For me, marketing is the hardest part of being an author. There’s other parts that take more time or take more out of me, but marketing is the one that hits me right in the imposter syndrome. I’m Northern Irish! We do not big ourselves up. I had to go to a special CV writing class once where we were told to say we were Excellent! and Outstanding! instead of ‘OK’ and ‘Adequate’.

My gran’s most cutting remark about anyone was, ‘Someone thinks they are somebody all of a sudden’. It was even worse than ‘fur coat and no knickers’ or ‘we all know where she came from!’. The idea of getting above yourself? It makes me cringe.

On the other hand, you aren’t going to sell a lot of books with ‘Well, it’s alright’ or ‘I suppose, I worked quite hard on it’. My books are good too! (Swear to God, I had to delete ‘pretty’ there, my fingers are just in the habit). I do work hard, and I really love when people read my stuff are are entertained/moved/happy enough to come back and go ‘Good job!’.

That means I have to market the books and myself. The problem with raging imposter syndrome, however, is that you go to one of two extremes. Either you undersell yourself until people would would probably turn you down as a gift with purchase OR you puff and blow about how great you are and hope that no one realises this is just ‘Upset Cat Self-Defense Move #1 = Make yourself look bigger!’.

So I have come up with some rules for myself that-usually-bypass my natural instincts. Basically the aim is to make sure I don’t undersell my books (I think they are all really good!) or make myself look like an arrogant, self-important blert (I don’t think I am).

1: Have supplementary stuff. I don’t just mean swag at cons (although I do have some for the UK Meet and GRL!), but content. I always try and do short stories or supplementary material for the blog tours. Mostly because I think people like it, but also because if I am explaining something — ‘this is how these two characters met!’ or ‘I came up with this idea here!’ — it feels less like a hard sell.

2: Do nice stuff for other people. Reblog books. Recommend books. Don’t just sit on your biscuit and beat the drum of ‘I am great!’. It’s tempting to see other authors as competition, but they aren’t. There are always people who won’t like your books, but they might like someone else. Maybe they’ll come back to you one day, maybe they won’t.

3: Don’t throw your book into every opening you see. OK, they are talking about Cozy mysteries and you have a cozy. Doesn’t mean every one wants to be interrupted by your sale’s pitch. Yes, you will want to. That doesn’t mean you have to.

4: I try and talk to people on social media. I post about random stuff and post photos. It’s not JUST a medium to sell my book. Sometimes it is, because my books are important parts of my life, but it’s not a 9 to 5 drumbeat of intrustive marketing of ME! Just remember that talking can be better than selling sometimes, you don’t have to be ON 24/7. This stops people going ‘ugh, her again’ when I do post (hopefully!) and it stops social media being this nightmare place where my career lives and dies and I approach with a stick and fear in my heart.

5: Last but not least, remember that you aren’t the only one that worked on the book. When you mealy-mouth your book, you’re also putting down the editors and cover artists, the proofers. Even the people who read the book! When someone has really loved your book and you’re all ‘eh, I could have done better’, basically you’re saying they don’t know if something is good.

Actually, not quite last! And if someone else does it differently than you? Not your circus, not your monkeys. It doesn’t make your way suck and it doesn’t make their way suck (obviously, that doesn’t count if they are being actual jerks about it, in that case their way sucks a bit). Basically, we’ve all made a brain baby that we want people to look at…can’t blame anybody for that right?

(and yes, I used to work in marketing. It’s easier when it is other people! I can market for Jim Slim and his Slimming Juices all day long, I can talk Jim Slim up until his ears burn. It’s when it’s me that the desire to retreat into a cave and just throw books out to the gods every few months tries to set in.)