Why We Should All Be Pick Mes: A Guest Post by Chioma Nnani
I’m on maternity leave! During this time, a few of my favorite authors offered to step up and write guest posts so that this blog would remain active while I adjust to my new role as a mother. I may also be a bit slower to respond. Thanks for understanding and for being so supportive of me, my family, and my blog. Want to donate a few dollars to keep this blog running or perhaps contribute to my diaper fund? You can do so on Venmo or Paypal.
Why We Should All Be Pick Mes: A Guest Post by Chioma Nnani
If you're wondering how on Earth being a pick me is relevant to you as an author, read on to the end.
And if you've ever wondered why nobody's buying your book, why the people you'd like to buy your book are ignoring you or how to make them want to buy your books, you're definitely reading the right blog post.
So, "pick me" sounds derogatory (or the way that it's used in popular culture, makes it sound so), as that's what only a desperate person with no self-esteem would do. Right?
But we all do it.
Or we should.
Bear with me for a sec here: remember when you were growing up and you had to play a game where teams had to be picked, how you felt when you were left standing there alone because none of the 'team captains' picked you?
And you had to, by default, go to the one who had one less member on their team than the other team(s)?
By contrast, there was somebody the other team(s) desperately wanted. Just not you.
And it wasn't even because you were a bad person or that they didn't like you. It was more that they didn't like what you brought to the game. Or trust that what you brought to the game, would help them win.
And sometimes, you shocked your team mates and everybody else because it turned out you were good at the game, but they didn't even know it before you showed it.
Because anyone can say what they like about how participation is all that counts in sports; truth is, people want to win.
Being an author is exactly like that. But book buyers and readers are not going to tolerate you by default, because your book is the last one on the shelf and they just have to have it.
The only books that people who deal with books - whether they are readers, librarians, booksellers, book influencers - just have to have - are the books they really really want.
Book readers always have money - for the books that they want and the authors that they love. They will starve, walk to save bus/train fare or even go without their favourite beverage IF they can use that money to pick a particular book by a specific author.
But because it's human nature to not want to look desperate, many authors don't want to admit outright that they want to be picked. It looks desperate, right?
Yet, not wanting to be (seen as) a "pick me" is the very thing that makes an author desperate. It could be the reason you are not selling as many books as you could be. It could be the reason you're not selling any books at all. It could also be the reason you stop writing altogether.
Because when it becomes the norm for you - the person who's never picked - to be standing there all alone, it's only a matter of time, before you don't want to play anymore.
The crux of the matter is that not realising you should be a pick me is manifesting in your poor writing or marketing choices.
I'm going to get into the writing choices in a bit, but let's deal with marketing first.
Ah, marketing. The dreaded M-word.
I, like many authors I know, used to hate/loathe/abhor/be afraid of marketing.
And that's because I didn't know what it was. I spent (read as wasted) a lot money, energy and time on what I thought was marketing - with no results. Oh, I implemented tactics and even hired people to get traction (traffic and attention) for my books, to no avail. But it's one of the most expensive mistakes I've ever made in my business because how can you get results from your efforts, if you don't even know what you're doing?
I believe that you cannot effectively treat if you haven't accurately diagnosed, so I like to go to, as far as is possible, the cellular level.
Whether it is skincare problems or selling books, getting to the root of a problem means I'm not wasting my time and energy by treating symptoms and getting frustrated. I'm not throwing everything and the kitchen sink at a problem, then tearing my hair out when nothing is working.
The cellular level for me, was understanding marketing and defining it in the simplest way possible. And that is marketing is telling your target audience WHY they should get what you want them to buy (so WHAT it will do for them and HOW they can use it) and WHERE and WHEN they can get it.
If you don't have clear answers to these why, what, how, where and when questions, then whatever you're doing is not marketing.
So, "My book is the best thing ever" is not marketing. It might soothe my ego, though.
Just as "my book is for everybody" is actually a nonsensical statement that guarantees zero sales. Believe me, I've tried it.
And "My book is on Amazon, Okadabooks and Kobo" is a distribution statement. Not marketing.
The definition I work with, is nothing fancy. In fact, it's very basic, but it helps me focus my time, funds and energy where I should.
So, I don't go on certain podcasts or TV or radio shows. I don't attend certain events. I don't advertise in certain places or to certain people. I don't take certain things personally.
Because if a book reviewer only reads crime fiction, who would I reasonably think will be following them on Instagram? So, why would I look at their follower count and think, "Oh, I should pay them to influence for me" when I know I write multicultural women's fiction?
In the same way, why would I send an author who writes YA Action-Adventure fiction on a television chat show whose target audience is "a 35yo career woman, looking for love"? A romance author can become a bestselling author overnight by going on such a show, but it is a waste of money for my YA Action-Adventure fiction author.
Even then, there are certain things that just have to be in place before you go on a huge platform like a TV show. Or pay shedloads of money for billboard space or social media advertising.
If you're doing all that for your vanity - you want to seen and you don't care by whom - this isn't relevant to you. But if you're trying to sell, you need to know your author brand.
And you need to build it first. So, what are you saying on your website, your social media and even in public?
This isn't to say you can only talk about one thing in your entire life, but it doesn't make any sense for you to be heard talking about feminism every opportunity you get, then go on a hardcore news show on television to promote your new book on parenting.
When people don't know you, they don't pick you. And if they're seeing you for the first time on television, they might Google you. If they land on your website or social media, only to find something that doesn't make any sense in the context of the TV show they just saw you on, they don't pick you. So, you just wasted your time and money going on the show.
