How many conversations have you had about the oversaturation of the current book market?
Many authors encounter saturation conversations in their day-to-day, which is unsurprising. According to WordsRated, there are roughly 11,000 books published each day for a total of about 4 million books per year. Even the most avid and devout of the reading community cannot keep up with the pace of publishing. I, myself, have only committed to reading 48 books this year — that’s about 0.000012% of new publications, and the books on my list aren’t even new.
It’s not just the other 10,999 books published the same day your book is released that you must contend with. You must find market placement among the roughly 134 million books, according to Mental Floss, that have been published over the years.
Books are published so rapidly that it’s like a book dam has broken. The sea of saturation can drown the well-intended author in self-doubt. When we start thinking about the reality of readership in the digital age, it can feel overwhelming to even get started with promotions. With all those new books coming on a near-constant basis, how does a no-name author without much by way of platform break into such a saturated and competitive market?
By considering other authors your colleagues, not your competition.
For every book published, there’s a cohort of readers just waiting to get their hands on it. The goal, then, becomes finding those starving readers who want to devour your book. But when you’re staring out at the vast digital sea of hashtags like #bookstagram and #booktok and trying to figure out how to project your voice over the millions of others sharing their work, well . . . finding your readers can feel a lot like finding a stick pin in a straw pile. To wit, it ain’t easy.
The Scarcity Mindset Is a Choice
Mindset matters. You’ve probably heard this phrase or similar from a number of online personalities, and for good reason. The psychology of the scarcity mindset can work against the publishing author before the book is available for public consumption. Approaching writing and promotion of your writing with a “lack” mindset means any bit of marketing you do will be less efficient and generate fewer positive results than it would if you had an abundance mindset. That’s because we all have a limit to our mental bandwidth, and negativity takes up far more of our mental resources than positivity does.
Negativity in authorship can look like:
- Fear of never finding “your” readers
- Viewing fellow authors as competition
- Worrying your idea isn’t original enough
- Expecting bad reviews and even worse sales
All of this negativity leads to desperation marketing, the “please buy my stuff” promotional content that — let’s be honest— is kind of cringey. Cringe-marketing is to be expected when you allow the false belief of limited resources to preoccupy your time.
But you have a choice: You don’t have to remain in a scarcity mindset.
In case you need to hear this, when it comes to finding your readers, there is no scarcity. None. Scarcity doesn’t exist. It is a figment of the anxious, self-deprecating imagination.
Shifting to an abundance mindset means knowing that there are plenty of resources and readers (about 64% of American adults are readers) for every author and leads to increased health and happiness for the writer by decreasing your marketing stress and allowing you to get back to doing what you do best: Write.
While I’d love to give you a step-by-step breakdown of how to overcome scarcity thinking, know that the process looks different for each of us and goes back to root causes each individual must identify for themselves. For a resource, check out Positive Psychology’s 8 Strategies to Transform a Scarcity Mindset. And be patient with yourself. Changing your mindset requires time and practice and often comes with periods of self-doubt and frustration. But it’ll all be worth it in the end when you reach those perfect-fit readers.
Publishing Authors Promote Pragmatically
While I know it may seem counterintuitive, and there may be many steps you need to take to get there, the best way I’ve found to really overcome the scarcity mindset is by talking about my work. A lot.
If you want someone to read your work when you publish it, you must talk about it well before you get to the publishing stage. And if you’re worried about promotional stuff, talking about your work early and often means that you’ll be well-versed in how and what you share, and less nervous because it of, by the time you get to that promotional stage.
When working with authors, I’ve been asked, “How do I promote my book before my book is even finished?” It’s a good question. I mean, how do you ask someone to book a hotel room before the building is built? Or buy a movie ticket before the movie is filmed? Early promotions like these can be done artfully all the time. Big producers sell their film ideas well before they have scripts and actors. Architects sell their design ideas well before they have properties and buyers.
Authors are also in the business of selling, though what we sell are experiences told in stories. For this, there are lots of ways to promote your book before it’s finished, and the options will come down to your comfort level, skill set, and growth as an author.
