Inspiration and Information for Your Marketing Journey

Here at TrainingAuthors.com, we love to help authors market their books, and to market our own books. However, we know that marketing is made up of knowledge, encouragement, and action. Therefore, we have compiled a list of 182 quotes about book marketing for authors. Marketing unites all of us and takes our books places we could have never achieved without it. Enjoy the book marketing quotes below and let us know which one is your favorite or which quote you relate to the most. We hope they inspire, encourage and inform you!

1. “Book marketing should be a planned process, an art if you will.” – Heather Hart
2. “Not all marketing people are writers, but all writers must learn to be marketers.” – Joanne Kraft
3. “Life is about success, not perfection…and so is marketing.” – Rob Eagar
4. “Do one thing at a time.” – Origin Unknown
5. “You can’t expect to just write and have visitors come to you – that’s too passive.” – Anita Campell
6. “Customer, readers, agents, editors, YOU, can reach more people, faster than ever before. This can be very, very good, or very, very bad. You can’t necessarily control what will go viral, but you can control your content.” – David Unruh
7. “You must focus on using your time effectively every single day to get your message out.” – Jim Edwards
8. “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” – Allen Ginsberg, WD
9. “The kind of marketing that will get done is, for the most part, the kind that’s enjoyable.” – Lisa Velthouse
10. “My theory is that every little bit has the potential to help. We just have to learn where to focus our limited time and energy, because we obviously can’t do it all.” – Jody Hedlund
11. “…based on second hand knowledge and first-hand experience, a successful online marketing cocktail looks like this: Equal parts hard work, talent and persistence, shaken for a long, long, long, long time, and some luck skewered onto a toothpick and thrown in for good measure.” – Kristin Weber
12. “Do something every day to market each of your books for three years.” – John Kremer
13. “Don’t be an expert, be a filter.” – Penny Sansevieri
14. “…the work of promoting the book requires just as much work as writing the book, if not more so.” – Adam S. McHugh
15. “The possibilities for marketing seem truly endless.” – J. Steve Miller
16. “It’s important to know who your readers will be and how they will hear about your book.” – Catherine West
17. “Marketing is first and foremost about connecting.” – Wendy Paine Miller
18. “It [Marketing] is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view.” – Peter Drucker
19. “Most of us wouldn’t cook an entree for the first time without following a recipe, and having a marketing plan for your book can make the difference between success and falling flat.” – Paula Krapf
20. “’Book marketing is a skill: it takes knowledge, effort, and persistence to really be successful.” – Heather Hart
21. “It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.” – Jack Kerouac, WD
22. “You think someone else should do the marketing? It would be nice if it worked that way, but it doesn’t…” – Sensible Solutions
23. “Real marketing begins at the moment you conceive the central idea for the intended book and includes a clear sense of who the book is for, how it serves its audience, and how it fits with the competition.” – David Cole
24. “Online networking is a wonderful way to meet people who share your interests, develop relationships with peers and potential customers, and ultimately increase book sales.” – Dana Lynn Smith
25. “Without an effective marketing plan, you might end up wasting a lot of time, money and effort in a frenzied, unorganized attempt to sell books.” – WordClay.com
26. “Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.” – Hunter S. Thompson
27. “Be knowledgeable in your niche, provide some information free of charge, and share other trustworthy people’s free resources whenever possible…” – Heather Hart
28. “The future of branding is marketing with people, not at them.” – John Morgan
29. “I’ve said it before, and by gosh, I’ll say it again-don’t be afraid to toot your own horn.” – Emlyn Chand
30. “A written book marketing and promotion plan will give you a blueprint for promoting your book and keep you focused on what’s important.” – Dana Lynn Smith
31. “Sometimes we are limited more by attitude than by opportunities.” – Origin Unknown
32. “My #1 piece of marketing advice?  Network.  And, by network, I don’t mean friend 10,000 people on Facebook and spend all day on Twitter and LinkedIn, but really work hard to get to know people in a real way.” – Erin MacPherson
33. “Don’t give up before you get off your feet. Put the time in to learn what you can, build relationships, and develop quality content.” – Heather Hart
34. “Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.” –  Henry Van Dyke
35. “There’s no such thing as ‘no market’. Some books are just niche orientated that’s all.” – Jo Linsdell
36. “The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.” – Seth Godin