Same with paid social media ads.
If you spend a lot of money to put a picture of your book on a billboard that your target audience has no reason to see or you're on the cover of a magazine that your ideal reader doesn't read, what is the point?
Why are you spending all your time arguing on Twitter (you call it engagement) and tweeting 10X a day about your book, when your target audience is actually on LinkedIn?
It took me a while to figure this out, but your book is not about you. And in order to make it possible for your target audience to notice you and easy for them to pick you, you need to have an author brand.
So, what are you about and who are you talking to? What expectation have you given your reader? When you see Martina Cole's name on the cover of a book, you don't expect the content to be Sophie Kinsella's.
If that happens, something has gone very wrong and it's going to make the news for all the wrong reasons. So, you need to be clear on what you write and for whom.
"Everybody" is NOT an audience. Romance books are not stocked on the crime fiction shelf of any library or bookshop because they're clearly talking to different people with different needs.
If you want to be picked, you can't be vague in your description or in the expectation that you're giving your target audience.
Readers don't read authors' minds. They want relevance and clarity.
In other words, is your book relevant to the person you've put it in front of AND have you made it clear that it's relevant to them?
No matter how much you love cooking or how much time you spend on a slow-cooked lamb casserole, it's irrelevant to vegetarians. It doesn't matter what their reasons are for not eating meat or what your opinion is about people who don't eat meat, you can't reasonably expect it to end well if you deliberately market meat to a vegetarian.
And if you don't make it clear to a meat eater exactly what your lamb casserole is, they might assume it's just beef or chicken. Meaning that even if they love lamb, you keeping them guessing = you lose a sale. If it doesn't even look like lamb casserole, why would they want your offering, even if that's exactly what they're looking for?
So, in determining and trying to reach your target audience, you need to be so clear, that they have no doubt you're speaking to them.
Because no matter how great the content is, nobody will pick you if your marketing tools say not to. Clear, not cute that you think is clever, will win.
What's the title of your book?
What about the description (the bit at the back that tells your reader what it's about)?
What are the colours of your cover?
If you've self-published and put your book at an online retailer, does it look like it actually belongs in the same category as other books in that genre?
Or did you, after listening to some 'guru' who said you can publish a book for free, go and whip up a random or generic cover on Canva that you thought looked good? You haven't even picked yourself or your own book by investing in a cover designer who knows what they're doing, so why would a stranger pick you?
Remember your book is not about you, so you need to put your ideal reader (the person you want to read your book) who might also be your target audience (the person who will buy it) at the centre of your marketing intentions. That's the person who's going to pick you, so that's whose attention you want.
And when you've got the attention of your target audience with your marketing, what about your writing?
Will they still have reason to pick you when they read what's inside your book? In other words, do you deliver on your implied or explicit promise?
What's the layout like? Is it the industry standard?
Is the font the right size? Or is it too tiny to read, but you think the font looks cute?
Or did you pick an extraordinarily large font size because your manuscript is only 20,000 words, but you wanted it to have as many pages as a 60,000-word novel?
Is your book actually well-written?
Is it professionally edited? Or is it riddled with grammatical errors, flow issues and spelling mistakes, right from the first page?
Is it clear and easy to understand for the ideal reader? Or wil they need to reach for a dictionary, every half paragraph or so?
Does it do what you promised? If you said it's a cozy mystery, is that what it really is?
Or after saying you wrote a nonfiction book on anorexia, did you really write a book on eating disorders in general and hope that the person who's reading it (because they are trying to beat anorexia), won't mind?
Remember what I said before about deliberately trying to market meat products to vegetarians? Turns out there is actually something much worse and that's tricking someone into believing they're tucking into a vegetarian meal, when you sneaked meat in.
Sometimes, you're not even being malicious or mischievous. Just ignorant. But the result is the same - angry customers who will feel and say they have been tricked.
I remember when I used to describe my first book as Christian fiction because of a few events in the book, then feeling confused and annoyed when some readers said, "This isn't Christian fiction."
I also remember the times I was tempted to categorise my books as chick lit - which I don't even write - because of some features in the books.
And I had to be proactive about learning the difference because the truth is that nobody is going to be pleased to find hair relaxer in the tub whose label said it was hair cream.
They're going to penalise you with their reviews AND pick another author to give their money; you've given them a reason not to trust whatever has your name on it to be/do on the inside, what it claims on the cover.
Because people buy from brands they know, like and trust.
And that's why we should all be pick mes. You have a message to share - whether it's a story or a lesson - which just happens to be in form of a book. You've worked hard on it.
By writing, you've put yourself out there and there's a level of vulnerability in that.
So, don't you want the right people - read as the ones who will enjoy it or learn from it - to find you and your book(s)? Do you really like to waste your time, hope, money and theirs?
Whether they are librarians or booksellers or education authorities/school boards or book influencers or podcasters or TV/radio hosts, who will make the decision to recommend your book to readers that you don't have the resources to reach on your own OR it's the reader you want to offer your book to by advertising to them directly - you want them to pick YOU.
And you want them to pick you again and again and again.
They will only pick you if you show them that they are not just an afterthought to you. That you respect them by putting in the work - to produce a book that they will learn from or just enjoy. Because readers deserve better.
So, make it easy for them to pick you by betting on yourself and respecting them.
You owe yourself and them, that much.
Chioma Nnani writes multicultural fiction for women aged 18+ who want to be strong, independent and fulfilled.
Why We Should All Be Pick Mes: A Guest Post by Chioma Nnani
