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How to Market a Book: 12 Book Marketing Tactics You Need to Try!
Michael Adams
Promoting your book, especially as a self published author, can be a challenging task. However, with a proper plan, you can learn how to market a book and optimize your book promotion strategy.
In this article, we discuss how to market a self published book and take a look at the 12 best book marketing strategies you can add to your book marketing plan. Let’s get right into it then!
12 Best Ways to Market a Book
- Book Marketing 101: Connect With Your Readers
- Set up an Author Website
- Engage With Your Audience
- Set up a Social Media Presence
- Host Meet and Greets With Readers
- Launch a Monthly Newsletter
- Attend Book Events
- Work on an Audiobook
- Offer Snippets of Your Book on Your Website
- Partner up With Book Influencers
- Be a Thought Leader and Contribute to Conversations
- Offer Discounts
How to Market a Self Published Book
When you publish through a traditional publisher, the publisher handles all of the marketing of the book. This includes publicity campaigns, reader engagement, social media promotion, retail placement, and more. Publishers have a team of sales professionals, marketers, and editors dedicated to book marketing.
As a self published author, you are solely responsible for your book marketing. This may be overwhelming but it also allows you to directly build relationships with your readers and gives you the creative freedom to try marketing tactics that might not be feasible with a traditional publisher.
In the long run, a direct relationship with your readers and smart book marketing will help you build a readership. We dive deeper into some of the most effective book marketing strategies in the next section.
How to Market a Book: 12 Book Marketing Strategies
Book Marketing 101: Connect With Your Readers
What’s common between J.K. Rowling and Stephen King? Apart from the fact that they write killer books, their work has a strong connection with the reader. They understand who their book is intended for and how to connect with their readers.
The most important part of any marketing campaign or strategy is identifying your readers. You need to understand the kind of readers your book will likely appeal to and cater your marketing strategy to your ideal audience.
One way to achieve this is by creating content that appeals to your audience. Before you publish your book, contribute to blog posts, videos, or podcasts that would be helpful to your readers. This will help create value and interest in your opinion so the reader looks forward to your next project.
Set up an Author Website
The first thing we do when we hear of a book or author (or anything unfamiliar, for that matter) is search for it on Google. Similarly, your readers should be able to look you up and learn more about your work with a simple Google search. Therefore, you MUST have an author website. Consider it the first impression you will make on your readers.
Your author website serves as the central hub for all your marketing efforts. It should include information about you, your books (and where to buy them), a blog, and a way for readers to contact you. You can update it with information about your upcoming work, meet-and-greets, and more.
People these days have short time spans so make sure your website is visually appealing and easy to navigate. Here are key elements of an author website:
- About Page: Share your biography and writing journey.
- Book Listings: Showcase all your books with purchase links.
- Blog: Regularly update with posts related to your writing and industry news.
- Contact Form: Make it easy for readers to reach out to you.
Engage With Your Audience
There used to be a time when people could never interact with their favorite authors or artists. There was no surefire way to reach a famous person. For better or for worse, in the modern world, this gap has closed to some extent. Authors can now interact and engage with their readers.
Many would argue that building a relationship with readers is crucial. You can do this by responding to comments on your blog, answering questions on social media, and participating in discussions related to your book’s genre or themes.
This creates a conversation around your book, so potentially more people may become interested in buying it.
Set up a Social Media Presence
Social media is a free and powerful tool for reaching your audience. You can promote your book and build a loyal following through social media channels by creating valuable content and interacting with your readers.
The key to success in social media book marketing is choosing the right platforms. You want to pick platforms where your target readers are most active, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
For success on social media, it is important to post at the right frequency for each platform. For example, if your target audience is mostly active on Twitter, you would likely want to post multiple times a day, as the platform algorithm keeps the most recent news on top. For Instagram and Facebook, you want to focus on content quality and post less frequently.
Use visual aids like images and videos in your social media posts to make them more appealing. Add relevant hashtags to increase visibility.
Host Meet and Greets With Readers
Meet and greets, whether in-person or virtual, allow you to connect with your readers on a personal level. They get to see the person behind the books and meet others who enjoyed your work just as much. These events can help build a community around your work.