37. “To defend what you’ve written is a sign that you are alive.” – William Zinsser, WD
38. “Marketing is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process that you must keep doing to continue selling books.” – Sarah Bolme
39. “When I say work I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.” – Margaret Laurence
40. “Wanna be a success? Promote, promote, promote!” – Lynette Phillips
41. “To reach more readers and take your sales to the next level, you must proactively market your book”. – Mark Coker
42.  “You are the person with the vested interest in getting your book read by people.” – Philip Ragan
43. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” – Origin Unknown
44. “If you do nothing else to market your book, at the very least take the time to clearly and precisely identify your book’s message and market.” – Wheatmark
45. “Follow your passion, and find a great mentor.” – Jeff Bell
46. “These days, the toughest obstacle you may face is finding a way to rise above the noise so that your work can be discovered.” – Kevin Kaiser, WD
47. “Success is a journey, not a destination” – Ben Sweetland
48. “In my opinion, understanding who your target audience is, and what they want, and writing to them (and only them!) is the most important component of being successful as an author.” – John Locke
49. “Keep chuggin’ along until you get it right.” – Jada
50. “The book marketing game is not a race…” – Novel Publicity
51. “Repetition is a key to gaining audience recognition.” – Shelley Hitz
52. “Thirty seconds. As an author (or publisher) that’s about all the time you have when talking to someone to generate interest in your book.” – Sarah Bolme
53. “Don’t sell yourself short. No one will value you. Set a fair price for you, your book, your services, whatever it is that you have to offer. Most of us set way too low a price. Put it a little higher than you would normally be inclined to do. The worst that can happen is someone will come along and steal it.” – John Kremer
54. “You don’t need a big promotional budget to get noticed and make your own waves.” – Kevin Kaiser
55. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
56. “Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice underlie much of what’s successful on the Web.” – Rick Levine
57. “Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.” – Al Ries
58. “If writing and publishing a book is like giving birth to a child, then book marketing is like rearing it.” – Heather Hart
59. “Writers are like farmers: The harvest comes, but only after you toil for a few seasons.” – Cheryl Strayed, WD
60. “Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.” – Michael Landon
61. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
62. “Stop following the Ready. Go. Get Set. planning sequence and start becoming more profitable.” – Brian Jud
63. “Marketing is what you do, not what you say.” – Andy Sernovitz
64. “You’ll never know what works or fails if you don’t launch.” – Tammy Redmon
65. “Marketing starts even before our books are published.” – Heather Hart
66. “We cannot blame anyone for our lack of success if we continue to live in the woulda, coulda, shoulda zone.” – Robin Tramble
67. “By publishing content that shows buyers you understand their problems and can show them how to solve them, you build credibility.” – Ardath Albee
68. “There are only seven days in a week, and someday isn’t one of them.” – Origin Unknown
69. “A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” — Harvey Mackay, businessman and author
70. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” – Mark Twain
71. “Everything we do is based on relationships, including marketing. As an author you’re connecting with people, not demographics.” – Kevin Kaiser, WD
72. “If you keep on doing what you have been doing, you are going to keep getting what you have been getting!” – Alcoholics Anonymous
73. “It’s never too early to start marketing your book.” – Heather Hart
74. “Marketing isn’t magic. There is a science to it.” – Dan Zarrella
75. “People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust.” – Malorie Luchich, Facebook Spokesperson
76. “One of the best book marketing tips I can give you is simply building relationships – well that and publishing more books.” – Heather Hart
77. “With your book or your business, you absolutely must know who you’re selling to, or else you won’t get anywhere.” – Kristen Eckstein
78. “Never use the phrase: ‘buy my book’ – ever.” – Heather Hart
79. “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” – Charles R. Swindoll
80. “Build relationships where your readers grow to know, like and trust you.” – Shelley Hitz
81. “All of marketing consists in creating relationships. Real relationships: friends, lovers, partners, warriors, fans.” – The Quotable John Kremer
82. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Bennett, 1935
83. “Instead of one–way interruption, Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment that a buyer needs it.” – David Meerman Scott, Marketing Strategist
