Did you pour your heart, soul, and dreams into announcing your book to the world?

And then, did you walk away from it just a few weeks or months later?

Maybe you were burned out. Disappointed with sales. Hated putting yourself out there with your book. Or dying to get started on your next project.

Stalled book marketing can’t be permanent

There are many reasons for your marketing to stall out, but it should be a temporary situation, not a permanent one.

Your book deserves the attention you can continue to bring to it. You wrote it to entertain, educate, or inform people, so you have to let readers who will love it know it exists.

Let’s fix your stalled book marketing problem now.

It starts with mindset.

Here are seven things you can do to make the essential attitude readjustment that will help you get back to it.

1. Surround yourself with positive people.

And ditch the Debbie Downers.

via GIPHY

They will suck the life out of you.

Truth is, the negative, whiny people in your circle are often uncomfortable with what you’ve accomplished.

They fear your success. In their minds, the higher you soar, the more likely you are to leave them behind.

I realize, of course, that you can’t always remove these people from your life. But you can certainly get some distance.

Make that a goal, because you can’t fly high with anchors weighing you down.

2. Resurrect that book marketing plan.

Your book marketing plan is your action blueprint. It details what you want to accomplish and how you’re going to do that.

If you’ve got one, pull it out now and review it.

Never created one? Fortunately, it won’t take long to fix that.

Start with my article, “Create your book marketing plan by answering these 7 questions.”

It includes a link to my free Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Plan Template with complete instructions, but you can download it here, too.

3. Make yourself accountable.

One of the best ways to resurrect stalled book marketing is to make sure you’re accountable to someone who will hold you to your commitments.

I have a goal buddy for this. In late December, we meet to review what we accomplished that year and to share goals for the coming 12 months. We follow the annual review with regular check-ins that hold us accountable for hitting those milestones, or explaining why we didn’t.

Look for someone who can do this for you – and vice versa. Another author is your best option, but it’s not necessary. All you need is a friend or colleague who also needs accountability support.

4. Get out of your comfort zone.

Nothing invigorates me like learning how to do something new, especially when I think that “something” is over my head.

Take a few minutes to list book marketing-related tactics you think would work for your book and its audience, but that intimidate you for whatever reason.

Here are mine just to give you a few ideas:

• Creating short social media videos quickly
• Creating short social media videos quickly
• Creating short social media videos quickly

(I have to get over this, right?)

Whether yours include contacting an up-there-at-the-top influencer for a book blurb or mastering TikTok, pick one and start. Just start.

I promise that you’ll love the feeling that pushing your boundaries a bit gives you.

5. Find your tribe.

Do you often feel like you write in a vacuum?

The people you spend the most time with don’t understand your publishing challenges, struggles, and successes – not your co-workers, your friends, your family.

You need to plug into a writerly community. If you’re already connected to other authors, it’s time to reconnect or participate more.

Attend those meetups in person. Join the Zoom gatherings. Engage more in the Facebook groups (and please join the brilliant authors in the Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Group on Facebook).

Start conversations. Pay attention to what group members share about their book marketing experiences. Ask them to brainstorm with you – and return the favor.

6. Create a mastermind group.

If you’re already connected to authors – if you’ve found your tribe – invite a select few to join a mastermind group.

Not already networking with other authors? Now’s a great time to get started. A small, focused mastermind group will work fine.

With a goal of helping each other keep the momentum going – and that can be for more than marketing – establish ground rules and a regular meeting schedule.

Your reward will be inspiration, insight, and priceless moral support.

7. Be analytical.

Your goal with book marketing is to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Think back to the last time you promoted your book. What seemed to contribute to awareness and maybe even sales? What disappointed you?

What did you share on social media that generated lots of engagement? Which types of posts got crickets?

If you didn’t track activity and results, scroll back through your social media posts. Check likes and comments on launch-period blog posts. Review the open rate and unsubscribes for newsletter mailings.

Invest a few minutes reflecting on what triggered the highs; what triggered the lows. All of this will help identify where to put your effort again.

