You won’t need to worry about marketing if you solely write for personal enjoyment. However, if you are working alone and want your books to be read by as many people as possible in your target market, you will also need to learn how to promote your works. It would be beneficial to have a clear understanding of your objectives from the beginning because effective book marketing requires some forethought and work.
Marketing for authors entails primarily attracting and interacting with your target audience by revealing more about yourself and your book. It really is as easy as talking to someone. But it takes effort. Here are 12 book promotion ideas that will raise awareness of your book among your target readership and increase book sales. Some of the suggestions, like inserting metadata, are already part of the publication process for books and wouldn’t take much more work. Some of the other marketing strategies listed below may seem superfluous, but keep in mind your objectives and use the same discipline when developing your book marketing strategy as you would when writing it.
1. Maximize your distribution channels
With Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for ebooks and CreateSpace for print books, Amazon is the largest seller of both digital and physical books. You would have covered the channels that account for 97% of ebook sales if your distribution strategy included Amazon’s KDP, Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Kobo. Although they represent a tiny share of revenue, smaller merchants contribute to greater visibility.
You can publish using an ebook aggregator like *Smashwords or Draft2Digital if you don’t want to deal with specific businesses. Multiple sellers receive books from ebook aggregators, which format them according to their specifications. They also give access to channels that authors cannot approach directly, such as Scribd, a digital library with a subscription service used by 80 million people worldwide.
2. Get reviews for your book
Approaching reviewers of your past books with a free copy and a courteous request is one of the fastest ways to generate reviews for your new book. If you’re a first-time author, you might research the Amazon’s top reviewers and make a shortlist of those who have written about books in your field. Amazon does not allow reviews for pre-order books, but if you have published a paperback edition of your book and connected it to an unpublished ebook, any reviews that are placed for the paperback will transfer to the ebook. In this manner, social proof will be available for your book from the moment it is released.
Through a featured giveaway, you can also spread the word about your pre-release book to Goodread’s community of more than 65 million users. For unreleased novels, reviews can be posted on Goodreads. Even though Amazon owns Goodreads, be aware that reviews written on one site cannot be transferred to the other. As a general rule, reach out to four times as many potential reviewers as you anticipate receiving. At least once, ideally a week or two after your initial email, should be followed up on. You should also approach well-known authors in your genre, important book blogs, and newspapers for editorial reviews.
3. Have your own blog or website
Even before you have finished writing your book, you may assist potential readers in finding you. Update your website with content that will show up in the organic search results for your target demographic. For instance, if your book is about managing emotional well-being, discuss the most recent scientific advances in the area and sprinkle your book’s ideas throughout. If your book is a work of fiction, you might discuss the best-selling titles or iconic figures in the field.
You can promote your book by holding giveaways and contests as the release date approaches. Post excellent content that motivates your intended audience to sign up for updates. If your site has about a year’s lead over your book’s launch date, it will give you time to build a substantial mailing list and improve your site’s ranking.
4. Join the Goodreads Author Program
With over 65 million users, the Goodreads network serves as an effective promotional tool. You can make your own profile page to share information about yourself and your books, ask for reviews, plan book giveaways, hold book discussions, add your books to the proper Listopia lists so your target market can browse and vote for them, and more!
5. Invest in a professional cover design service
Would anyone give a book with a cluttered, distracting, or unfinished cover a second glance? What about one with jarring colours and typeface? A professionally designed book cover is essential to a book’s marketability, and this is best accomplished by utilising such a service.
6. Increase your online presence to spread the word about your book
You can boost your online presence in a number of ways. You may, for instance, post your articles on highly trafficked websites, participate in forums where people talk about your book, or ask to be interviewed for or to write a guest post on websites or blogs that are well-liked by your target demographic. Don’t forget to link to your website and any books you’ve authored or are currently working on in your byline.
7. Use book discounting sites like Bookbub and Book Gorilla
Bookbub and Book Gorilla are two online businesses that send daily emails to their customers recommending books from genres or authors they claim to be interested in. You must give your book for free or at a minimum discount of 50% for a set length of time in order to be suggested. While some services provide free book promotion, the majority of the top-notch ones demand a fee that varies based on the cost and book’s category. The listing cost for crime fiction, Bookbub’s most popular genre, is approximately $400 for free books and over $2000 for books sold for between $2 and $3.
