How to Market Your Book

Congratulations on writing your book! You’re about to be a new author! Whether you’ve chosen a traditional publishing path or decided to self-publish, you will do most of the marketing yourself. YIKES – right?

Well don’t freak out, whether the book is still at the editor’s or already released now is the time to get your plan together!

BEFORE THE RELEASE:

BUILD YOUR PLATFORM: Every author needs a platform or home base of some kind. It needs to be a place where your readers can find out more about your book, sign up for your email list and see your book cover as soon as it’s ready. We recommend having a website so you can have full ownership of the site. Choosing Facebook or another social media feed leaves too much to chance as algorithms can change overnight and crush your plans.

live a life worth remembering linkedin banner

Author, Dr. John J. King knew he needed a website for his book, Life A Life Worth Remembering and his strategic consulting service. We supplied the artwork and our friends at Nashville Geek created the WordPress website for him and his book. His website provides the central information on his book, his consulting practice and his blog.

Here are some additional suggestions to get you started before your release.

Share your personal self-publishing journey on your social media feeds. This is a great time to talk about why you’re writing, share your cover and build interest to your book.
Know where the audience for your book is found and make sure you have a presence there before you release your book.
Grow your email list and use it to build a launch team for your book release.
Stop in at your local library and tell them about your upcoming book and offer to donate a copy when it’s released. Check to see if they have other opportunities for local authors.
Start networking with your audience and other authors in person, building relationship and opportunities to promote your book.
Do your homework and find podcasts or other opportunities to discuss your book and connect with them.

It’s essential to be creative and think outside the box when marketing a book.

FIRST 30 DAYS:

SOCIAL MEDIA: Keep posting regularly about your book. Choose your favorite quotes from your book and use Canva.com to create quote images for your feeds. If you’ve worked with us, use the mockups we created to post as well and if you need additional ones please ask.

BOOK REVIEWS: If you built an Advanced Reader Team ahead of time, check-in and remind them they can still review your book, it’s especially important in the first 30 days. Thank them for all their help. This is a great time to give them one of our book mockups and an Amazon link to your book and ASK them to share it on their social media.

PODCASTS: Use the marketing one sheet we provided to promote your book to podcasts that have relevant audiences. Make a cheat sheet for yourself by providing the questions and answers for the host. Offer this with the marketing sheet to make the host’s job easier.

LOCAL EVENTS: Take your marketing one sheet to your local library and bring them a copy of your book. Offer to do a book reading and make sure they know your book formats too.

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES: Become familiar with your local bookshops and inquire about having your book available to them. Research other big-name bookstores for information on adding your book to their local franchise and offer to do a book signing there.

INDUSTRY NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS: Reach out to any publications that might be interested in interviewing you about your book.

AUTHOR ACCOUNTS: Claim your Author Accounts on GoodReads, BookBub, Amazon Author pages—set up your profiles and consider ads and other available marketing options available.

NEW CATEGORIES: Add additional categories to your book on KDP—see video here.

AFFILIATE DOLLARS: Establish Affiliate Accounts on Bookshop.org, Amazon Affiliates—If you have a website, platform, and/or email list for your book, it is beneficial to establish affiliate accounts. Then every time you direct people to buy your book you can include the link that includes your affiliate information. When people buy using your link, you will receive an additional percent of money paid to you by the affiliate company for directing people to buy your book on their site.

AUTHOR GROUPS: Consider joining author groups for additional learning and information. My favorite is Alliance of Independent Authors.

ADD REVIEWS TO YOUR BOOK: If you receive some book endorsements after publishing, consider adding them to the first page of your book. The beauty of self-publishing is you can update your book at any time. Make sure you’re posting the endorsements on your Author page on Amazon too.

BOOK CONTESTS: Consider entering your book in a contest for additional publicity and validation. Make sure they are legitimate contests by reviewing this watchdog list.

Our author Charlotte Ekker Wiggins won an Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) in 2021 for A Beekeeper’s Diary: Self-Guide to Keeping Bees. Yes, self-published books can compete and win!

EVERY 3 MONTHS:

Review that your book’s keywords are still effective by doing a manual search on Amazon or Google to make sure your book still appears.
Review your book’s categories and make sure you are still competitive, if not update them —see video here.
If your book isn’t working in the category, shift the book to a new one that may be more competitive.
Look over your book reviews and see if any of them would work as a social post, don’t forget to keep sharing about your book on a regular basis.
Take a few moments to look over your book description on your sales page, this can be updated through your distribution accounts any time.

EVERY 6 MONTHS:

Review your author bio and photo and book listing on every retailer you can find, and make sure everything is correct and the price is right.
Review the book description. Update it to reflect any writing awards or bestseller performance.