Here are suggestions I’ve given to folks I’ve worked with:
- Create in public
- Talk about your themes
- Share a working paragraph or two
- Discuss your writing process and goals
- Publish cut or extended scenes to whet appetites
In essence, treat your book like the piece of art and entertainment it is and create buzz around what you’re doing. But, you also need to care for yourself during promotional activities because, at times, it can feel like we’re shouting into a social media void, isolated, and quiet against the roaring publishing sea. So keeping those promotional activities rooted in pragmatism is key.
Don’t miss opportunities to reach readers early, to spark their imaginations, and alight their reading fires. Open the conversational door, let the reader in. When creating in public, you may share your ever-increasing word counts — and reward yourself for milestone achievements. When talking about your themes, engage with folks discussing similar themes — and reward yourself for connections made or conversations had. If you share unpolished pieces of your story, even if you’re unsure whether those pieces will ultimately make it into your final draft, reward yourself for the act of bravery it took to share. Whatever your chosen methods of promotion, find ways to create win-win situations for yourself. Give a little, get a little. That’s the pragmatist’s path.
By the time your book is ready, you’ll have made the reader feel so at home they wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.
Reaching Readers Means Being Human
In the digital age, any piece of information a person could want is available somewhere, from self-paced courses, to how-to content on reels platforms and Youtube, to written posts by folks doing what you want to be doing.
What folks can’t get readily and for free is perspective. The psychological influence of perspective on readers can be profound and will shape the way readers approach your story, how they interpret character development, and how they engage with the overall narrative arc. But perspective isn’t just the perspective voice in your story. Perspective is also an intrinsic part of you, your experiences, lessons learned, values, and principles. It is your perspective on life that infuses your story with humanity, so share that life perspective with your readers to build those human connections.
Your readers have probably read several novels in which the main conflict, or themes, or message is similar to those in your story. Instead of explaining to them what your story is, help readers understand why and how your story is important to you, and thus to them.
- What happened to/around you?
- What are you afraid of, or excited by?
- What do you ponder when the world gets quiet?
See someone you like talking about a topic you touch on in your story? Tell them about it, why you chose to include the topic, what it means for you, and what it means for the characters living in your story. Do the same with themes, settings, even your writing process, techniques and exercises you’ve tried or use. And since people buy from people they know, like, and trust go beyond your own book.
Look into yourself to make critical reader connections. Who are you? Would you rather live in the country or the city? Public or private transport? Paper or digital books? Milk or dark chocolate? You get the idea. Chat with folks about why and how you write, not just what you write, as well as who you are as an author and a person living on planet Earth, and you’ll invite intimacy in the book conversation; you’ll make bookish friends. As Andrea Guevara shared, Be yourself so your readers can find you.
TL;DR: The scarcity mindset will sabotage you. Get ahead by accepting abundance.
Zoom in on your ideal reader, the person you wrote a letter to, the person you just know will be the one to show up for a midnight book release, in costume, extolling the virtues of your work and hyping up everyone else in the room. That’s your reader, your book champion, your person. And if there’s one of them, there are potentially thousands, even millions.
- Where does your reader go when they need to charge their emotional batteries?
- With whom does your reader typically spend their time and resources?
- How does your book fill one of your reader’s critical needs?
- What did your book teach them or affirm for them?
- Why does your reader love your book so much?
Knowing, on an intimate level, exactly who your reader is, their immutable personality traits, can help you tap into abundance by allowing you to talk about the topics most pertinent to you and to your work.
So, how do you scare away the scarcity mindset and usher in abundance? Share in the comments or let me know what other topics you’d like covered.
Happy writing.
<3 Fal
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Fallon Clark is the book pal who helps you tell your story in your words and voice using editorial, coaching, writing, and project management expertise for revision assistance, one-on-one guidance, and ghostwriting for development. Her writing has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine. Check out her website, FallonClark.com, or connect with her on LinkedIn or Substack.