Following these tried-and-true book promotion tactics will have a much higher chance of attaining the results you desire from your book if you have this thorough understanding of nonfiction book marketing in place.
1. Set Up Your Author Website
You are prepared to put up your author website once you have your book cover, summary, and author photo. Your website should explain to visitors why they should read your book and why you are the best person to respond to their inquiry or deal with their issue, just like all other aspects of book promotion.
2. Contact Media, Bloggers & Influencers
There is no better approach to promote your book than to have the appropriate people talk about it. They don’t need to be well-known. Simply ensure that they are well-known to your intended audience. We provide spreadsheets and templates as part of our free Scribe marketing training to assist you with choosing the media sources that will best suit your book.
3. Use Your Social Media Presence
It’s acceptable that not every Author has a social media presence. Don’t create a presence only for your book if you don’t already have one.
Social media is NOT an essential component of an effective book marketing strategy because there are many other self-publishing promotional techniques that don’t rely on it.
But if you do have a presence on social media, make use of it. Include a link to your book in your bio on all of your social media sites. On your Facebook page, add it. Tweet about it.
4. Create an Eye-catching Cover
Wearing their “reader hat” when considering their own novel is one of the hardest things for authors to accomplish. A book requires a significant time and financial commitment. It’s only normal to think that your investment ought to be worthwhile on its own. But the harsh truth is that readers don’t give a damn.
Consider the most recent book you purchased. Did you purchase it to express your gratitude to the author for their work? Obviously not. Because of the benefits you anticipated, you purchased it. The reader’s expectations are established by the appropriate cover design.
PRO TIP: It’s never too late to create a great cover. If your book cover isn’t setting the right expectation, change it.
5. Create an Author Central Page
As soon as your book is listed on Amazon, take this action. You may manage your Amazon book listing page, your Amazon Author photo, your Author bio, and much more with an Author Central Page.
A means for readers to follow you on Amazon is also provided. It’s a very helpful marketing tool, and I’ve produced a tutorial that covers all the details of how to set up your Author Central Page properly.
6. Start a Blog or Podcast
These are put together because it is irrelevant which form of media you use. The key to maintaining engagement with your expanding contact list on your blog or podcast is to consistently provide fresh and interesting content.
You are NOT required to do this. Some authors lack the time necessary to create any form of blog or podcast. But if it’s something you’re interested in, this kind of regular content can:
- grow your reputation
- enhance your LinkedIn presence
- engage your email list
- give your site a higher ranking on Google (which drives more people to you)
- engage your Goodreads followers
- provide easy social media posts
7. Write a Great Description
The ideal place to convince potential readers that they should read your book is in its description. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of the book’s description is not to describe the book itself, to demonstrate to the reader the benefits of reading your book.
8. Create a Goodreads Author Page
You can create a Goodreads Author page before to or following the publication of your book on Amazon. A Goodreads Author page is not required for every published author, but it does provide you access to more fantastic resources, such as a widget that allows you to embed the Goodreads reviews of your book right on your website.
It features paid advertising possibilities as well as giveaways, and it encourages readers to recommend your book to one another for some free word-of-mouth promotion.
9. Write Guest Posts and Articles
Offer to create articles or guest posts for those same media influencers’ and bloggers’ websites as a means to engage with them. In contrast to traditional print publication, exceptional material may be shared indefinitely on virtual platforms. Their viewers will be interested in you if your article is interesting to them.
10. Take a Great Author Photo
Your book’s positioning is addressed in both the cover and description. Author branding is reflected in your author photo. Your image must present you as the ideal candidate to respond to the reader’s query or address their issue.
11. Write HypeBunch Articles
If you’re on Hypebunch, you probably have a decent number of followers. You should tell all of them about your book by adding your book on your profile, giving out announcements, and cross-posting on other books.
Start by adding your book on your Hypebunch profile, and launch a book chat forum.
12. Gather Blurbs for Your Book
Book blurbs are statements made about you or your book by reputable sources that your target audience already respects. This idea is essential. You should have targeted a very specific audience with your book.
Your blurbs must come from sources that your target audience knows and trusts. Blurbs are not required. You shouldn’t include blurbs at all if you don’t have the kind that will truly help you sell your book.
13. Use Your Email List
This has to do with gaining reviews on Amazon, but it also serves as a promotion in and of itself. You ought to promote your book to everyone you know. You’re misinterpreting it if it seems like bragging or showing off.
You penned your book to assist readers in finding a solution. If it genuinely does that, then recommending your book to others is like giving them a fix for their issue. The foundation of the world’s most effective marketing strategies is this concept. Telling individuals how you can help them is OK.
Telling people about your book isn’t really about you. It’s about your potential readers and what your book can do for them.
14. Use Book Promotion Sites
Finally, we tested the top paid and free ebook promotion services to find which ones generate the best results for nonfiction books if you’re wanting to increase book sales at a certain period or for a specific purpose. Avoid wasting your time and money on websites that are ineffective.
You can promote your book on social media sites like Hypebunch, an author-created focused social media platform.
15. Gather Book Reviews on Amazon
Reviews on Amazon benefit your book in two ways:
- inform people that the book is worthwhile
- inform Amazon’s algorithm that the book is worthwhile to suggest.
Even if your book is brand-new and has a professional-looking cover and description on Amazon, some customers will be put off by a listing with no reviews. Discounting your book on the day of release and requesting reviews from your own contact list are the simplest ways to correct that. In the first week following the release of your book, you should aim for 20 or so.
16. Add the Book to Your Email Footer
Include it in your automatic email signature for one of the easiest and most effective ways you can as an author to market your book. Every day, the average person sends dozens of emails.
That amounts to thousands of free impressions over the course of a year from individuals who are already interested in you and have some relationship to you.
17. Go on Podcasts
Compared to more traditional news sources like newspapers or television, podcasts are more interested in “evergreen” material. The majority of podcasts are more interested in general knowledge that their listeners will always find relevant, unlike TV morning shows, which tend to focus on what is happening right now.
Because of this, podcast hosts find book authors to be quite intriguing. Most of the time, they have something to say that transcends this media cycle. something of importance to people.