What if the real challenge isn’t finding more book marketing ideas, but knowing which one deserves your attention?
“Focus on one thing” sounds simple until you’ve got five good options staring back at you.
Podcast interviews are working. LinkedIn feels promising. An association reached out. You’ve been eyeing bulk sales. And someone just told you to start a newsletter.
So which one wins?
Choosing ONE means telling several good ideas, “not now.” And, speaking from experience, that can feel uncomfortable, even when you know it’s the right decision.
The 5 Questions to Ask Before You Choose Your ONE
1. Does it connect directly to the outcome you want?
Start with the destination, not the activity.
Want more speaking gigs? Five LinkedIn posts a week won’t get you there as fast as building relationships with associations and meeting planners will.
Want bulk sales? Podcast visibility builds credibility, but direct access to organizations that can buy 100 or 1,000 copies moves the needle harder.
Ask yourself: if this strategy works, does it move me closer to the result I actually want?
Action step: Write down your single most important outcome for the next 90 days. Then hold every marketing idea up against it. If an idea doesn’t serve that outcome, it’s not your ONE.
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2. Does it put you close to the right people?
Authors often chase bigger audiences, yet being closer to the right people matters more.
Would you rather have 10,000 strangers scroll past your post, or talk with ten people who can hire you, invite you, recommend you, or buy your book in bulk?
Look at who a strategy puts you in front of, not how many.
Action step: List the 10 people or organizations who could move your book forward the fastest. Pick the strategy that gets you in front of them.
3. Can you realistically repeat it?
The perfect strategy you hate doing isn’t the perfect strategy.
Can you keep it up for 90 days? Can you afford it? Does it fit how you like to communicate?
A strategy only pays off once you stick with it long enough to get good at it. Consistency and perseverance matter because book marketing rarely produces results overnight. Too many authors try something a few times, don’t see an immediate response, and decide it isn’t working. In reality, many strategies need time to build recognition, trust, and momentum.
The authors who keep showing up, learning, adjusting, and staying with a sound strategy are often the ones who eventually see results.
Action step: Commit to your chosen strategy on your calendar for the next 90 days, not just this week.
4. Is there evidence of response?
You don’t need sales yet to know something is starting to work. Look for the smaller signals first. People reply, ask questions, share your ideas, introduce you to others, or want to keep the conversation going. They might even start asking about your book.
Those responses matter because they show interest and momentum, even before they turn into revenue.
Action step: Track every response you get this month, even small ones. Patterns show up faster than you’d expect.
5. Does it create leverage?
Can one effort produce more than one result?
A speaking engagement could lead to a bulk book order, new subscribers, consulting work, podcast invitations, and referrals, all from a single yes. One corporate relationship could put your book into hundreds of hands. One association partnership could open chapters, conferences, publications, and member programs.
The strongest ONE usually ripples outward.
Action step: For each opportunity you’re weighing, ask “what else could this open up?” Cross out anything that dead-ends after one result.
Score It
Rate each opportunity from 1 to 5 on:
Alignment — Does this support my primary goal?
Access — Does this put me near the right people?
Repeatability — Can I sustain it?
Response — Am I seeing evidence of interest?
Leverage — Could this lead to multiple opportunities?
Action step: Score every idea on your list right now, before you talk yourself into the next shiny opportunity.
The highest-scoring idea may not be the newest, most exciting, or most visible one. And that’s okay. Your best opportunity is often the one with the strongest relevance and the greatest potential to create more than one result.
It may not look impressive on the surface, but it’s the one most worthy of your attention.
Not Now Is Not Never
Authors hesitate to focus because choosing one strategy feels like giving up on the others.
It’s not. Choosing ONE doesn’t mean podcasts are bad, LinkedIn doesn’t work, or you’ll never speak. It means they’re not priorities right now.
“Not now” is one of the most useful sentences in marketing.
Action step: Start a running “Not Now” list. Every new idea lands there first, instead of jumping straight into your marketing plan.
The Real Discipline
Choosing ONE isn’t the hard part. Staying with it long enough to find out what it can become is.
Next time a new opportunity shows up, skip the question “should I do this too?” Ask instead: “Is this more important than the ONE I’ve already chosen?”
If the answer’s no, add it to your Not Now list and keep going.
Focus isn’t about having fewer ideas. It’s about refusing to let every good idea become a priority.
What’s on your Not Now list right now, and what would it take to move one of those ideas to the top?
Please let me know. I’d love to hear from you!