From marketing I came, and to marketing I have returned, by Ben Jeapes

Let me say straight up that I have a huge admiration for marketing. It is a vital part of any commercial operation and there are people who do it very well. 

 I started my publishing career in marketing, (mumble) years ago ... and I got out as soon as I could because I have zero feel or aptitude for it. A bit like watching someone play an instrument well, I am aware it is simply a skill I don’t have and so I admire anyone who can do it.

I’ve been a full-time ghostwriter since 2015, writing stuff that it is someone else’s problem to sell, which always suited me fine. In that time I have self-published six books, none of which have exactly gone stellar, due to my marketing lack of effort. This has not bothered me as they are out there and they don’t lose money, and that is all I really wanted.

But now I’ve gone and written Ghostwriting Novels: A Guide for Ghostwriters and the Ghostwritten, a non-fiction book I would rather like to do well because I genuinely think it could be useful. So I have to market it, and right now, in the absence of other writing contracts that is what I am mostly doing.

What particularly eats at me – which was always a problem back in the day, too – is that marketing’s effectiveness is so difficult to measure. I am hired to write X words, I write X words, I get paid because there are the words you wanted, right there in front of you. A deliverable that has been delivered. But you have to take a much longer view to get a return from marketing, a) to know it’s effective at all and b) to get money from it.

But, I have absolutely no doubt that the last nine years have been guided by God. He got me out of a job that was destroying me and gave me my freedom as a writer. Was I getting too comfortable? Is it time to pay the divine piper? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and as the person who originally said that had a lot more taken away than I ever have, I really can’t complain.

I will trust in the Lord. He didn’t bring me this far to fail. I am picking up new skills and new opportunities are arising from the undergrowth, now that the dense cover of scheduled work has been cleared away. It might be a whole new season. I’ve always believed in seasons of life. Maybe I should listen to what I've been saying.

Now, excuse me, I have some social media posts to plan …

(And before anyone mentions it, yes, I have read Wendy H. Jones’ excellent Power Packed Book Marketing!)

Ben Jeapes (www.benjeapes.com) took up writing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier than a real job (it isn’t). Hence, as well as being the author of eight novels and co-author of many more, he has also been a journal editor, book publisher, and technical writer. His most recent title is Ghostwriting Novels: A Guide for Ghostwriters and the Ghostwritten.