Yesterday, I spent 4 hours in my booth at an outdoor Art Walk—and sold two books—my marketing tip for today will try to answer the age-old question:

What is the best use of a writers’s time?

Given one hour of an author’s time, which is the most productive/profitable?

Book signings, creating Amazon ads, making display posters, making new giveaways—bookmarks, business cards, etc., doing podcasts/interviews/speaking engagements?

First, let’s agree on what it is NOT.

It is NOT checking your emails or texting for the nth time.

It is NOT vegging out in front of the television.

It is NOT allowing yourself to be lured into the mall for hours of shopping madness.

What it IS very much depends on YOU.

If you like those things mentioned in the third paragraph (not the fifth, I said the third), and if they bring you into contact with others whose ideas stimulate your creativity, and if they get your name “out there,” then they can be a good thing.

However, in the articles I have read, most authors will agree on only one consistent finding. 

It is this:

Give your writing a value. Let’s say, just for the sake of conversation, that you feel you are worth $30 an hour. Then, take a look at the list above. See what the going rate is that you would have to pay someone else to do that job for you.

If the person you would hire costs MORE than $30/hr, then you may want to do the job yourself.

If the person’s hourly rate is LESS than $30, then you may be wise to hire someone to do the job for you.

Then YOU can spend that time WRITING.

Because, when it comes “write” down to it (sorry, I just couldn’t resist) most authors agree that their time is most efficiently/profitably spent by actually WRITING.

HUM.

Imagine that.

Do the math: what is the best use of your time?