84. “Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.” – Brian Solis
85. There are those who dream and wish and there are those who dream and work.” – June E. McIntyre.
86. “This is the most incredible time in history to be an author. Power, freedom and, yes, money, are there for the taking…if you get what’s really happening and are willing to act on it.” – Jonathan Fields
87. “Fixing problems is the most powerful marketing you can do.” – Andy Sernovitz
88. “What I always tell my clients is to put yourself in your potential customer‘s shoes – what would you want to hear about this story/book and does this [marketing material] deliver that information?” – Carol White
89. “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering
90. “Creating an author platform is vital for a new author’s success, and creating a brand is the basis for the platform. You need to know what you are creating before you start!” – Joanna Penn
91. “Not everything that counts can be counted. You can count sales. You can count fans and followers. You can count pins and tweets. But you can’t count passion. You can’t count commitment. You can’t count engagement. You can’t count relationships.” – John Kremer
92. “Think like a reader.” – Origin Unknown 
93. “Think as narrowly as you can and find a pocket of readers who are passionate about the same things you are.” – Kevin Kaiser, WD
94. “Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” – Denis Waitley
95. “Thinking outside of the box and watching for opportunities that look like a good fit are some avenues that have helped me generate publicity.” – Barbara Techel
96. “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” – Tom Peters
97. “It used to be that if you wanted sophisticated marketing tools, you had to be rich. That’s not the case on the Internet. Anyone can compete, just at different levels.” – Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware
98. “Learn to make customers really, really happy. It doesn’t take much more than that. ” – Andy Sernovitz
99. “There’s no one thing you can do to have success, but if you have a plan and you keep doing things, you’ll eventually build to a success.” – MJ Rose, WD
100. “Remarkable social media content and great sales copy are pretty much the same – plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader, listener, or viewer.” – Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger
101. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker
102. “Giving back or giving forward is the one true law of marketing.” – John Kremer
103. “Don’t be constantly selling and shilling. Figure out how you can help others, tell them stories, and share openly everything you know so that people will recognize you as someone that they can trust, who won’t turn them off by constantly trying to sell them something.” – C.C. Chapman
104. “The most efficient marketing is consistent marketing.” – Shelley Hitz
105. “One of the best ways to make your marketing more effective is by making an emotional connection with your readers. Logic makes people think, but emotion makes them act.” – Rob Eagar, Sell Your Book Like WildFire
106. “Marketing: Giving the right people the right message with the right offer at the right time.” – Matt Bailey
107. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” – Benjamin Franklin
108. “Video is just one part of a marketing plan. It fits certain messages and people better than others.” – Steve Garfield
109. “Be interesting, or be invisible.” – Andy Sernovitz
110. “Do you ever want to sacrifice tone and feel for what you know the search engines are looking for on a page? That answer is no.” – Heather Lloyd–Martin, SuccessWork
111. “Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.” –Samuel Johnson
112. “The more people out there who know your name, the better.” – Barbara Vey
113. “I’m not proposing that you let the crowd dictate, or that you work hard to fit in. Far from it. I’m proposing that you know the impact your choices are having and act accordingly.” – Seth Godin
114. “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” – Mark Twain
115. “You need an information–rich web site and a web site that responds to [readers] needs, whatever they are.” – Joan Holman, Legacy Achievement Foundation
116. “Understand why and how your audience uses technology and then start trying to align your communications efforts.” – Brian Reich and Dan Solomon
117. “There is no ‘one–size–fits–all’ way to build an audience.” – Stuart Mills
118. “You can’t expect to just write and have visitors come to you – that’s too passive.” Anita Campbell
119. “Figuring out your branding doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be focused.” – Penny Sansevieri
120. “Good content should be at the heart of your strategy, but it is equally important to keep the display context of that content in mind as well.” – Tim Frick
121. “Don’t reduce yourself to a cheesy book hawker.” – Rob Eagar
122. “Word of mouth marketing is about being good to people.” – Andy Sernovitz
123. “Even if you can only take one small action step each day, stay in continuous action until you begin seeing results!” – Shelley Hitz
124. “Don’t be too quick to discard an idea, thinking that you can’t do it or it won’t work for you. Just because you’ve never done something before, don’t assume that you can’t do it, whether it’s making a speech, doing a TV or radio interview, or staging an outrageous stunt.” – Cathy Stucker, IdeaLady.com
125. “Be yourself, so that you don’t have to devote energy to maintaining a publicly acceptable facade of personality.” – Andrew Budeck-Schmeisser
126. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
127. “It’s better to do one thing well then ten things poorly.” – Heather Hart
128. “Sharing your message and your expertise with people interested in your topic will allow you to raise your credibility and increase your sales.” – D’vorah Lansky, M. Ed.
