141 How to Get Other People to Share for You

Create If Writing

In the last post I shared a simple book launch framework. Now I want to break down some of the specifics related to promotion, because this is where people really struggle. Because this is a huge topic, this post focuses on getting other people to share your work.

Having other people share your work? Well, that sounds smarmy. Isn't this the blog and podcast all about NOT being smarmy?

Yes. Yes it is.

But there is a way to ask others to share your work that is NOT smarmy. I heavily rely on other people sharing my fiction books for Emma St. Clair, and I've built some amazing relationships along the way. I'm going to break this down a bit, but if you want more on how to work well with others in non-smarmy ways, you should really check out Creative Collaborations. Yeah, I'm plugging my book. But literally, that's what the book is about. So if you want more... get it.

It sounds simple to say that you should ask people to share for you. But if you're starting out and aren't sure how to do this, it sounds weird and gross, like those 100 emails I get every day from strangers asking me to add this super relevant link to my blog post! (Nope.)

The two main ways to do this are:

• simply asking people that you have a relationship with (including newsletter swaps)
• having an affiliate program for your thing

Let's go a little deeper into the details so you can put this into action! But first... a few quick reminders. If you didn't already check out the first part of How to Launch Your Book, you should do that. I'll give you a summary of the three main kinds of promotion:

1. sharing with your people (email, social media, etc)
2. asking other people to share with their people (what this post is talking about!)
3. paying for ads and promos

Clearly, we are focusing on part two. But I'll go back to part one and also we'll look at ads and promos in the future. (If you want a head start on email lists, you can check out my email list resources!)

YOUR MINDSET ABOUT PROMOTION

Also before we start, let's get your head right. If you hate thinking about promotion and marketing, you need a mindset shift. Stop thinking of this in those terms if you don't like them.

Marketing and promotion is basically YOU connecting with your ideal audience and readers. Don't you want to do that?

Don't you want to get emails from people saying they loved your book and your course and think you are the best thing ever?

Don't you want people joining your email list after they read your great blog post?

Don't you want to know that readers were up all night reading your book?

Marketing and promotion are just fancy words for you finding your ideal people who want your stuff. Doesn't that sound much better, albeit less fancy?