Too Much Info!
As an author, does it sometimes it seem as if you’re not able to get the right sort of information you require to promote yourself or your book? Or maybe you are like many of our clients; you’re experiencing information overload, too much coming at you with out any kind of filter on what you should do and when you should do it and much of it not applicable to you or your message or platform.
It’s not uncommon to feel like that in what has been coined the “information age”. It’s a time of data being available at your fingertips tapping away, the click of a mouse or the dialing of a phone. At no other time in history have human beings had so much access to so much information at one time. And while that can be exciting and exceedingly helpful – it can also be incredibly overwhelming. It can make decisions feel excruciatingly complicated, and daily tasks can take over your day.
Being able to quickly decipher data and take in or discard it, depending on it’s relevance to you and your life, your family, your company etc. has become a highly desirable skill.
In many instances, we spend time with Authors just helping them sift through this info when it comes to marketing themselves or their books. We literally assist Authors Source and separate. Through conversations and emails we place the info into ‘containers’ or ‘files’ so to speak, by:
- Relevance
- Usefulness
- Timing
Relevance meaning, is this something that is pertinent to a) you as an author/speaker b) the message you are trying to convey c) is the info about self-publishing while you have had your book published by a Publishing House?
Information being useful relies more on knowing where you are in your process. If you have no interest in speaking, focusing on how an internationally known speaker became sucessful, while interesting, is most likely not helpful to your goals.
Marci & Daniele (21st Century BME)
Timing is everything. As was repeated over and over by the experts at the 21st Century Book Marketing Event, knowing when to start marketing your book (ie. don’t wait until it’s coming out in 2 weeks) and the timeliness of your message is critical.
Marci & Mitch (21st Century BME)
Marci Shimoff’s advice at that event:
1) Be really ON PURPOSE with your mission.
2) Take RIGHT ACTON
3) Right TIMING
One of the things we appreciated ourselves and found was most appreciate as well by many of the Authors who attended the 21st Century Book Marketing event earlier this month was how the information was focused FOR them. The how to’s of printing, Internet marketing, publicity and advertising were all directed towards the author.
As one of our client’s who attended commented:
“This event was packed with ideas, specific ‘what you should do’s”…Content rich doesn’t cover it, this event moved me forward in my progress around the business of being an author….I came away with a much needed understanding of how Social Media and related marketing tools can be invaluable to my business as an author and as a service provider to authors.”
Frank Kickbush
So the next time you’re sifting through the latest advice, how-to, what-to-do-when-where-how; ask yourself this question: “Is this this relevant to my business/book/vision?”
Because chances are, if you can’t answer that with a resounding “YES!” Then the answer is probably, in the long run “No.”
So don’t forget Authors, in order to avoid overload: Sort, sift and select!
Happy ‘Authoring’!
As co-founder and Director/CCO of Author Source, Daniele is passionate about giving her clients the tools to succeed, by assisting them to focus their vision and harness the marketing power of the Internet. For inquiries contact us at info@authorsource.ca
