Book Marketing Suggestions

As an author, you know writing a brilliant book is only half the battle. It’s crucial to market your book effectively to reach your target audience and sell copies of your brilliant masterpiece. Nothing we do sells without quality marketing that builds over time. Author marketing is the key to increased sales and improved visibility.

There are many book promotion strategies available to you. It’s important to create a marketing campaign you can keep up with, as the best marketing for your first book and your last release is to write the next one.

Below you’ll find a list of suggestions that can be implemented by any author on their own or with their publisher’s help. Before moving forward on anything, if you are not a self-published author, check with your contact and your publishers to ensure your choices aren’t a violation of your contractual obligations.

• Book signings are great ways to connect with readers and promote your book in person. You can set up book signings at bookstores, libraries, conventions, or other public events. This is a common marketing approach for authors that can be arranged through straightforward means. Contact the event coordinator at the location you’d like to host the book signing and follow up as needed.
• Create a Short Vertical Video challenge inspired by your book. This could involve creating a dance, a lip sync, or a creative video that uses elements from your book. It can be shared on multiple platforms.
• Create a social media campaign designed to promote your book. This could involve creating a hashtag, running contests, or creating engaging content. It’s easy to combine this with the short video challenge.
• Create a video game based on your book. This could be a simple game, or it could be a more complex with multiple levels and characters. Even quick quizzes can be created through Canva and shared widely.
• Author email list building for email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with readers. You can send email newsletters with updates about your new releases, behind the scenes, glimpses into future work, and special offers. Author marketing is most effective when this is part of the marketing plan, as it is one of the most effective ways to build ongoing relationships with readers. It’s also one of the easiest to automate. We can help you do that inside our membership area, or search for email automation to learn how to set it up.
• Creating a podcast narrated by the characters in your book would be one of the more uncommon author marketing tools available. This podcast could be a fun way to introduce readers to the characters and the world of your book or books. It’ll be a lot of fun too!
• Public relations is a great way to get your book featured in the media. Think press releases and content marketing when you’re looking into this. You can pitch your book to journalists and bloggers for articles, reviews, and interviews. When opportunity permits, attend writing conferences and events to network with other authors and industry professionals.
• Create a board game based on your book. Various platforms can craft a game around your expectations and designs.
• Partnering with other businesses relevant to your book’s topic. This could include anything from doing a book giveaway with a local bookstore to collaborating on a product with a company that makes products related to your book’s topic. Additionally, some stores also have consignment options that can be leveraged for additional, unusual offline visibility.
• Creating a painting based on your book could become something to share and use as a giveaway or auction for readers.
• Create a sculpture based on your book and leverage it in a similar way as the painting.
• Creating jewelry based on your book is a unique gift you can provide to readers and reviewers.
• Create a line of merchandise inspired by your book is a lot of fun. This could include items such as t-shirts, mugs, or stickers and other options through numerous print on demand product platforms. Think book swag.
• Create a podcast that discusses your book and related topics. This could be a solo podcast, or you could interview readers interested in your book or authors in the same genre.
• Creating a chatbot that is based on your book. A chatbot could be programed to answer questions about your book, or be used to tell the story. It can be hosted on your author website, or used as part of your marketing campaign off site.
• Create a choose-your-own-adventure game based on the world of your book. This game could allow readers to make choices that affect the story, thus drawing them deeper into the world created by the pages of the book.
• Create a podcast that is narrated by the characters. This podcast would be a fun way to introduce readers to the characters and the universe within the pages of your story.
• Create a book review video contest by challenging readers of your book to create and submit video book reviews. This would be a good time to use a hashtag to link the videos to the contest.
  

Experiment with different strategies to identify what works best for you, your time, budget, and goals.

Keeping these additional points in mind while you’re designing your book marketing strategy will reduce a lot of the stress we often feel when we’re marketing.

• Start early. The sooner you start marketing your book, the more time you’ll have to build buzz and generate interest.
• Be consistent. It takes time to build a following, so it’s important to be consistent with book marketing efforts. This brand building effort needs to be sustained for best results.
• Be patient. It takes time to establish yourself as an author. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. As long as you stick with it, it’ll come together.
• Be yourself. The best way to connect with readers is to be yourself. Being authentic instead of sticking to trends makes the entire marketing process much easier.
• Have fun! Writing and publishing a book should be enjoyable, so make sure you’re having fun along the way. It’s the greatest job we could dive into, embrace it and enjoy it!