by Erica Vetsch, Erica Vetsch on Facebook

Are you all out of ideas for how to market your book? Are you wondering if your marketing efforts are worth the time and money? Are you just plain tired of marketing and all that goes with it? 

I feel ya! Sometimes it seems as if we’re shouting into the void, waiting for a faint echo. We’re burnt out, and we feel like a sideshow hawker, constantly proclaiming our wares and all but begging people to buy our books. Exhausting and…annoying.

So what is a writer to do? 

I suggest working collaboratively with other authors. First, the benefits, because I want to know how things will help me up front before I strategize much on implementing them, and I suspect you are the same.

1. Sharing the workload. Many hands make light work.  No one person has to do all the heavy lifting. Depending upon the size of your marketing campaign, there can be a lot of moving parts and details to navigate. If there are lots of people involved, work can be parceled out. Working as a team means you can also share the expenses you may/will incur along the way. Whether it’s subscribing to a raffle/entry platform, paying for advertising space, or pooling resources for a larger prize than you could afford on your own, having lots of folks involved helps spread out the cost.
2. Sharing new ideas. Fresh perspectives, new voices, and people who see things from another angle. Sometimes we’re just flat out of ideas. We’ve done what everyone else is doing, and now we’re ready for something new. If we collaborate, we can brainstorm, come up with something new, or a new twist on something that’s been done. And with more people involved, there are several brains to process things and see possible challenges and pitfalls.
3. Sharing strengths. Someone may be better at graphics or technology or advertising copy. No one has to do a job at which they aren’t good/comfortable. Spreadsheets, opt-ins, Canva, PicMonkey, PromoSimple, Rafflecopter, landing pages, etc. There are lots of options out there, and chances are, one of the authors with whom you are collaborating knows how to use one or two. Or they have a virtual assistant who is a virtuoso in the technology you need. 
4. Sharing readership. This is an opportunity to reach someone else’s warm market/contacts with your product as you reach out to your own. I think of this as Cross-pollination. Every author has followers/readers, and they may or may not be aware of your work. By collaborating with other authors, you reach their readers while they reach yours. If different publishers are involved, sometimes you can get them on board to spread the word to their followers, increasing your reach.
5. Sharing the cost. Working as a team means you can also share the expenses you may/will incur along the way. Whether it’s subscribing to a raffle/entry platform, paying for advertising space, or pooling resources for a larger prize than you could afford on your own, having lots of folks involved helps spread out the cost.

So, there are five benefits of collaboration when it comes to book marketing, but how does one go about it? Here are five strategies for a successful collaboration.

1. Choose your team. Think through your connections in the writing world, authors who would have a similar readership to yours, authors from the same literary agency, authors who blog together, or just your author friends. People you think you would work well with. Enough to share the load without being unwieldy. 
2. Choose your goal. If you want to know if your marketing efforts are working, you have to have a tangible goal for each marketing effort. Do you want to gain followers on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, or the like? Do you want readers to sign up for your newsletter? Do you want people to share about your books on their social media platforms? Set a goal that you can measure.  And set a time limit for the duration. Some campaigns lend themselves well to a week-long open period, some to a month. It’s rare to have one last longer than a month, as people forget they’ve even entered by the time it ends.
3. Choose your budget. How much are you willing to spend on prizes, advertising, design, etc. It’s all well and good wanting to give an all inclusive vacation to Acapulco as a gift, but it probably won’t fit into the marketing budgets of most authors. Do a bit of research into what other authors are giving away, poll your readers as to what they like best to receive, and brainstorm for some fun ideas with your fellow collaborators. Then divide the cost. It often works best if one person does all the purchasing required, and the other participants pay that person their share of costs incurred.
4. Choose a leader. It’s best to have one person spearheading the project. Not that the others won’t have input, but having too many chefs can spoil the broth. One person as the go-to will streamline your process. You might choose to create a private FB group, or communicate via Zoom calls, or an email loop, and one person should be leading that discussion, keep everyone on task, and have a clear agenda for your communications.
5. Choose your jobs. There are often many moving parts in a collaborative giveaway/marketing plan, so there will be plenty for everyone to do, before, during, and after the marketing effort concludes. Depending upon your marketing plan, you may need graphics designed, video content edited, advertising/rules copy created, etc. After the marketing effort is done, someone will need to be in charge of sharing the results with the group, sending round the spreadsheet with the newsletter sign ups, etc. 

Marketing can be daunting, but I have found it less stressful and scary when I join in with some friends. I encourage you to try it. You might find you actually enjoy marketing a little bit!

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The Indebted Earl

Can Captain Wyvern keep his new marriage of convenience all business–or will it turn into something more?

Captain Charles Wyvern owes a great debt to the man who saved his life–especially since Major Richardson lost his own life in the process. The best way to honor that hero’s dying wish is for Wyvern to escort the man’s grieving fiancée and mother safely to a new cottage home by the sea. But along the way, he learns of another obligation that has fallen on his shoulders: his uncle has died and the captain is now the Earl of Rothwell.

When he and the ladies arrive at his new manor house in Devon, they discover an estate in need of a leader and a gaggle of girls, all wards of the former earl. War the new earl knows; young ladies and properties he does not. Still wishing to provide for the bereaved Lady Sophia Haverly, Charles proposes a marriage of convenience.

Sophie is surprised to find she isn’t opposed to the idea. It will help her care for her betrothed’s elderly mother, and she’s already fallen in love with the wayward girls on the Rothwell estate. This alliance is a chance to repay the captain who has done so much for her care, as well as divert her attention from her grief. When Wyvern returns to his sea commission, she’ll stay behind to oversee his property and wards.

It sounds so simple. Until the stalwart captain is arrested on suspicion of smuggling, and Sophie realizes how much he’s come to mean to her. Now she’ll have to learn to fight, not only for his freedom but also for his love.

Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ where she spends way too much time!