September 2025 Meeting: Maggie Smith on Demystifying Book Marketing
Beyond the Manuscript: Demystifying Book Marketing
Marketing a book is one of the most misunderstood—and frequently frustrating—parts of the publishing journey. This practical, insightful workshop explores what happens after you’ve written the book, diving into the strategies and systems that will help you find your readers. Designed for authors at all stages, the session breaks down the essential components of a successful marketing plan with clarity and realism.
Topics include setting achievable goals, formulating a practical budget, and assembling a team to support your efforts—from agents to fellow writers to book designers and publicists. We’ll explore how to locate your ideal readers and turn casual browsers into engaged fans, and what it really means to develop an author “brand” in today’s crowded market. You’ll learn the basics of crafting a compelling tagline, building a website and newsletter, and using those tools to grow a loyal mailing list.
The session also walks through a 6-month marketing timeline, offering concrete tactics for each time period leading up to (and beyond) your launch. We’ll examine the murky world of advertising—what platforms are worth your time and money, how to measure ROI, and when to walk away. Whether you’re traditionally published, indie-publishing, or hybrid, this workshop offers actionable guidance, honest insights, and a roadmap to transform book marketing from overwhelming to empowering.
In a career that’s included work as a journalist, a psychologist, and the founder of a national art consulting company, Maggie Smith added novelist to her resume with the publication of her debut, Truth and Other Lies, in March 2022. A women’s fiction novel set in Chicago, it won NIEA’s Juror Grand Prize, the Star Award for Debut Fiction from Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Foreword INDIES General Fiction Book of the Year, and was selected for the Women’s Book Association Great Group Reads.
Her second novel, Blindspot, released in May 2024, is a psychological suspense that was named First Place Winner in the Mystery/Suspense category by Pencraft Book Awards, a finalist for CWA’s Book of the Year award for Indie Fiction, and is currently a finalist for the 2024 Silver Falchion Award for General Fiction by Killer Nashville.
Her next book-length project, Once Upon A Family, is a suspenseful family drama set in the wine country north of Santa Barbara and revolves around the kidnapping of a soon-to-be-bride and the reckoning her stepmother must face when a devastating ransom demand tests her values.
In addition to her writing, Maggie hosts the weekly podcast Hear Us Roar (285+ episodes on Apple Podcasts) and is Managing Editor for Chicago Writer’s Association Write City E-Zine.