129. “There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks, and no secret handshakes that can bring you immediate success, but with time, energy, and determination you can get there.” – Darren Rowse, founder of Problogger
130. “Marketing = Relationships” – Shelley Hitz
131. “…determine what marketing activities fit you and your personality… There’s no right or wrong. The goal is to be yourself and stay consistent with your marketing activities.” – Curtis Yates
132. “Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.” – David Ogilvy
133. “The strongest network is made up of real relationships. Treat people like people—not as a means to an end.” – Rachelle Gardner
134. “Word of mouth is powerful. How often do you buy or read or try something new, because a friend of yours said, ‘You gotta check this out!’?” – Amy McGuire
135. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
136. “All of your book marketing materials, such as your website, back cover copy, personal bio, bookmarks, newsletters, and even social media posts, should explain how you can improve a reader’s life.” – Rob Eagar
137. “A great marketing plan identifies where an organization is, where it wants to be, and how it will get there.” – Steve Lance and Paul Kurnit
138. “Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Don’t try to spin what you have to say just because someone with a larger platform does it that way.” – Joe Wikert
139. “I’d advise writers to cultivate certain personality traits rather than execute any specific steps.” – Phil Sexton
140. “Branding will occur by default, whether you intend it to or not. Therefore, it’s imperative to create the brand that will provide the maximum possible marketing benefit. To believe this to be unimportant is equivalent to believing that your attire or letterhead is unimportant.” – Alan Weiss
141. “No matter what or whom we’re talking about, from movies to chiropractors to books to financial planners, the consumer hankers after specialization.” – Susan Friedmann
142. “…as you’ve noticed, people don’t want to be sold. What people do want is news and information about the things they care about.” – Larry Webber
143. “In every e–mail or correspondence you send your customers encourage them to send you stories of success or mention your services to their online network of friends.” – Jim Cockrum
144. “I’ve found that the old adage, ‘If you take care of the minutes the hours will take care of themselves,’ applies to marketing and finances as well.” – Phyllis Sather
145. “The challenge is to write compelling content for your website, to organize it so search engines like Google can understand it, and to pay attention to the results so you can improve your website as time permits.” – Morris Rosenthal
146. “Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” – Mike Volpe, Chief marketing officer for Hubspot
147. “You can sell a lot more books if you work with other authors than if you try to do everything all by yourself.” – John Kremer
148. “For the multifold secret to work only one thing is necessary. You must take action. You must give. You must share. You must act with abandon. Send out waves of love and kindness into the world and then simply wait for the response. Or, better yet, continue to send out more waves. Why wait? The response will come. Keep sending waves and enjoy the reaction.” – John Kremer
149. “The problem is, there are millions of other books out there, so why is someone going to pick on yours?” – Ian Miller
150. “As much as we don’t want to hear it, book marketing is a huge part of becoming a successful author.” – Heather Hart
151. “[Marketing] That magical combination of information + entertainment.” – Kim Roach
152. “In a way, the Web is like your Hollywood agent: It speaks for you whenever you’re not around to comment.” – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
153. “Marketing is hard. Selling is scary. But… talking to people about what we love to do is something we do every chance we get.” – John Rakestraw
154. “With over one million new books published each year, the world doesn’t need more authors who just write more books. Rather, the world needs more authors who know how to get their books in front of more readers.” – Rob Eagar