What are you going to do now?

Which of these seven options will you start with? Which one speaks the loudest to you?

Do you need to surround yourself with other creative people like you to get motivated again?

Or do you need to return to what worked best during your book launch and do more of it?

Can I help? I offer one-on-one telephone book marketing coaching that lets me zero in your situation and help you find solutions that will work for you and your project. Learn more here.

Only you know what will help you eliminate that deadly stalled book marketing. But whatever it is, just do it.

I’ll be cheering you on.

Are you suffering from stalled book marketing? What are you going to do about it? Please tell us in a comment.

Getting “out there” and talking about their book can be downright painful for a shy author or those who prefer to write, not talk.

Then there are those who aren’t exactly shy, but don’t like being the center of attention.

Still others are afraid they will be labeled as “shameless self-promoters.” Can you blame them? I’ve seen some who are beyond “shameless” – they’re downright undignified.

Common shy author obstacles and how to get over them

How do you overcome your personality-related reluctance to promote your book?

Here are the “I can’t do this” obstacles I see the most from shy authors along with ideas for getting around them.

Problem: Proactively promoting my book makes me feel self-conscious. I don’t like calling attention to myself.

Solution: Flip your perspective.

You’re not talking about or calling attention to yourself – you’re calling attention to your book.

You wrote that book to educate, entertain, or inform a certain audience. You won’t be able to do that if they don’t know about it. You’re doing them a favor by doing as much as you can to help them see how your book will help.

Shift the focus from yourself to the people who will benefit from reading your book. That will help you relax and maybe even enjoy that media interview.

Problem: I don’t like talking. I’d rather be writing.

Solution: Focus on the many promotional opportunities that don’t require voice-to-voice interviews or conversations:

• Do a “Twitter chat.“
• Go on a virtual book tour.
• Post information and updates on your Facebook page.
• Create and share social media images.
• Give review copies to readers who agree to write an honest review.
• Blog regularly – and be a guest blogger, too.
• Send out tip sheets.
• Ask to do media interviews by e-mail.

Problem: I see what others do and it makes me uncomfortable.

Solution: Head in the opposite direction with your tactics.

For example, did you receive a book announcement e-mail message that you thought was too self-serving, overly-aggressive, or even pointless? Write yours in a way that’s classy, helpful, and informative.

Don’t like how an author friend shares a purchase link to his book on the Facebook timeline of new friends as soon as they accept his request? Set a better example. You might create a fan page for your book and share helpful information there, or start a Facebook group for your genre or topic.

Problem: I don’t know where to start.

Solution: Make time to learn.

This problem isn’t unique to introverts, but they’re more likely to use it than extroverts.

I’m a big on starting with a plan, but before you can write one, you need to know more about your options.

Begin by writing down your goals for your book. Then educate yourself about book marketing, publicity, and promotion:

• Search online.
• Subscribe to newsletters.
• Read a book or two.
• Take a course that will walk you through the process.

This will help you decide which tactics will help you reach your goals. Next, select one tactic or tool that seems like the best fit for your skills and personality, and learn how to do it well. When you’ve mastered and implemented it, select another.

Be sure to download my free Book Marketing Plan Template, too. It walks you through the process with instructions and examples.

Problem: I don’t have time.

Solution: Apply the time you used to spend writing the book to book promotion.

You don’t have to be shy to have this problem. Still, when you’re a little more uncomfortable putting yourself “out there,” you might find it easier to use lack of time as an excuse to avoid taking action.

Try these strategies:

• Get up an hour early two days a week.
• Focus on the book after the kids have gone to bed.
• Work on book promotion during your lunch break.

Make promoting a priority

It’s hard to promote a book when the related activities don’t come easily or intuitively. You’ll make progress if you focus on tactics that not only help you reach your target reader, but that are a good fit for your personality, too.

Start with one tactic — just one. You’ll soon see that doing just one thing — and doing it well — is far better than doing nothing.

