Marketing Your Work by Tooting Someone Else’s Horn

If you’re driving yourself nuts marketing your work while attempting to stay out of the lane of boasting, try tooting another author’s horn instead. You can encourage, support, and elevate fellow writers, and most of the time, those good deeds will find a way to bless you, revving up your own campaign simultaneously.

(I Attended My First Writing Retreat. Here’s What I Learned)

When you boast on someone else’s work, genuinely and sincerely, most often that person will want to do the same for you. And, of course, that’s not why you boast on another writer, but it usually turns out to be an added benefit.

If we each do our part to toot someone else’s horn, then we can make beautiful music together, supporting and encouraging and helping one another along this writing journey. And all that horn blowing, played harmoniously turns into a symphony.

Try out a few of these notes to contribute to a writers’ SYMPHONY:

SHARE: Boast about your writer friends on social media and in your newsletter

Share authors’ books on social media and be sure to share links to the books, too.
Share friends’ latest blog posts.
Share something about their writing successes in a newsletter.
Start a video series to share on social media and include authors.
Snap pictures when you find author friends’ books in a store and share on your media
Share favorite lines from friends’ books.
Join writing Facebook groups and when members mention new releases, make sure to share that information.

YIELD: Yield your spotlight to other authors

Host author friends on your podcast and do book giveaways.
Host author friends as guest bloggers on your website and do book giveaways.
Offer an extra bedroom to a favorite writing friend if they’re ever passing through your city and help them secure a book signing by utilizing local contacts.

MAGNIFY: Sing the praises of fellow author friends

Tell a conference director that you enjoyed an author’s class.
If you’re friends with a conference director, suggest an author friend you know as a speaker.
Take your favorite author’s book with you to doctor and dental appointments. Find someone there to tell about the book. You could even say, “I’ve just finished it while I was here. Why don’t you take it home and read it and then share it with someone else?”
Boast to your family and friends about a favorite author.
Boast about authors’ works on social media, either on your own page or as a comment on the author’s page.

PETITION: Make requests directly related to authors’ books

Request their books at your local library.
Request their books at every bookstore in town.
Ask the church librarian to get a copy of their book or even buy one to donate.
Mark in Goodreads that you want to read their book.
Mark in BookBub that you want to read their book.
Ask your child’s school librarian to have copies of your friends’ books, age appropriate, of course.
Put all of your friends’ books on your wish list on Amazon and be sure to tell your family about the list so they can purchase the books for you. When you share that list with others who are buying you gifts, they just might decide they want a copy of that book too!

HONOR: Support and treat author friends in ways that honor their talent

Buy their books.
Give their books as baby gifts or holiday gifts.
Give a silly gift or inexpensive gift when you see them at a conference, book signing, or writers’ meeting. Look for trinkets that relate to their brand or books whenever you’re out and about. When you share the gift, take a picture of the two of you in preparation for sharing. When you share, you can say, “By the way, this friend wrote this really great book…”
Serve on an author’s launch team.
Attend virtual launch parties.
Attend book signings, even if you’ve never heard of the author, and get to know them. And post about the signing on your social media.
If you’re a member of a book club, make sure to pick friends’ books as suggestions for the group to read.
If you’re sponsoring a drawing on your website or Facebook to bring awareness to your website or social media, give away one of your own books but give away friends’ books there, too. Make sure to boast about that several days ahead.
Watch authors’ videos or interviews.
Listen to their podcasts.

OPINE: Write reviews to support your author friends

Write a review on Amazon and share on your social media.
Write a review on Barnes & Noble and share on your social media.
Write a review on Books-A-Million and share on your social media.
Write a review on the author’s publishing house site and share on your social media.
Be a beta reader so that you can start posting about the person’s book early and stir up excitement and anticipation for the book.
Be willing to endorse a book.

NOURISH: Encourage and motivate author friends

Text them occasionally just to say “hello.”
Send an encouraging email.
Send a thank you note for writing a particular book.
Give smiles, hugs, handshakes, fist bumps, or elbow taps at conferences.
Congratulate author friends via text or email or social media when they win awards and publish books. Share those accomplishments on your social media.

YAK: Tell others about your author friends and their work

Turn their books face forward when you visit bookstores.
When you’re in the bookstore, if there’s someone on the same aisle as you, quickly pull out your favorite author’s book in that section and say to the person with you (or that stranger in the aisle), “Hey, have you read this book? It is so good! I highly recommend it.”
If you are a teacher, read children’s books of your favorite authors to the kids and make sure your schools have copies of those books. If you’re a high school teacher and it’s allowed, assign some of your friends’ books as extra credit reading or part of an assignment.
Take copies of your friends’ books to work and leave them in a prominent place is to be seen.
Tell family members about your friends’ books.
Tell friends about your author friends’ books.

With just a small amount of time and effort, writers can help writers through support and encouragement. Working together, yet individually, authors compose a magnificent symphony.

Let’s make beautiful music TOGETHER.

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Julie LavenderAuthor

Julie Lavender is the author of Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime (Zeitgeist/Penguin Random House) and 365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories (Revell/Baker). She loves meeting new writers and connecting with previously met ones and enjoys finding unique ways to support and encourage those on the path to publication like herself.