You will find that some of the most popular works of literature, like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, have a very strong sense of community. The fandoms have created a subculture for discussion and support of the franchise that keeps it relevant even years after publication.
When hosting a meet and greet with readers, make sure you plan everything in advance. Choose a venue or platform and promote the event well. Prepare a short talk for your readers, followed by a reading of your work and a Q&A session. Share highlights from the event on your social media and website.
Launch a Monthly Newsletter
This is not necessary for everyone and is best if you already have an audience you can create content for but a monthly newsletter is a great way to reach your readers.
It is a direct communication channel with your audience where you can update your audience about your latest news, upcoming releases, and special promotions on books.
Attend Book Events
Networking is important especially if you’re a self published author looking to make your mark in the literary industry. Book events, such as fairs, conventions, and signings, are excellent opportunities to promote your book and network with other authors and industry professionals.
Participate in book signings, sign up for panels, and make sure to bring many copies of your book, business cards, and promotional materials.
Work on an Audiobook
In recent years, audiobooks have gained massive popularity for allowing people to listen to their favorite books on the go. For this reason, creating an audiobook version of your book is a great way to reach a wider audience.
You can learn how to record an audiobook yourself, but if you don’t have experience and want to ensure good audio quality and experience for your listeners it’s best to hire an audiobook creation service.
BookQuill is a great example! We can help produce and publish your audiobook. To learn more about our audiobook production service call 1-833-587-7003.
Offer Snippets of Your Book on Your Website
What gets you interested in watching a movie? It’s the trailer! Why shouldn’t your book have one? You can tease potential readers by posting snippets of your book on your website.
Sharing the first chapter or selected excerpts will get people more interested in reading and buying the full version. Make sure you don’t give away too much of the story or any major spoilers.
Partner up With Book Influencers
Book influencers are essentially social media influencers who talk about books and all things literature on their platforms. Collaborating with book influencers can significantly boost your book’s visibility. Influencers have dedicated followers who trust their recommendations.
Choose influencers that are relevant to your book’s genre and target audience. You also want to look into their engagement rates, which essentially means how much engagement their posts and videos receive compared to their following.
Be a Thought Leader and Contribute to Conversations
People listen to individuals who have credibility and something important to say that might help them. Why would anybody listen to what you have to say if you don’t build credibility by establishing yourself?
It is important to position yourself as an expert in your genre or subject matter, especially if you are a non-fiction author. People should be interested in what you have to say about a topic, and one way to achieve this is by contributing to industry conversations.
You can establish yourself as a thought leader by writing articles for popular blogs and websites, a practice known as guest blogging. You can also share your insights and engage in discussions on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, or by participating in speaking engagements such as webinars, podcasts, and panels.
Offer Discounts
Who doesn’t like a good discount? Promotions and giveaways are always a great way to attract new readers and generate buzz for your book. You can offer limited-time discounts on your book to incentivize readers to buy your book.
Why Should You Choose BookQuill?
Marketing a book is no easy feat. From creating a strategy to measuring its performance and improving it along the way, there’s a lot that one must do to ensure a book’s success. Why not leave it to experts who can guarantee you results?
When it comes to marketing your book, partnering with professionals like BookQuill can make a huge difference. BookQuill offers comprehensive marketing services tailored to your specific needs, helping you reach a wider audience and maximize your book’s potential.
Sit back and let us plan your book marketing strategy! Call us now at 1-833-587-7003.
In Conclusion
Promoting a book successfully requires a mix of traditional and digital strategies to help you connect with your readers. Book marketing is more than a flashy advertisement calling for a purchase.
It is a planned and thoughtful approach to effectively engage with the target audience, garner trust, and build a successful author brand. These book promotion strategies will help you achieve just that.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a book marketing strategy?
A book marketing strategy includes digital and traditional marketing activities to get a book noticed by the target readers to sell more copies. It may range from digital marketing tactics to general strategies and usually includes specific goals, feasible methods for promotion, and defined roles for task execution.
What is the best way to market a book?
The best way to market a book is to connect with the readers and create credibility for yourself. You can achieve this by producing content, sharing expert insights, creating a author website, nd collaborating with book influencers.
