The Blitz

Virtual Assistants for Authors: Do I need one?

Do authors need virtual assistants? Well, let’s answer a couple of questions: Have you thought about how much freaking work it is to write your book? Like really how much effort you put into it? Now, what about trying to sell that book? You are the CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CIO of your own small…

December 27, 2020 / jennykate /

Do authors need virtual assistants?

Well, let’s answer a couple of questions: Have you thought about how much freaking work it is to write your book? Like really how much effort you put into it? Now, what about trying to sell that book?

You are the CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CIO of your own small business.

Which role do you really want?

Every small business has a marketing budget. For a reason. To sell things.

You know you have to market your work. There’s no way to sell anything if you don’t.

Especially when more than 50K books are uploaded monthly to Amazon. That’s a big ole pool to swim in.

Now, does this mean you have to do it all yourself?

Well, let’s look at what marketing actually means.

There are several ways to market a book:

How many of these do you want to find, book, write for, and otherwise be available for at the pace with which you must market?

How many hours a day do you think you need to market your work?

Let’s try AT LEAST as many hours as you spend writing your book. Think about that.

As many hours as you spend producing a product is the same that you should spend marketing that product.

Do you know who makes the Big Mac?

What about the best French fries in the U.S.?

Who is Ronald?

My point is you know very well that the answer to all these is McDonalds. Guess how much money McDonald’s spent on marketing in 2019. $1.2 BILLION.  Know why? Brand recognition.

And you need some of that!

What I’m really hoping here is you have finally been convinced that marketing is essential to your success as a career author.

But I’m going to take a swing in the dark and assume you don’t really want to market your work. You want to write. You want to tell stories.

Great!

Then you need a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants for authors can do anything you ask them to do for your marketing. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything. But you won’t have to do as much.

Virtual assistants for authors can:

  • Book you guest spots on podcasts
  • Write scripts for YouTube videos
  • Post on social media
  • Write copy for ads
  • Respond and do maintenance on social media
  • Run your Facebook or membership group
  • Write your weekly newsletter or email
  • Update your website

 

But how much should you pay that VA?

That depends on what you want them to do.

You can offer hourly work. I have paid VAs between $10-25 an hour. I know others that charge $50.

I have also hired by the job. $200 to SEO optimize every blog on my website and transcribe podcasts.

And I’ve paid by the week. $200 a week to take one piece of content (a podcast) and turn it into several different pieces of content (Facebook post, tweet, Instagram post, LinkedIn blog,) as well as do maintenance posts on some social media sites to help grow the account.

You can’t just pluck some college student off the street because they make awesome TikTok videos.

The person you hire needs to know how to use social media and internet marketing to sell things.

To make connections. To garner engagement. To optimize your website for SEO.