… marketing isn’t so much selling people things as it is offering them creative solutions to a problem they have.
A page-turning fiction writer for teens and young adults, Talena Winters developed her multi-faceted skillset from a young age. Her encouraging spirit oozes gratefulness that stems from an appreciation of the basics.
After subscribing to several authors’ elists, Talena’s stood out to me because of its welcoming tone, authenticity, and the support she offers writers. Here she shares how she markets his books.
Lyndi: When writers first publish, they often stick to one genre. Yet you’ve written and published young adult, urban fantasy, romantic suspense, and women’s fiction, standalones and more recently a young adult epic historical fantasy series. How did you become so versatile in your writing and how do you decide what you will write?
Talena: I’d say there are just as many writers like me that write in multiple genres, especially when they start out, as stick to one, especially indie writers. Indie writers don’t have to play by trad publishing rules—no contracts. That freedom is empowering, but it can also lead to less-than-stellar business decisions.
I’m a person who loves to explore new things and always wants to push my boundaries with trying something new. If I’m not learning something new with a project, it usually doesn’t excite me. (This year, I found out that’s because learning is one of my superpowers, according to the CliftonStrengths assessment.)
I didn’t become a published writer until I was 36. Before that, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a professional songwriter. I also had a whole host of hobbies that I was either pursuing, had pursued until I got tired of them, or had at least tried to see if they interested me. For me, the challenge has always been narrowing down my interests, not in diversifying them.
And since I’ve always read so widely (pretty much the only genre I don’t enjoy is slasher horror—I want the protagonist to win in the end!), I’ve also just followed the muse and written the stories that interested me.
That being said, there are wiser ways to go about this. The epic fantasy series is the story that made me want to learn to write fiction, and the other stories were things I did for fun, for practice, or for therapy. I’m about to take a short break from the epic fantasy, and this is the first time I’m being very strategic about what I do next (while still making sure it interests me, of course). It’s much easier to get traction for your business if you put out multiple books in a single genre before switching to something new.
(Not that I’d be able to stick to one genre for more than a few books at a time. My Muse would rebel and pout and stop working with me, and that’s never a good way to make progress either.)
Lyndi: How do you decide what to talk about in your emails and how did you develop your endearing tone?
Talena: I’ll answer these in reverse. Writing voice is something that is developed by simply doing it. A lot. I’ve always done a lot of writing. As a teen, I would write long journal entries. Later, as a missionary in India for six months in 1997-1998, I would write long letters to people back home. (This was just before email went mainstream. In fact, the first time I ever saw an email interface was while I was there, because someone was corresponding with someone back in Canada.) Then, I scrapbooked avidly for several years while my kids were small as a creative outlet and to keep my sanity, and the little stories I wrote to go with the pictures were integral to my process.
That was also around the time I began blogging. It was February 2006, just before Facebook went mainstream, and the first time someone shared a blog with me, I was hooked. I blogged a lot. I found an online community of bloggers who would all support each other and read each other’s posts. Since learning is one of my superpowers, I experimented by copying other blogger’s styles, as well as just writing in the voice I’d developed over the years while simply writing to people.
I also learned how to talk to one person, not a group of people. When someone is reading your content, they are usually alone, not part of a crowd consuming that content. So talk to that one person. No “you guys” or “y’all”. Talk to one. Single. Person. That may be one of the most important things you can do to connect with your readers.
I have developed several writing voices for different contexts, which is something we all must do—your fiction voice. Your nonfiction instructional voice. Your nonfiction correspondence voice. I was the lead writer of the regional magazine Move Up for 4.5 years, from 2016 until January of 2021, and that required a different style and voice.
Learn craft, learn what your audience will resonate with, but most importantly, talk to one person.
As for deciding what I want to talk about, that’s where all those years of blogging and magazine writing really pay off. Besides the newsy bits and the book recommendations (which practically write themselves and don’t require creativity), the feature is usually something I decide on in the spur of the moment. As long as I can figure out a good first sentence, I can usually whip out a piece I’m happy with in about an hour. And, since my newsletter is about Books & Inspiration, the easy starting point is books. And inspiration from books. (Or a relevant current event that makes me think of a lesson I learned from a book that I think will resonate with my readers and make their day better.) I do try to keep my brain looking for ideas between newsletters and will sometimes write one down, but more often than not, the inspiration comes on command these days when I sit at the keyboard and give it the opportunity.
The hardest part is the first sentence. But the first sentence you start out with doesn’t have to be the one you keep, so just write one.
Lyndi: How did you build your elist and your fan following?
Talena: One connection at a time… And that’s not a joke. I’ve been building a writing platform since 2016, and, other than a year-long experiment with group author promos and another with Facebook Lead Ads which I regret (mostly because those subscribers left almost as soon as they showed up), each person on my list has come to me organically, either through personal contact or by signing up from the link in the back of my books. (Some of them have been knitting pattern customers who have also decided to give my Books newsletter a try.) Maybe it goes back to those days building a blogging network, but I’d rather have an authentic connection with a person than someone who will drop me like a hot potato after they get something for free.
(Not knocking Free—I have a free lead magnet for my newsletter, which is just smart. But if that’s the onlyreason someone is joining your list and they have no interest in ever paying for something from you, they will often be dead weight from there on out. Not everyone, and I’ve made some good contacts from group author promos. Just not enough to justify continuing to do them.)
That’s also why I work so hard to establish that “I’m a real person who cares that you’re here” tone in my newsletter welcome sequence. If that’s not something that interests the new signup, I’d rather they show themselves out by unsubscribing before we invest a bunch of time in each other.
