Writers in the Storm

A blog about writing

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January 13, 2025

Marketing quotes and why you need them.

by Jenn Windrow

Today we are going to talk a little about the dreaded “M” word…marketing. 

Every author needs it, but not every author is good at it. I’m one of those authors who is horrible at it. Every year I say I am going to be a better marketer, and every year, I fail.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand what I am supposed to do.

Let’s spend some time today talking about one of my favorite parts of marketing, and something I am actually good at. 

Marketing quotes.

As a self-published author it is never too early to start thinking about marketing your book. In fact, you can start thinking about marketing while you are writing and editing, and I suggest you do.

What is a marketing quote?

My definition of a marketing quote is simply a great line or lines that you pull from your book and then use in a marketing campaign, paid ads or social media posts. They can be used for any kind of marketing that you do. They can even be used to entice readers to visit your table at author events. 

Simply put, marketing quotes are one of the most valuable forms of marketing any author can have. 

Why are they so important?

Marketing quotes are a simple, cheap, and effective way to showcase your writing to new readers and to give them a hint of what to expect when they pick up your book. And if you pick the right quotes, they will help you with sales.

How do you get marketing quotes?

Finding them is the easy part. As you are writing or editing, I suggest pulling out some of your favorite lines in your manuscript and placing them in a word document, so they are easy to find when you are ready to use them. And you will use them…frequently. Here are some I pulled for my vampire series as I was writing. I keep them in my files and add to the file and pull from the file as needed.

Here is an example of some that I have saved to my file.

I slid my dagger back into its sheath and replaced it with my stake. Righty had just bought himself a fast pass to hell.

When André had reentered my life after a fifty-two-year absence, I had imagined my days filled with brother and sister bonding. What I got was free porn on constant loop and dirty boxers on the bathroom floor.

I may be getting ready to meet a heavenly being, but that didn’t mean I needed to put on airs…just pants.

Delano was stoking the sparks of fear and prejudice that still lived inside the humans, hoping it became an out-of-control fire. A fire that would lead to craziness and chaos.

What do I do with the quotes after I have them?

Once you have your quotes, it is time to create graphics to use for promotional puposes. If you don’t have access to Adobe photoshop or illustrator, there are a couple of really great sites that you can use to create graphics. BookBrush and Canva are the two that come to mind. Both sites have limited free options and of course they have paid options as well. The price points aren’t that far off from each other and in the end, I think it depends on which site you are more comfortable using. 

BookBrush

Bookbrush makes creating eye-catching marketing pieces easy. They offer background images, fonts, and 3D templates to place your book covers on and make them look like actual books. They even offer already designed templates that you can use if you don’t want to create your own.

But they don’t only make marketing material, you can also create video’s, social media headers, covers, and just recently they added the ability to create box sets.

Here are a couple of graphics I have created using BookBrush.

Canva

Canva has come a long way in the past few years. I used to prefer BookBrush, but now I find myself switching between the two depending on what I want to do design wise. I even belonged to a marketing service that would set up templates in Canva for everyone to plug their own graphics and text into to use for promotion.

The one thing missing from Canva is the ability to put your cover on a 3D book image, otherwise it really is a great program.

Here is the latest design I did in Canva.

I am sure I am missing a program that has popped up in the past few years, but you can’t go wrong with the tools and options that both BookBrush and Cava have to offer. Even someone without a background in graphic design can create something beautiful using either site.

No matter what you use, you can't go wrong with a good marketing quote to help readers one click the buy button and download your book on their Kindle.

I’d love to see some line from your WIP or even published books that are worthy of a marketing quote, so let’s fill the comments with all the well written lines!

* * * * * *

About Jenn

Sass. Snark. Supernatural Sizzle. 

Award winning author of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. Vampires, Greek gods, and a bit of Demon Destroyer fun for everyone.

Jenn Windrow loves characters who have a pinch of spunk, a dash of attitude, and a large dollop of sex appeal. Top it all off with a huge heaping helping of snark, and you’ve got the ingredients for the kind of fast-paced stories she loves to read and write. Home is a suburb of it’s-so-hot-my-shoes-have-melted-to-the-pavement Phoenix. Where she lives with her husband, two teenagers, and a slew of animals that seem to keep following her home, at least that’s what she claims.

Website: https://jennwindrow.com/

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27 comments on “Marketing quotes and why you need them.”

  1. A great post, and most helpful. Thank you.
    I use Canva when I want to make an add, but haven't used quotes. I'll be remedying that asap.
    There is a free program that I use to make 3D images of my books. It's called Zamzar. You can make a hardback, paperback or phone/tablet image, or a composite of any or all of them. I then use it to add to my background, either one I created, or a template. But don't forget to save as a PDF or you may not get a transparent background.

  2. Great article; good tips!

    From my short story, Starwoven: Threads Beyond, a WIP:

    "Space will always be there for you. I promise."

    "The stars had always called to Red, though she wasn’t sure why. And beyond the bubble glass, something waited—something only she seemed to notice."​

    "But where was the voice? And what was the voice? Red didn’t know what else to call it. Was it a word, a song, or just a presence? It didn’t really matter what it was. If someone out there would listen, really listen, wouldn’t that mean she mattered?"​

  3. Nice article -- a good lesson about one more tool that can spur a person to purchase a book.
    I agree with V.M. Sang's comment about Zamzar being a good program, and I also went nuts with BookBrush when it first came out. Look at what other people do that grabs you and emulate (copy) that!

    1. Exactly. We learn from seeing what others do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it really does take a village all that to help market a book!!

    1. It’s a great tool for video. And if I understood anything about video, I would use it. But sadly I am hopeless when it comes to moving media.

  4. Here's one from Ice Planet Octogenarians, the series I plan to release this summer under the pen name Opal Mason:

    "You would think being 85 years old would protect you from being kidnapped by sex-trafficking space aliens, but you'd be wrong."

    Tagline for the series is "Ice Planet Barbarians Meets Golden Girls"

  5. Thanks for this idea, Jenn. Now I have a stupid question. I'm pulling back from social media for many reasons; are there other ways to use these marketing quotes?

    Here's a quote from my memoir Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived:

    "When I became a mother, if all that had been required was to be loving and nurturing and able to deal with the occasional explosion of bodily fluids, I would have been fine. But my resume full of experience had not prepared me for Matthew."

    1. I love your quote!!

      You can use your quotes in newsletters, if you plan on doing in person book events, print them out on postcards, really any of your marketing material.

  6. I love BookBrush and use it almost every day. I tried Canva but found the learning curve too steep. I might have better luck with it now, though, having the BB experience under my belt.

    The first quote that comes to mind is from my most recently published novel:

    "Fate is an unkind mistress. None of us escapes her wiles."

    And one that people have commented on from the prequel to the series:

    "She was thin—so thin the sapling behind her threw a greater shadow. She had no stockings, no shoes, no shawl or kerchief to protect her against a day that was growing cool. And she had no hope."

    Come to think of it, I have a document called "Favorite Lines", but I never thought of using them this way. (Probably needs updating as I haven't touched it in ages.)

    Thanks so much for this great post!

  7. Great post! Very helpful! I will proactively collect marketing quotes from Margie's NYTs as I work with her!

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