"I don’t want to be annoying.”
Sometimes, authors tell me this. They worry that promoting their work will make them look self-centered, or they will seem obsessed with getting one more sale. They don’t want to be in the spotlight.
Daniel Priestly says, “Don’t try and be in the spotlight. Try and become the spotlight.”
His advice is meant for business owners. It works for authors too. Shining a spotlight means highlighting your message and the values of your writing for potential readers and showing them why your book matters.
Lisa May LeBlanc wrote a memoir called The Ninth Child. By their very nature, memoirs focus on the lives and experiences of their authors. The title refers to her being the youngest child of nine, and many of the book’s scenes reveal personal details about her life. At the start of the process, she thought her audience would be her nieces and nephews. As she wrote and began to share it, we discovered more people had similar stories, and were also on journeys to understand their experiences.
Instead of taking the spotlight, she created “Lattes with Lisa,” a casual talk show every Tuesday on Instagram. She works with experts in areas such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), faith, and womanhood. These shows allow readers to understand her perspective in a wider context and connect her book to other audiences. New readers have found her book because of these shows.
Marcia Lee Laycock also uses her experiences as an author to spotlight newer and less experienced authors. She runs courses with us, including the recent Poetry and Fiction camps. We will be publishing some selections from these courses on our blog soon.
At Siretona Creative, we practice this spotlight model too. Colleen McCubbin launched this company because she felt passionate about helping committed authors bring compelling books to the world. She started out doing all the work herself. Now, she has a team, including an author coach, a chief editor, an administrator, a project manager, and a marketing assistant. She supports us so we can shine on our authors.
What are you spotlighting?
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Not sure what you should be spotlighting? Book a call and we’ll explore it together.
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