Give it a try. I’m cheering you on!

How do you feel about book promotion? Do you love it, hate it, feel ambivalent? Why?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2012. It has been updated and expanded.)

You just have to have them.

Images serve several purposes on blogs. First, they make each post much more attractive and readable. They draw the visitor’s eye to your content and, with long posts, break up the text so it’s less overwhelming.

In addition, they help your blog post get found by search engines when you have the right keywords in the image title and the “alt text.” The “alt text” option in WordPress gives you another opportunity to add the keywords to your image.

They also draw more attention to your post when you and others share links to your content on social media.

Quality counts

Your images won’t help if they aren’t top quality, though. And I say that knowing that the best-known stock photography sites charge more than the typical author wants to spend on blog post images.

Fortunately, several sites offer quality stock images for free. I only discovered them when my favorite paid image source, DollarPhotoClub.com, went out of business. I started researching affordable alternatives, fully intending to pay for access, when I stumbled upon several sources of top quality free images.

Why pay $100 or more a year when there are so many quality options that don’t charge?

Free stock image sources

Here are a few of the best free stock image sources. Use the search box on each site to search for the types of images you should be using in your blog posts (for example, I typed “books” into each search box). That will help you determine which site might be the best for your blogging and social media image needs.

1. Gratisography

Photographer Ryan McGuire adds new photos every week but with just one photographer, the selection is more limited than it is on other sites.

2. Kaboompics

This free photo site has a particularly impressive selection of images for a wide range of topics. The home page alone inspires me to find and use more images.

3. Pexels

I found Pexels.com when a service I write for recommended it as an image source. I like that it prompts me every once in awhile to donate to the photographers via PayPal. I’ve been using this site the most but I’m about to try Kaboompics next to see if there are more image options.

4. Picjumbo

Photographer Viktor Hanasek lets you search his vast library of free images, opt for premium membership ,or even purchase the All in One Pack of every image from the site. An email subscription will get a selection of new photos sent to your inbox weekly.

When searching on this site, use the search box in the upper right of the screen. Don’t use the DepositPhotos.com search box if you want free images — that search box will take you to a paid image site.

5. Pixabay

Pixabay offers photos plus illustrations and videos, which makes it even more useful. You can also filter search results by type, color, category, size, and more.

6. Unsplash

With more than 50,000 free images, you’ll have plenty of options here. You can also subscribe to get an inspirational collection in your email each month.

While these free stock image sites offer all types of photos, you can also use a search engine to find sites that provide photos for specific niches that include food and travel.

4 tips for using images in your blog posts

These six sites will help you find exactly what you need for your blog. Before you start downloading images, though, make note of these tips for using them effectively. (These are the kinds of things nobody tells you when you start blogging.)

• Read this helpful guest post on this site, “How to pick the right images for your blog posts.“
• Check the rules on the image sites to make sure you understand the terms. For example, some might require you to provide source attribution.
• Resize the images. Big images cause pages to load slowly. You can resize in Microsoft Paint (a standard accessory on Windows computers) or with the tools at online sites that include BeFunky.com.
• Keep your author brand in mind when selecting and editing images. The mood evoked by images should match your website’s mood. And, when adding text, use colors that are compatible with your site colors.

Before you start adding quality images to your blog posts, check your Google Analytics account to see how many people are visiting your site. Check again a couple of months after you’ve started adding images. It’s quite likely that you’ll see an increase in traffic.

You will probably see a boost in your social media shares, as well.

What’s more, you might even enjoy the process of searching for — and finding! — just the right image for each post. I know I do.

What are you doing that’s working for your blog? Please tell us in a comment. 

Tip of the Month

I always share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s the free “Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Plan Template” you can download and use immediately.

This easy-to-use fill-in-the-blanks template comes with complete instructions for filling it out. Available in PDF format, this document has everything you need to create your blueprint for book marketing success.

Plan ahead for your book’s success by downloading and using your free “Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Plan Template” immediately.