If you’re looking for more pointers for how to create an awesome platform, I recommend From Strangers to Superfans and Following by David Gaughran, and Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Lebrecque. (Following is even free: https://davidgaughran.com/books/following/). I have some other marketing resources I recommend at https://www.talenawinters.com/marketing.
Lyndi: You’ve created a media kit to promote your writing. Why should authors consider compiling a kit?
Talena: Since a quick Google search will tell you how to create a media kit (I recommend this post by Tim Grahl on the subject: https://booklaunch.com/how-to-create-the-perfect-book-media-kit/), I’ll focus instead on why you need one.
An author media kit is a single place on your website where journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and reviewers can find everything they need to know about your platform without having to go hunting around. These are busy people. You want to thank them for their help in building your platform by making their jobs as easy as possible.
After the pandemic hit, one of the major decision-making factors of the editors at the magazine I worked at about whether or not they would feature someone was how much of an online presence the potential subject had and the quality of their photos. We needed to be able to put articles together quickly and remotely. (My job as an interviewer had always been remote, but there’s no way to take a photograph over the phone.)
Having a media kit also shows librarians and bookstore owners and consignment managers that you’re a professional who cares about making their job easier. When my first full-length novel, Finding Heaven, came out, I thought doing in-store signings was one of my best options for promotion. (And there’s nothing wrong with them, I was just too naïve to know that they’re not going to make a brand-new, unknown author wealthy, or even let me break even.)
Ahem. Anyway. I had a media kit and made sell sheets for my book and started contacting consignment managers all over Alberta. I was shocked when most of them said yes to an event in their store and then started carrying my books on consignment. I’m convinced it was my professionalism and my high-quality product that made those doors so easy to open. They could easily promote the events through the materials I provided in my media kit.
Anything you can do to make the lives of the people you’re working with in this industry easier is one less friction point and reason for them to say “no” to you. So take the time to do it. I’ve been so glad at multiple points that I have that.
Lyndi: What are some of the other ways you market your book?
Talena: As you can probably tell, I’ve tried all kinds of ways, both online and in-person, with varying degrees of success. For Finding Heaven, I even sent a hand-written postcard to every library in Alberta—and that’s a lot of libraries (as my cramped hand could attest to).
Marketing is a multi-layered beast, and you can’t apply the same approach to everyone, because they are all at different stages of your marketing funnel—which is just marketing speak for “how connected they are to you and your brand.”
Connection and authenticity are two of my brand values, so content marketing through my blog, newsletter, and social media have always been keystones. Over the last two years, I’ve spent less time on social media and more time writing, so I’ve been using the budget I used to use going to conferences and book signings for learning how to use the various ad platforms.
Different mediums work better for different genres too. Honestly, I’ve been a solopreneur online for most of my adult life, and I’ve studied book marketing avidly since circa 2012, and I still feel like I have a lot to learn. So I always suggest folks follow people who are much further along in the process than them and have had success. But be aware that not every approach is best for you. If you don’t feel good about doing a certain type of marketing, then maybe a different type would be a better fit.
There’s no one thing you have to do to be successful. Success is based on lots of little things you do, but the indie author space is so diverse because there are so many diverse people and ways of being successful in it. If you’ve been struggling with trying to do something because some marketing or writing guru said you should do it this way—well, to quote writing coach Becca Syme, “Don’t should on yourself.” (Speaking of Becca, if that person in the last sentence is you, I recommend you dive into her Quit books, specifically Dear Writer, You Need to Quit and Dear Writer, You’re Doing it Wrong.)
But the main thing is to remember that marketing isn’t so much selling people things as it is offering them creative solutions to a problem they have. It’s actually helping them, because the thing you have to offer has value and will make their lives better. Marketing is just the tool that connects them to your solution. So becoming a savvy marketer is about serving your customers. And that shift in attitude can make all the difference.
Lyndi: In addition to writing, you provide support services like freelance editing for indie authors. What services do you offer and how can authors find out more about them?
Talena: Thank you so much for asking this! One of my passions is helping an author take their idea and shine it to a polish to create a book that they are proud of, so I focus more on the developmental stages of editing (though I’m happy to copyedit too). This is best for writers who have a partial or completed manuscript and need help taking it to the next level. I work with a lot of new authors, but I’ve also worked with more experienced authors to help them get past “stuck” points in their story or to simply assess their story to make sure they didn’t forget something important or to smooth out the edges. I prefer working with fantasy, science fiction, romance (except erotica), and memoir. (And no slasher horror, lol.)
I also love helping authors create book descriptions that help connect their readers to their books, and I offer consultations and brainstorming sessions by the hour. You can find out more at https://www.talenawinters.com/editing. I also have a Writing Tips blog at https://www.talenawinters.com/writing-tips.
Photos ©2017 Amanda Monette Photography.
https://www.facebook.com/amandamonettephotography/
Talena Winters writes page-turning fantasy and romance for teens and adults.
She blogs, designs knitting patterns, and has mastered the art of the ironic GIF response. As a freelance editor, she is passionate about helping develop other writers’ stories. Having started her career in the music industry, she has written several award-winning songs and has an almost-finished musical waiting in the wings.
She lives on an acreage in the Peace Country of northern Alberta with her husband, three surviving boys, two dogs, and an assortment of farm cats. Passions include travel, music, sewing, knitting, reading, and chocolate. She is addicted to tea and silver linings.
She would love to be a mermaid when she grows up.
You can find her on the web at www.talenawinters.com, on Instagram and Twitter @TalenaWinters, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talenawinters.artist.