155. “We are on the cusp of a marketing revolution. And it’s being led by YOU.” – Mark Schaefer, Return On Influence
156. “We can’t underestimate the importance of reviews.” – Aggie Villanueva
157. “Don’t feel like you have to do everything. Rank, prioritize, pick and choose.” – Susan Tornga
158. “All that to say writing the book is the easy part. Marketing and selling your book is an entirely different and much more difficult endeavor.” – Rick Johnson
159. “I recommend you develop at least one highly–quotable remark for each interview or guest blog, and that you go into the encounter with a theme, and pound that theme over and over.” – John Locke
160. “The single biggest mistake, I think, is giving up too soon.” – John Kremer
161. “The days of billboards, ads, and spam are over. Those methods are old-fashioned and won’t work in the virtual world. That’s why it’s so important for writers to learn the birds and bees of how to make online marketing work.” – Jody Hedlund
162. “If you don’t see results in either your writing or your promoting at first, don’t stop. Learn more.” – Carolyn Howard-Johnson
163. “Fun?  Sometimes.  Ick? Absolutely. I do it all, though, for the privilege of continuing to write.” – Margot Starbuck
164. “Marketing, like writing, works really well when you create value for others. When you make someone’s life significantly better, that’s an experience that ends up getting shared with others. There’s no better marketing than that.” – Jason Kong
165. “For those of us who are writers aspiring to get our work before readers, the best way we can help ourselves is to get our names out there. Our names are our brands.” – Keli Gwyn
166. “People do not want to be sold, but they do want to buy.” – D’vorah Lansky
167. “If you’re going to be an author in today’s publishing world, you absolutely have to market. You need to build a platform. You need to learn how to effectively use social media.” – James H. Pence
168. “If you think about it everything we do has the potential of connecting us to readers…” – Lynnette Phillips
169. “For me, there is no separation. Writing is the center… But it’s all critical.” – Christina Katz
170. “My advice? Pray; BE YOURSELF; find mentors in the industry; and talk to your editor, agent, or fellow authors about creative ways to fight stage-fright and shyness.” – Dena Dyer
171. “Watch what other authors do, especially in your genre or area of expertise. Follow them via Facebook or Twitter, study their websites, and build a relationship with them.” – Barbara Techel
172. “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” – Stephen King
173. “The modern writer really has no choice but to continue promoting his or her books, whether the first book or the fifteenth.” – Jody Hedlund
174. “In the end of the day you make the rules. Base your Author Platform around the things you love to do, love to write about, and love to share.” – Matthew Turner
175. “Persistence. Keep at the studying. Keep at the promoting. That’s the only way to get anywhere. “ – Aggie Villanueva
176. “Cultivating an audience is essential to the success of any book.” – Caroline Patti
177. “Publicity is like the little waves you make when you toss pebbles into a lake. The waves travel, travel, travel and eventually come back to you. If you stop lobbing little stones, you lose momentum.” – Carolyn Howard-Johnson
178. “Become a resource.” – Dineen A. Miller
179. “Almost by force of circumstance, successful self-publishing will require us to become marketers, in one way or another. The internal world of the writer has evolved into the market-focused world of commerce.” – Joel Friedlander
180. “Get out there and sell yourselves.” – Barbara Vey
181. “Not only do readers tolerate a certain degree of marketing, we expect it. But while most authors recognize the need to market oneself, there is also a point of diminishing returns, a point where self-promotion actually turns away potential buyers.” – Mike Duran
182. “Today I will be a successful sales professional, and I will learn something today that will make me even more professional tomorrow.” – Zig Ziglar
     

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