The Essential Skill Set Most Writers Lack

Every writer dreams of being discovered. Don’t you?

Whether you write fiction or faction, you want people – lots of people – to read your stuff.

Maybe you dream of writing a bestseller, or becoming a Top 100 blogger, or writing a script for a box office hit, or landing an article for a top magazine.

How to get from where you are now to your dream?

For the slog from novice to master you need two different skill sets: skills as a writer and skills as a marketer

Why marketing skills are crucial

Here’s a story. A few weeks ago a blogger emailed me with a pitch for a guest post on my blog Goodlife ZEN. Actually, you could hardly call it a pitch. She just threw an idea at me without telling me about herself, her writing, or what the guest post might be about.

I emailed back: “If you want to land a guest post, you need to read my article: The Perfect Pitch: How to land a Gig Every Time. Remember that I receive guest post requests every day – so you need to stand out from the crowd by writing a great pitch.”

She whined back, “Oh, but that’s like marketing my guest post. I don’t like doing that.”

Yes, well – as you can imagine, she didn’t land a guest post on GLZ…

The point I’m making is:

No matter what you write, you need to learn marketing skills to get your stuff in front of readers.

When writers need to market

• When you contact a possible agent.
• When you write to a publisher.
• When you pitch for a guest post.
• When you introduce yourself to fellow bloggers.
• When you ask people to share your stuff on Social Media.
• When you approach a joint venture partner
• When you launch a book or a report- even when it’s free.

As you can see, there are many more occasions when marketing skills come in handy.