Everything We Never Knew: Book Marketing with Julianne Hough
((not an interview))
Oh my gosh, I wish this were an interview.
Julianne Hough’s debut novel published this week and today, we’re going to talk about it.
Who is Julianne Hough?
For those who aren’t familiar, Julianne is the true definition of a creative multi-hyphenate, but most notably, she’s a dancer and choreographer. You may know her from Dancing with the Stars, Nicholas Sparks’ movie adaptation of Safe Haven, numerous stints on Broadway, her friendship and co-foundership of Fresh Vine Wines with Nina Dobrev (sold), or now, as the author of Everything We Never Knew.
Branding vs. Marketing
We talk a lot here about having a personal brand as an author. It’s been on my list to do a newsletter about the difference between author branding and book marketing, but something always comes up! This little segment here will be the teaser of a larger post to come.
Your marketing campaigns should be directly correlated to your book, and should activate only after you have established community by showing up as you, a personal brand.
Your personal brand not a tool to sell. It’s how you connect with readers, and what they know you for. When you’re an author, that brand has the goal of building emotional connections with your readers, so your book will ultimately end up on their shelves.
Note: emotional connection always sounds so serious, but emotion could be light-hearted, inspiring, entertaining, whatever you need it to be!
Marketing, on the other hand, is finite, and more closely related to sales. Marketing campaigns are specific ideas that have a beginning and end, that center around your audience’s attention, and have specific goals around engagement, growth, or promotion.
Ever since Jules announced ‘Everything We Never Knew,’ she has kept the book in her public conversation. She definitely understood that while she has celebrity and a large following, many of her fans would need convincing (and reminding!) that she was adding Author to her byline. It was only a couple of weeks ago that she switched priorities from her author brand to book marketing. Here’s how she did it:
Phase 1: Website Launch
I cannot stress enough how important it is for authors to have websites. Your website is the one place you own, and that readers, agents, publishers, etc. can go to learn all about you and your work(s) from your perspective.
All of Julianne’s work over the past however many years hasn’t lived under one roof. But! When she decided to become an author, a refreshed website was also put on the to do list.
On August 1, two weeks prior to on-sale, Jules announced her website relaunch on social media. “So excited to share that I have relaunched my website after so many years. This will be my main hub for all things new and upcoming!!”
She also used this same post to remind people to pre-order her book, and tease the next phase of this post, supplemental content: “Check it out to preorder my book… and pre-save…. YOU READY??? My NEW SINGLE!!! It’s the title track of my book - EVERYTHING WE NEVER KNEW. I can’t wait for you all to have a sensorial experience with my book…listen (music), hear (narration), see (read), and feel (dance - @kinrgy ) 🤍”
Phase 2: Supplemental Content
“I can’t wait for you all to have a sensorial experience with my book…listen (music), hear (narration), see (read), and feel (dance - @kinrgy ) 🤍”
I love this phase. I also love this phrase, lol, because it sums up Julianne Hough in a nutshell. She is a storyteller through all modalities, and uses the arts to release creative expression. It’s no surprise that she has aspired to do the same with her book…making it a five senses experience.
What am I specifically talking about? Last week, a week before book launch, Julianne Hough released a song also called Everything We Never Knew.
Releasing a single may not make sense for you and your book, but it makes perfect sense for Jules and her community. Supplemental content creatively brings the reader in from a new angle, and helps reinvigorate excitement for your book without the possibility of going stale with your messaging. Depending on what you release, you may even attract new readers who you may not have connected with otherwise!
Phase 3: Social Media Circuit
Since Jules announced her book, she’s posted about it on Instagram here and there. She leaned into building her Author Brand, by showcasing behind-the-scene clips from her author photoshoot, audio book narration and more (like this).
What this does is prime her following to understand she wrote a book, and that eventually, they would be asked to interact with it in more than one capacity.
She updated her Instagram bio to succinctly direct viewers to order her book and listen to her single, and cleaned up her highlights to clearly reflect her book and other projects. (PS — LMK if you want more on the value of Highlights)
As of today — five days post launch — this is Jules’ Instagram feed:
What do you notice? The cover of her book is extremely and consistently visible. You have to be shamelessly present when you’re in the book marketing phase!
Phase 4: Publicity
Just because she’s a celebrity, doesn’t mean her book will sell! Does it mean she may have easier access attaining press and publicity? Sure. But Julianne is putting in the work. Simply tap through her stories, or Google ‘Julianne Hough book’ and you’ll see all of the stops on her whirlwind press tour.
Being a public figure is very different from being an author, and being an author is not the same as selling millions of books. No one really needs a book; as the author, it’s your job to make them like you enough to hold your stories in their hands, and then love it enough to want to buy it.
We saw this with Matthew McConaughey when he released his children’s book, and turned it into a song with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. They’re proud of their work, and they’re having fun sharing it with all of us.
Many authors may not have the opportunity to go on The Tonight Show and that’s okay. If that’s your reality, I encourage you consider what your equivalent opportunities may be.
A last note: My favorite thing she did throughout her launch, was give her co-writer transparent credit. So much so, in fact, that her name legibly is on the book cover right under Julianne’s, which is not the case with many celebrities who use ghostwriters or co-writers. Congratulations on your novel, Julianne and Ellen!
Now I’m off to buy ‘Everything We Never Knew’ to take on vacation. Let me know if you enjoyed this type of post. I hope it was helpful!