I am a behind-the-scenes kind of writer. I love doing the work but hate doing the self-promotion to get the work. I don’t cold call. I don’t beg clients for referrals. Even after writing several books with reasonable success, I never spoke in front of an audience or did any public appearances; I agreed to be a guest on a radio show for my first book and decided never to do another one. I am borderline reclusive. So if I go against the grain of every highly-touted self-promotion tactic out there, how do I manage to find clients, sell books, and make a great living as a writer?

I use a “Power of 3” marketing strategy that I developed years ago for small business owners. In my book, Splash Marketing for Overworked Small Business Owners, I outline a plan for developing a marketing strategy that suits the individual, not the masses. For example, every marketing book will tell business owners that you MUST get out and network. You MUST get out and speak in front of groups. You MUST learn how to cold call.

That’s just wrong.

Those tactics work for the people who like – or want to learn – to do those things. If you try to force yourself to do something you don’t like doing, you will not be good at it. Worse yet, you will stop doing it.

My strategy is to simply choose a minimum of three marketing tactics that you like doing, link them together into a personalized plan and strategy for your business, and execute the plan. When you are doing something you enjoy, it’s easy to make it a habit. When you make marketing a habit, you build your business.

Here is a short list of marketing and promotional tactics for shy writers:

Writing services:

Do a snail mailing: Write and distribute a “How to Hire a Freelance Writer” booklet (click here to see previous post).

Frequent online forums: become an active participant on marketing and webmaster forums, making sure your signature indicates you are a freelance writer. Many of the members are in need of great content to build their rankings and promote their businesses.

“Cold emailing”: An alternative to the traditional cold call is the cold email. Do the same research you would do to create a call list but use email instead to introduce and announce your services. If you can claim to be a specialist (click here to see previous post), even better. Seek out forums in those specialties and join the keyboard conversations.

Book promotion:

Initiate an online book tour: Bloggers and webmasters are constantly on the lookout for great content for their sites. Identify appropriate blogs and sites based on your book topic and announce that you are available to share information or tips that will help their readers in interview format.

Contribute to article directories: The two biggest article directories, EzineArticles and GoArticles, will gladly post your well-written articles in their directories. They also receive great search engine results from publications searching for articles to use in their printed or online pages. If a publication picks up your article, they also enter into an agreement to use your resource box of information that gives your website or other contact information.

Offer book excerpts to papers and magazines: Research appropriate publications that have readers who could benefit from the information in your book. Contact the editors and offer book excerpts for them to print, including contact or purchase information.

Brainstorm ways to market yourself in a way that is comfortable for you. The best marketing strategy for any writer is the one that you’ll use.