As writers, we tend to put the marketing aspect on the backburner. But the truth is we have to face our marketing fears. Whether you are published by a traditional publisher or self-published, the task of marketing is going to be up to you.

So here are a few tips to make your marketing experience an adventure rather than a nightmare.

First, you will need to change your concept of what marketing is.

Simply put, marketing is not just book signings in bookstores and networking at conferences or taking out ads in newspapers – it’s an ongoing active creative process. You need to approach it the same manner you approached writing the book. How do I do that? Well, I will tell you. When you write your book you pay attention to detail. For fiction writers you paint vivid pictures of the setting, give details of the characters and their lives. For non-fiction you pay attention to the accurate telling of facts and listing useful resources correctly.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Are you ready to find out?

1. Make a list of activities done by the character. If they work in a particular industry or have an interesting hobby. For non-fiction, if the book is about gardening, list local garden clubs, and home improvement centers.
2. Review your list for possible venues. For instance, if your character drinks a Starbucks coffee every morning, call your local Starbucks and talk to the manager to arrange a reading/signing.
3. Teach a class. Call a local community center and teach your expertise (i.e. gardening, sewing, creative writing). First make sure you have a proposal for the workshop. A proposal is basically an outline of how the workshop will play out. You need to include in the proposal that you would like to make your book available for sale. If you are a beginner at teaching, be open to doing the class for free just to get your foot in the door.

In my novel, Christian Romance novel, Treasures in Clay Vessels, the main character is an eccentric woman who dresses Victorian style and gets a tea and scone every morning from the same bakery in town. Recently I found great success with local tea rooms. I dress like the main character and introduce her to the audience of tea drinkers, then invite them, (as the character) to have tea with me sometime. I close with a Q&A session, followed by the book signing. My book sales have been great and I have managed to make quite a few interesting contacts for future venues.

So, good luck to you as you think out of the box for your own marketing success.

By the way, this type of marketing can also serve as your platform.

Angela T. Pisaturo‘s novels bring to life the ordinary woman. They are The Rich American Woman, (winner of the John Gardner Award, Honorable Mention for Best Character Description), and Treasures in Clay Vessels, (five star rating from ReaderView.com). Ms. Pisaturo studied the art of novel writing at the Jerry Jenkin’s Writer’s Guild and graduated at the journeymen level. She currently writes an inspirational column for pet lovers entitled Paws for Thought which is featured on a regular basis in the EastLakeBlister.com newspaper with a readership of 34,000. Free critiques are available at her website http://www.inspiredfictionbyapisaturo.com. For more insightful tips subscribe to the Write Stuff ezine at her website.

Does your heroine have a Twitter account? Why not? Posting to social media sites in the voice of your characters gives you another way to interact with readers and get them involved in your story. This works especially well for series characters, where the character’s relationship with the audience builds with each book. Social media can speed the process along.

Here are some tips for making the most of your character’s presence in social media:

Use a drawing or photo of the character as an avatar if you can. Otherwise, use the book cover or other image to represent them. (Note: Be careful if using a photo of a real person as your character. Make sure you have permission. Take a photo of a friend or model, and get a signed release.)

Make it clear that the account belongs to a fictional character. The purpose is not to deceive anyone, but just to do something interesting to readers and have fun with the characters.

Here are a few places to put your characters:

Although fictional characters can not have Facebook profiles, they can have fan pages. Set up a fan page for your character and let your followers know about it. Use the fan page to keep readers up to date on new books, events, etc., and also about what is happening in the life of your character between books (or after the book in which they appeared ended).

Anyone can have a Twitter account, even if they only exist in your imagination. Drop clues about the latest case your amateur sleuth is involved in, or tweet about the romantic evening your romance heroine enjoyed. Of course, your characters can also mention your upcoming book signings and other events.

Set up a Ning.com network around your books, where your characters can interact with readers.

If you really want to go all out, set up a blog for the character. Or create a blog for all of the characters in your latest book and let them take turns posting. You may find that too much to maintain (along with your own blog, oh, and writing books!) so instead just have a character do an occasional guest post on your blog. Be sure to announce the post via Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Have your characters guest post on other people’s blogs. This could be part of a blog tour, where your character appears instead of you, or be done on its own. To find blogs where you and your characters can guest post, join http://BloggerLinkUp.com/ (free) and submit your offer of guest posts.

Don’t go overboard with this. You probably do not want to do all of these things. Choose one or two and have fun with them. This can be a new way to engage your current readers and attract new fans.

Cathy Stucker writes about marketing, blogging, publishing and more at IdeaLady.com and CathyStucker.com. Sign up for her free IdeaLady Insider newsletter at http://IdeaLady.com/article/newsletter.