If you only write because you love it, then you don’t have to worry about marketing. But if you’re a self-publisher and want to be read by as many of your target audience as possible, you’ll have to learn the extra skill of how to sell your books. It would be helpful to be clear about your goals right from the start, because effective book marketing requires advance planning and effort.
For authors, marketing essentially involves reaching out to the target audience by telling more about themselves and their book. It really is as simple as communicating. But it takes work. In this article, we share 11 book promotion ideas that will improve your book’s visibility among your target audience and help you sell more books. Some suggestions, such as entering metadata, are inherent to the book publishing process and require no additional effort. Other marketing methods suggested here may not be necessary; but keep your goals in mind and be as disciplined with your book marketing plan as you are with writing.
1. Start your own blog or website. book marketing.
You can help potential readers find you before you even finish your book. Update your site with articles that will appear in the organic search results of your target audience. For example, if your book is about emotional well-being management, describe the latest scientific developments in this area and supplement them with ideas from your book. If your book is a work of fiction, you can browse the most popular books or memorable characters in that genre.
As you approach your launch date, you can create buzz around your book with contests and book giveaways. Post quality content that encourages your target audience to subscribe to updates. If your site is about a year ahead of your book’s release date, this will give you time to build a significant mailing list and improve your site’s rankings.
2. Increase your online presence to promote your book. book marketing.
There are several ways to increase your online presence. For example, you can post your articles on popular websites that get a lot of traffic, or participate in forums that discuss topics related to your book, or request websites or blogs that are popular with your target audience to submit you for an interview or a visit. message.
Be sure to include in your signature a link to your website and the books you have written or are currently writing.
3. Use social networks. book marketing.
Create a Facebook author page and Twitter account. See which posts and promotions are getting the most likes, shares, and retweets, and use the data to increase your social media following and engage with them better.
4. Learn from the most popular books in your genre – what helps them sell?
Studying their titles, cover designs, and typography will show you what works in your genre. Make a list of the ones you like or don’t like at all, and think about the reasons for each conclusion.
More benefits in studying the best books. As you read their reviews, you will come across words and phrases that are related to and characterize your target audience. By including them in your book’s metadata descriptions, you can help your target audience discover your book through their search queries.
As you go through this process, look for balanced and insightful feedback; you can add reviewers to your list and contact them for reviews when your book is ready.
5. Get reviews for your book. book marketing.
One of the fastest ways to get reviews for your new book is to reach out to the reviewers of any of your previous books with a free copy and a polite request.
If this is your first time writing, you can look at Amazon’s Top Reviewers and make a list of those who have reviewed books in your genre.
While Amazon does not support pre-order book reviews, if you have released a paperback version of your book and linked it to your unreleased eBook, any paperback published reviews will be copied to your eBook. This way, your book will be ready with social proof the same day it goes out.
You can also promote your preview book on the Goodread network of over 65 million members through special giveaways. Goodreads allows you to publish reviews of pre-release books. Please note that while Amazon owns Goodreads, reviews posted on one site cannot be transferred to another.
As a general rule, reach out to four times the number of reviews you are aiming for. Follow up at least once, preferably a week or two after your first letter.
You should also reach out to influential book bloggers, popular authors in your genre, and newspapers for editorial reviews. book marketing.
6. Write a captivating book summary.
A book advertisement is a short piece of advertising about 100-150 words. It appears on the back cover of printed books and online sales pages.
To write an effective ad, start with a smart opening line that piques the reader’s curiosity and keeps them reading. Then hint at your plot and characters (for fiction) or the main concept (for non-fiction) using compelling words such as amazing, incredible, mysterious, powerful, life-changing, depending on the genre of your book. The conclusion should grab your reader. With regard to fiction, you can imagine a crossroads or a turning point in history; for non-fiction, you can specify who should read the book and why. book marketing.
If your book has received any editorial reviews, add them to the abstract.
7. Buy professional cover design services.
Would anyone like to take another look at a book whose cover is overly busy, has harsh colors and type, or looks unpolished and unprofessional? A well-designed cover is critical to the sale of a book, and this is best achieved with professional cover design services.
8. Increase the number of distribution channels.
Amazon is the largest seller of digital and print books and owns two self-publishing service companies—Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for e-books and CreateSpace for print books. If you include Amazon KDP, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Kobo in your distribution plan, you’ll reach the channels that account for 97% of ebook sales. Smaller retailers account for a negligible share of sales, but they help build visibility.
If you don’t want to deal with individual companies, you can publish with an ebook aggregator like *Smashwords or Draft2Digital. E-book aggregators distribute books to multiple retailers and format the books according to the requirements of each. They also provide access to channels that authors cannot access directly, such as Scribd, a subscription digital library service used by 80 million people worldwide.
9. Make the most of Amazon’s book promotion tools and programs. book marketing.
Amazon has a huge selection of advertising tools and programs that you should find useful.
KDP Select: To enroll in this program, you must grant Amazon exclusive distribution rights to your eBook for a 90-day period. Discounts are known to be very effective in generating awareness and sales, and for any five days during this period, you can offer your book for free or get a countdown deal. What’s more, any book sales made through this program will earn you Amazon’s highest royalty rate of 70%.
KDP Select will also list your book in KDP Select, a subscription service that helps subscribers find and read books and pays authors based on the number of pages they read.
If KDP Select is right for you, you can re-enroll in the program as many times as you like.
Amazon Author Central: By setting up an Author Central account, you can have your own Amazon page with your biography, photos, videos, events, and details of each book you’ve published. This page is also attached to the sales pages of all the books you sell on Amazon. You can personalize the content of your page and even share its URL on your social media sites and email signatures to drive more traffic to your page.
Expanded Distribution Program: This program offers authors the opportunity to make their printed books available at a variety of online retailers, physical bookstores, libraries, and academic institutions in the United States.
10. Use book discount sites like Bookbub and Book Gorilla. book marketing.
Bookbub and Book Gorilla are book recommendation services where subscribers receive a daily email with recommendations for book genres or authors they are interested in. To be recommended, you will need to offer your book for free or with a minimum 50.% discount for a limited period.
While some services offer free book promotion, most are good.