We may infer from online reviews and discussion boards that Bookbub is becoming increasingly popular among writers and that book promotions do, in fact, increase sales above pre-promotion levels long after the promotion has ended. The advantages apply to all of the author’s books, not just the one being promoted. Additionally, authors have seen that an increase in book reviews occurs after promotions.
8. Write an enticing book blurb
A book blurb is a brief advertisement that is between 100 and 150 words long. Both print books’ back covers and online storefronts feature it. Write a smart introductory sentence that piques the reader’s interest and compels them to read further in order to create an effective blurb. Depending on the type of your book, follow it up with a hint about the plot and characters (for fiction) or the main idea (for nonfiction).
Use strong words like astonishing, incredible, mysterious, powerful, and life-altering. Your conclusion should captivate the reader. In fiction, you might highlight a turning point or crossroads in the plot; in nonfiction, you might mention who should read the book and why. Include any editorial reviews that your book has gotten in the blurb.
9. Use social media
Create a Twitter account and a Facebook author page. Take note of the posts and advertisements that receive the most likes, shares, and retweets, and use the information you learn to grow your social media audience and interact with them more effectively.
10. Learn from the most popular books in your genre — what helps them sell?
You can learn what works in your genre by analysing the titles, covers, and typography of other books. Make a short list of the inferences you prefer or find objectionable, and consider your justifications for each one. Studying the best texts has further advantages. You will come across terms and phrases that resonate with and characterise your target audience as you read their reviews.
You may aid your target audience in finding your book through their search queries by mentioning these in the metadata descriptions for your book. Keep an eye out for fair and informative evaluations as you move through this process; you can add the reviewers to your shortlist and ask them for a review once your book is finished.
11. Make the most of Amazon’s book promotional tools and programs
You should make use of Amazon’s impressive array of promotional tools and initiatives.
KDP Select: In order to sign up for this programme, you must grant Amazon 90 days of exclusive distribution rights to your ebook. You might make your book available for free or set up a countdown bargain for any five days during this time period because discounts are known to be quite successful in boosting visibility and sales. Additionally, any book sales you create through this programme will earn you 70% of Amazon’s highest royalty rate.
In addition, KDP Select will include your work to Kindle Unlimited, a service that helps users find and read books and compensates authors based on how many pages are actually read. If KDP Select works well for you, you can re-enroll into the program as many times as you want.
Amazon Author Central: You can have your own page on Amazon with your biography, pictures, videos, events, and information about each book you’ve written by creating an Author Central account. This page is linked from all of the Amazon sales sites for the books you sell. To increase traffic to your page, you can modify its content and even publish its URL on social media platforms and in email signatures.
Expanded Distribution Program: Through this programme, writers can make their print works available in the United States at a variety of online and brick-and-mortar booksellers, libraries, and academic institutions. If you enroll into this program, your book will be listed in the catalogs of distributors and can be ordered by sellers and libraries connected to the distributors’ ordering systems.
12. Sign up as an Author on Hypebunch
HypeBunch connects Authors, Creators, Talents, Freelancers and Readers around the world. It’s an inclusive platform for finding ideas, content, and people worth hyping! You can hype your favorite authors, readers, podcasts, reviewers, talents, creators, and so much more. It’s truly a free value add to the new authors.
Summary
For authors who work with a traditional publisher, strategizing about book marketing is not really important. The publisher will handle the promotion and distribution of the book, including scheduling editorial reviews, book launches and signings, a booth at a book fair, prominent newspaper features, and a presence in bookshops. Self-publishing authors, on the other hand, must resolve these issues on their own, seeking guidance and motivation from a variety of sources.
This piece does not aim to be a thorough guide to book promotion strategies. Its goal is to make you aware that at its foundation, marketing is just spreading the word about your book and making it accessible across as many channels as you can. You will discover a lot more strategies to sell your book and reach more readers as you start implementing the book marketing advice provided here. There will be a chain reaction. The important thing is to start. Happy advertising!