I came across marketing expert and coach, Tara Kachaturoff, on Connie Ragan Green’s 30-day blog challenge. Her post today, “Marketing Your Book – The strategy may be in “why†you wrote your book,” suggests that authors and would-be authors look at the reasons why writing a book was important in the first place. Tara explains, “You can often find hints of marketing strategies that might be a good fit.”
She concludes, saying, “I believe there is value in taking time to explore your original intentions as you may find some highly aligned and inspirational strategies that are perfect for you!”
Tara’s insights are right on the money. What she opens the door to here is the deep dive, what I call the “inner journey.” In particular for conscious creators, visionaries, thought leaders, and paradigm-changing authors, writers, messengers, healers, and soul-preneurs, this sort of reflection creates the foundational inner work that strengthens the creator and the project. But why, you may ask, does that matter?
What I have discovered and observed over my time in corporate book publishing and a decade-long self-employment journey helping all kinds of clients with their words, is that all the fantastic outer stuff is great. But using those juicy marketing tools alone can result in “bright shiny object syndrome” without the foundational grounding of this inner journey. Both creator and creation become like a tree without roots, and just as unlikely to thrive.
Think about it. Without examining your underlying motivations, your vision, aspirations, and goals, without the inner clarity that comes from envisioning your path and ultimate destination (or at least the next few steps), then you risk traveling the road that old saying describes: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Ideally this inner work and inner journey takes place before the book is published. But as Tara observes, it can be powerful at any point in the process. I like to point out the importance of this by saying “the inner journey IS the journey.”
Safe travels to all!
Post 14 in the 30 day blogging challenge. Follow the great collegiality on Twitter at #blog30.