by Leslie Budewitz
“PR is part of the business of writing today. It does take time away from the fiction we want to be doing, but it’s one of those necessary evils, I think.” –email from a friend
May I suggest a little mental reframing here? Seeing PR and marketing, in whatever form you choose to do it, as a necessary evil dooms it. I realize you’re probably just using a cliché and may not actually feel that way, but a lot of people profess to hate marketing because they hate the idea that they need to push, push, push their books. In my opinion, that’s the wrong approach. Marketing is, at its core, finding ways to connect with your readers, to tell them the story of your stories. Yes, we’re doing it so they’ll be interested in us, buy our books, and talk about them, and if we are treating our writing as a business, it’s necessary. But it isn’t evil. Try seeing it as an opportunity, as a way to connect rather than as a burden. It will still take time, but if you see it as part and parcel of the writing itself, I think you’ll find it will be more enjoyable as well as more successful.
Leslie Budewitz is the bestselling author of the Spice Shop and Food Lovers’ Village mysteries. A three-time Agatha Award winner, for Best Short Story (2018), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Nonfiction (2011), Leslie is a past president of Sisters in Crime and is a current board member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in northwest Montana. Her newest book is The Solace of Bay Leaves (Seventh St. Books), the fifth Spice Shop mystery.
