Do you struggle with marketing your writing?
What if I told you that avoiding ONE dangerous pitfall could help you to succeed with your next book, blog, or freelance writing service?
Marketing your writing: the pitfall you can avoid
Here’s the pitfall: marketing without a concept.
A “concept” is combo of an idea and a plan, and it’s always short; you can share it with someone in a few sentences.
I’ve mentored many writers who were brilliant; their talent made me envious. Sadly, these writers quit writing after a year or two, because they blundered around, “hating” marketing.
They fell into the pitfall.
On the other hand, I’ve mentored writers who were convinced that they’d never master marketing, but discovered that they could love it. One author resurrected a novel she wrote a decade ago. She developed a concept for it (she says it took her 20 minutes.) It’s helped her to build a six-figure writing business.
Let’s look at concepts.
Concepts: ideas and plans will lead you to success
You have ideas all the time. The benefit of creating a plan after you get an idea is that it’s easy to work with concepts and test them for value. You can test your concept, by sharing it with others.
At this early stage, you also create the marketing concept. A marketing concept is essential to promoting anything, successfully.
So the stages are:
- Get an idea;
- Create the product concept from the idea;
- Create the marketing concept for the product.
With any luck at all, zooming through these three stages avoids creating books, blogs and writing services which don’t just don’t sell. Whenever I’ve worked with writing students who ran with an idea which sounded great, but ended up a disaster, their idea was missing a vital ingredient. They could have found the missing ingredient if they had worked with the idea a little more before they started writing.
For your next book, blog, or writing service, create a CONCEPT before you start writing. Not only does it make marketing easier, it makes the writing easier too.
Avoid the pitfall with a marketing concept for your writing

Start with this question: “What’s the big idea of the product?”
You’re writing a thriller. Your novel’s concept — “big idea” is: a young intelligence analyst is coerced by his boss into infiltrating a terrorist organization. He learns something which means that his boss — as well the terrorists — want him dead.
You’re creating a new blog. Your blog’s concept (big idea) is: money and fashion. A style blog, focusing on investment pieces (some couture handbags can increase their value 100% in a decade.)
You’re writing a nonfiction book. Your book’s concept (big idea) is: become a digital nomad; travel while you work.
You’re creating a new writing service to offer your clients. Your service’s concept (big idea) is: white-label novels and short stories. Ghostwrite fiction for clients from idea to publishing.
Your marketing concept: who’s the audience? How do you reach them?
Your marketing concept, like your product concept, is just a few sentences.
Let’s look at examples derived from the product concepts above.
Marketing your writing: concept examples
Your thriller is for fans of… (whoever. Lee Child, Clive Cussler?) You can reach them via Facebook and Amazon ads.
Your money and style blog. Your concept is that it’s for professional women aged 25 to 50 who are fashion conscious, and are looking for investment options. You decide you can reach them via advertising networks.
Your nonfiction book’s concept is that it’s for men and women aged 20 to 35 interested in adventure travel. You’ll reach them via web advertising and press releases.
Why not create a concept for a product you’re marketing right now. (Yes, you can create concepts anytime.)
Marketing your writing is simple when you have a concept
Yes, marketing your writing is simple when you avoid the pitfall of marketing blindly. Create a concept (combo of an idea and a plan) first.
The big benefit of a creating a concept is that it inspires you. You’ll know what you’re doing and you’ll be keen to get started.
Have fun. 🙂
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Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.