5 Ways You Know You've Become a Marketing Guru

For those of you who know me, and perhaps, those who are just getting to know me, you may have already discovered my secret to book selling success.

For those of you who have just discovered this site, you may have already figured out the answer simply because of the heading to this particular post.

Photo by: J. Paxon Reyes, courtesy of Flickr

Yes, book selling success comes because I've marketed. Am I a guru?

Perhaps. But you may be as well and not even know it. You know you're a guru at marketing if:

1. You keep marketing even when you're sick and tired of it. A good rule of thumb. Write more than you market, but don't forget to market on a daily basis. Put out at least 5 marketing feelers each day and that can include a blog post, a tweet, a Facebook image, a video, even a response to a LinkedIn question.

2. You try various marketing ideas, and stick to the ones that work. You know if they work when you get responses from the public, when you look at your stats and see an increase of visitors to your site, when your book sales increase after a particular promotion. Do what works; what doesn't (at least for you) allow to slide by the way side.

3. You're not upset for days by a negative book review, an evil comment to your blog post, or lack of correspondence when you offer a contest and very little readers seem interested. You keep going even when the rudeness continues because you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, the tunnel might be a long one, but you see the light.

4.  You begin to have enough knowledge about marketing that when another author asks you about it, you have quite a bit to say without struggling for the words. In January of 2014, my newest Marketing Your Book on a Budget will be out, and double the size of last year's book; that tells you how much more I've learned in just one year!

5. You have learned that marketing is the only way anyone will ever know about your book. You do more than have it up on Amazon. You have your own website/blog, initiate in social media, keep to a speaking schedule, share your book at conferences and craft shows; in a nutshell, market your book when the opportunity presents itself and the timing is right. This week: Wednesday through Saturday, I'm at the Simple Treasures gift show in Farmington, Utah.

For some writers, they feel overwhelmed about marketing, so much so, they never get started. If this is you, start with reviews and then tackle other areas one at a time.

Will this make you a marketing guru?

You bet.