The Marketing Journey with Julie Navickas

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Launching a book. It's an exhilarating and terrifying experience. After all the blood, sweat and tears you put into writing and publishing your book, and after running the race like a boss, your launch day finally arrives. You think you've crossed the finish line... 

And then reality sets in.

​The marketing, the promotion, the business aspect and all the things that are forthcoming make you realize this isn't a race at all. In fact, you suddenly understand - if you are wise - that this a journey, and it's going to be a long one, so you might as well prepare yourself and enjoy the adventure.

Truth is, books don't just sell or market themselves. I've been in the book business for ten years and I've yet to meet an overnight success. The ones that see any decent amount of progress {and sanity} are the ones who expect or come to know that it is a long game. There is no final destination for authors, but as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: Not all those who wander are lost.

A writer who is killing it in the long-term peddling department right now is Julie Navickas, best-selling and award-winning author of The Trading Heartbeats Trilogy. Julie and I have collaborated on book launches for other authors in the past, and I can tell you firsthand that she is an exceptional promoter and is definitely not lost on the author path.

I recently had the pleasure of watching Julie go through her own book writing process, querying agents and landing a three-book deal with Inkspell Publishing. Then I saw her thrive as she launched and marketed her author biz. Between in-person appearances, online interviews and a very active social media, Julie is making a name for herself in the competitive world of fictional romance.

So what keeps Julie on path when she knows there is no end game? I sat down with Julie to pick her brain about launching, longevity and finding time to do all the things.

Julie signs books at one of her many in-person events.

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1. Balance the Ins & Ons

As an author, Julie has a strong in-person and online presence. I wanted to know her take on the two, and how they work together to benefit her brand.

"In person events are way more time-consuming for planning purposes, attending, plus the financial side of it. The online stuff I feel I am able to fit into my day so I can piece it together when I have five or ten spare minutes," Navickas said.

Although she gets much more engagement online, the in-person events are crucial to that dynamic.

"I had this realization the other day that doing these in-person events, makes for great social media content and that gets me the engagement," Navickas said. "Even though I feel I don't sell a ton in person, I still need those photos, I still need the stories that come from it to provide me with the content that will get me the engagement."

As an introvert, she says the in-person aspect of the book biz is a bit draining, but she knows it pays off when she is able to connect with readers and also create valuable content.

Julie at an in-person event with media on the ground.

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2. All that is gold, does not glitter

Having published three books in her series, there were many lessons learned from Julie's first book launch to her third. She said she received an outpouring of in-person support from her debut novel I Loved You Yesterday, but then noticed that the personal support started to dwindle with each book launch.

"The first book launch was amazing. Everybody was there to support me. It was new, cool, and different. I think I used that as my bar, like this is going to happen for me every time. And the sad truth is that it doesn't, and I didn't expect that, but in hindsight I should have. It hurt my ego," she said.

Once an author gets passed this normal ego hit, they refocus and remember why they published the book to begin with. It wasn't for fame, it was for the love of the story... the journey not the destination.

The novelty of publishing wears off, if you will, and although friends, family and colleagues still root you on, they aren't necessarily as interested as they were before. This is natural, particularly if they aren't a fan of your genre. Launching is never the final destination anyway, but it is a pivotal impasse that many authors aren't ready for.

Julie was able to learn the lesson and advanced on her journey by learning who her fan base was and catering to that market.

3. Optimizing Promotional + Book Sites

Julie noted that her financial success has mostly been seen through online sales. She says she's found a lot of success using BookBub, Goodreads, Instagram ad boosts and using three different book promotional services. 

"I've had a lot of fun and success I would say working with three different promotional services. The first one, that I highly recommend is Silver Dagger Book Tours," Navickas said. "Her review team are asked to put a review on BookBub and so I feel like that has been successful, because once you start to follow people, you have easy access to those readers so I can engage with them directly through that platform. So it's way more beneficial than I expected to use BookBub, and not necessarily from an advertising perspective."

Engaging with readers is a sure-fire way to gain career-long fans, and remain genre-relevant.

Goodreads is very much the same, that you can engage with readers who have also left reviews. She says a good strategy is to reply to those who left good reviews with a nice message and a note that book two is coming out on such and such date. This engagement is a personal connection with her readers and it gets them excited about the next book in the series.

She said her most engagement in the online space is consistently Instagram, even though she pushes across all platforms. 

Julie has a strong social media presence.

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3. Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

A bit of background on Julie. She is the director of student success and recruitment at Illinois State University where she teaches coursework in editorial and feature writing, writing for public relations, magazine production and design and public speaking. She also teaches continuing education classes at Heartland College, serves on boards, volunteers, is a public speaker and is married with three young children.

And she is a best-selling romance writer.

Suffice it to say, Julie has a lot going on. But what I admire about her is that she is a pro at time management. She isn't a victim of her schedule and makes no excuses for not writing or marketing her books.

Julie with her family at her third book launch party.

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"On average I spend one to two hours a day either writing or doing some kind of marketing. That marketing can funnel down to newsletters, blogs and social media. Every day this time is spent doing something to further the journey," Navickas said.

She said these things take her less time now because she made the effort in the beginning of her book business to create templates and systems. These foundational pieces, of which I am a huge advocate, are serving her well.

"There are things I can draw on that now take me less time because I spent that time earlier. It took a while to get there though," she said. "It's not overnight."

And it's true. None of what Julie or any other successful author has created is overnight. The author life is not a one-time endeavor, in fact it's an adventure and Julie Navickas definitely isn't lost.

Julie's new tattoo. It reads, “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” It’s written in Tolkien’s Elvish language, Tengwar.

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I asked Julie what this quote meant to her. She said, "It's a a beautiful reminder to me that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so. It's a quote that instills the confidence to try new things and not follow the expectations of society. If we don't follow our dreams, we lose pieces of ourselves along the way."

You can follow Julie's journey at www.authorjulienavickas.com
​and at these locations:
INSTAGRAM - FACEBOOK - NEWSLETTER
AMAZON - BOOKBUB - GOODREADS
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS - DIGITAL PRESS KIT

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