Today I saw a thread on Twitter, authors half-jokingly griping about the doubt and despair that often accompanies “marketing efforts.”

I get it — I’ve been there. There are an infinite number of things you could do to promote your book, but every approach requires time, money, and/or social capital, and it’s easy to get frustrated and discouraged and to wonder if your efforts are producing zilch.

It’s incredibly hard to distinguish which approaches are most effective, or effective at all (unless you have a real interest in A/B comparisons, analytics, and all those other marketing buzzwords — which I don’t).

The year my first book came out I had painful ulcer symptoms that were at least partially stress induced. I wanted to do everything right, and I worked long hours and fretted over small details to make sure I could maximize the launch of my first novelette in print (and later that year, my first novel).

As I slowly recovered my health and sanity, I realized that I was taking the wrong approach. Not only was I making myself sick with worry and overwork, I was leaching the fun out of a potentially enjoyable part of my new career — connecting with readers organically and naturally, at a reasonable pace.

Don’t Raise Obnoxious Children

Parenting advice: Don’t let your kids behave in ways that makes you dislike them.

Solid advice, especially since most of us have to live with our kids for at least twenty years.

I love my daughter and would happily donate a kidney or whatever else she needed, or even give my own life if necessary. But I don’t let her interrupt me when I’m talking to someone else, or be rude to family members, or otherwise be a jerk.

I ask her to behave differently in a calm speaking voice, and she tells me to stop yelling at her, and we both get the message.

So the same philosophy applies to work. Don’t let your job or profession or career control your behavior in such a way that you hate it. Stand up to it. Remind it who is in charge.

Enter Gentle Marketing

Books can take years to be discovered. I just read a book for the first time that was written nearly twenty years ago, and there are still plenty of classics written over a century ago that I’ve yet to crack open. I might really enjoy some of them.

The trick is keeping your book in print, and keeping your publisher on board (and solvent) so they’ll pick up your next book. It’s worth front-loading your marketing efforts to give your book a reasonably good launch.

But all the work doesn’t need to be compressed in the weeks or months near the release date. At least that’s what I’ve decided for myself, because I came down with gastritis the last time I tried that.

So I’m going to market my new anthropological science fiction novel The Guardian for the entire year of 2020. I’m going to take my time and enjoy the process. I’m going to keep in touch with my Flame Tree (my publisher) and Flame Tree’s publicist and let them know what I’m doing so that we can all synergize and cooperate. I’ve named my approach gentle marketing to remind myself to go easy, both on myself and on potential readers. Nobody likes to have a book shoved down their throat. What to read next is a very personal and important choice.

But I’m not going to try to do it all. Some opportunities will be missed. Many conversations will occur without me mentioning my book. I’ll be hustling, but not all the time.

(Oh yeah — good news — The Guardian was just reviewed in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Don Sakers called it “a serious, engrossing story” even though it features a Squid Woman supervillain with biocybernetic tentacles.)

Meeting New Readers

When it comes down to it you can shout all you want about your book, but it’s readers recommending it to each other that makes all the difference. My efforts are best spent making my fiction as exciting and inspiring and relatable as possible, not trying to accumulate millions of Twitter followers. The best novels market themselves, and that’s what I aspire to.

In the meantime I’ll be appearing at the Temescal Branch of the Oakland Library on Saturday January 25th at 2:30. I’ll be reading from The Guardian and maybe from a short story as well. I look forward to meeting some new potential readers. I’m hoping for a diverse crowd: young and old, different identities and backgrounds, friends and strangers.

I’ll ask people to review my books and tell their friends and all the usually self-promotion things an author should do, but I’ll be most excited if I can gain a new reader or two. Even if it’s a tween who thinks my book is boring and lame except for a few good bits.