional. These are ways not just to promote yourself, but to establish yourself as a ‘brand’ in a sense. Once, I had called up a friend and his wife answered, and we had a quick chat about my books and how I wanted to find more places to get bulk orders sold. She suggested I try a nonprofit that she worked for. I called them up and instead of wanting to buy bulk books, they set me up with a wonderful opportunity to work in a psychiatric hospital I used to be a patient in, teaching creative writing. I had the job for almost three years, and it was amazing to see the other side of mental health treatment, and to receive a professional wage for it.

Promoting Through Libraries

As far as place goes, there are many options as to where you can sell your books. There is always the possibility of selling to libraries, and there are as many ways of accomplishing your sales goals by doing this as there are libraries. At first I marketed my books to larger libraries, and there was a good reason for it. In Canada, there is an organization called The Public Lending Right where you register all your books, and at the start of the new year, they go through the catalogues of 10 selected major libraries, and you are given a payment each time one of your books are found in them. I hate to say it, but to my knowledge a similar organization doesn’t exist in the US, but it is likely there will be one in the UK. It is an extremely helpful thing each year to receive my check, which is often close to $1,000.00 that always helps me get through the traditionally slow time of year when payments are sent out.

There are several reasons to like libraries. One reason is that there are so many libraries. For some time, whenever I go out of town, I bring a few books with me and pitch them to the local small town public libraries, and if reasonable, the school libraries as well. Small towns are extremely appreciative to get new and unique books into their collections. I simply ask to speak to the librarian in charge of purchasing or head librarian, show them the books with a quick explanation, and if they like them, I simply leave them with the librarian and later send an invoice over email using a template from my Microsoft Word program. I have never had a library fail to pay me in a reasonable time. Not only does selling books in this way help lower the cost of travel to local areas I visit, but I have also had a few instances of doing an impromptu book tour, going to several libraries in small towns, then spending the next few weeks eagerly awaiting cheques.

Part 4: Place

Of course, the place you sell your books is also an important factor. Here is where people in the US are at a bit of an advantage. In Canada we only really have one major bookstore, Indigo, which came in years ago and ran almost all the smaller stores out of business. Then when times were lean, they closed many stores, leaving the book shopping public with fewer choices. This history makes me very reluctant to support them, but I have little choice as a person who needs to do a great deal of reading.

In any major city, there are numerous options as to places you can sell your books. When I got my start, I would pay for a table at a farmer’s market, put on my best shirt and tie, and proceed to sit for around 8 hours in hopes of turning a profit. I did well, but I soon realized, with the help of an amazing author friend, that as an author, there are numerous options open to you to earn a living that don’t necessarily include having to sell books one by one. I took some of the focus off finding places to sell my books and was able to discover a love for writing articles and essays.

One of the amazing things about this new part of my life was that when I wrote about mental health, I wrote so I could help others and show a passion for the process of recovery that many people don’t realize they are capable of. This passion led me to winning a few awards, along with an award nomination for my work.

One such opportunity that comes naturally for people who are already authors — especially if they have post-secondary writing training — is to become a writer-in-residence. This is a position where you are paid to work partially on your own writing, and you also work helping members of the public with their writing. This may be a position at a major library, or it can be at a college or university. I have used the services of writers-in-residence with my work, and not only have I met some amazing authors who really helped my writing, I became good friends with a rising star in the literary world who is like a brother to me now. When I was getting started, we would often meet for lunch and he became my mentor, teaching me what I needed to know about being a writer, but perhaps also simply in being a good human being which included putting things like family first and always considering self-care.

Currently, it might not be a bad time to talk about Artificial Intelligence. It has been getting a lot of hype lately, and I think a lot of it is undeserved. AI is something that gathers information from all over the internet just as search engines like Google do, then put all the pieces together so that it seems it has ‘created’ content. Nothing could be further from the truth. To take on a harsh opinion, I think it must be understood that AI is only mass plagiarism and barring a huge shift in technology that would make AI an entity capable of writing original work, it is a fad and its days are numbered. It may well go on to be a valuable tool, but I just don’t think it will turn the world upside down. All the main part of it has been writing, language software, and even artwork, photography and film that has been taken from people who created it without giving them credit or payment.

It is so critical not to be tempted to let AI take over your writing. Given enough of a chance, AI will only stifle the real creative abilities of authors who write about beauty and truth already. In the many ways being a writer and being able to cultivate your own creativity, you are miles ahead of anything AI can do without easily being identifiable as AI.

Why All This Work is Worth It

Marketing a book or a few books can be a daunting challenge. But I think anyone who has read this far will understand the incredible joy it can bring a person to have their words seen, read, and enjoyed. When I think of writing, I often think about how many wonderful opportunities it has afforded me, from my latest trip to another city in Alberta to give a talk about mental health, to something that really warmed my heart.

A few years back I had gone to a college class to give a talk about mental health. One of the students was living with a mental health challenge. Years later, she contacted me and told me she had bought my books that day and read them repeatedly. She went on to say that though it took her 10 years to get her degree, she managed to do it and was kind enough to invite me to her graduation celebration. It was one of the happiest days of my life. My words, on the page and in person, mattered and truly made a difference in the life of a wonderful human being. There is true power and true magic, even what Indigenous people like to call medicine in writing.

How amazing is it to think that anyone with a basic understanding of a language can pick up a book at any time, any place in history, start reading and be suddenly transported into the mind of the writer. If you want to write, don’t let anything stop you. Don’t let anyone tell you it is too difficult or impossible. The skills you need to write are all teachable skills. The facts you need to know are all learnable. Take small steps at first, but stay with it. One day you just may be incredibly grateful that you left a legacy of your writing for generations to come.