As a self-published author, you would have to spearhead the promotion of your book. You would have to come up with effective strategies that will help your book reach your target market. If you’ve already started promoting your book, yet you still have zero results, evaluate the strategies that you have used. Although the results don’t come in automatically, you’d know that something’s not right if your book still hasn’t gained even a bit of attention after months of promoting it.
Today, you will be learning a bunch of effective strategies that will up your game in book promotion. Here’s your cheat sheet for promoting your book:
Promote your book as early as possible.
You should not only start promoting your book once it’s published. You can start as early as when you are still working on your content. Let people know that you are working on something. Update them regularly about your progress. Let them in on your goals and deadlines. Most importantly, tell everyone when your book is going to be published, so that they can buy it as soon as it hits the shelves.
Create your author website.
In line with promoting your book early is gathering the right promotional tools to do so. One of these is your author website. Through your website, you can let people know you as an author and inform them about your book. On your website, you can create a blog where you post updates about your book. You can even build your email list by collecting the email addresses of those who subscribe to your newsletter. Also, once your book is published, you can use your website to sell it!
Basically, your website should contain the following:
- Author bio (with your picture)
- Contact information
- Book cover
- Book details: Title, ISBN, blurb/summary, available formats, price, and order information.
- Order page
- Readers’ reviews
Host a book launch party – online or offline.
If you have enough budget for it, host an actual book launch party where you’ll invite your family, friends, and other individuals who are interested in your book. Send out invitations to everyone you know and let them RSVP, so that you would know how many people will be accommodated during the launch. Plan this ahead to make sure that everything would go smoothly.
If you’re on a tight budget, however, you can host a book launch party online! Where? On social media, of course! Plenty of authors have hosted their book launch parties on popular social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. During your launch party, always be attentive and responsive to all incoming messages. If you’re hosting it on Twitter, make sure that you really interact with your audience. Post trivia questions, links, and whatnots.
Give away free copies of your book.
When you host a book launch party, an effective strategy to get people to participate is to hold a giveaway. Readers absolutely love freebies! You can even ask the recipients to leave a review in exchange for the free copy. Whether your book is in paperback format or in eBook format, giving it away for free would surely attract more people to join your launch party and potentially buy your book.
This strategy is best used during the first few weeks of your books release. However, when you notice a decline in your book sales after a few months, you can always do it again!
Get a Goodreads account and join the Author Program.
Sign up on Goodreads, add your book into their database, and join the Author Program by claiming your author profile. Once you have an author profile, you can easily recommend your book to thousands of readers and gather reviews from them. You can even join groups that are focused around your genre, add your book to the group book shelves, interact with readers and other authors, and many more. Goodreads is basically like a playground for authors like you!
Upload a preview of your book.
If you’re selling your book on Amazon, you can upload a preview of your book so that people would know what to expect before they buy it. This helps people decide whether or not your book is what they are looking for. You can also do this on Goodreads.
Be influential on various social media.
When you’re trying to promote your book online, you’ll find that social media can be your best friend. With just a few clicks and taps, you can promote your book thousands of people and reach your target audience. Once you have a huge follower count and continuously increasing engagement on your social media pages, you’ll be influential enough to convince plenty of people to buy your book.
Here are a few tips on using social media to promote your book:
- Facebook
Create your own author page and a fan page for your book. Use the ‘Boost Post’ button to make your posts more visible, reply to comments, always post high-quality content, and invest in Facebook ads. - Pinterest
Upload visuals on Pinterest to get people interested. You can even pin images from your blog to your Pinterest page, so that when users view it, they can click a link that would redirect them to your blog! - Twitter
The best way to keep your sales coming in is by interacting with readers from all parts of the globe. It has worked well for popular authors like J.K. Rowling and Paulo Coelho, so there is absolutely no reason for you not to use Twitter at all! - LinkedIn
Build your profile on LinkedIn. You will not only be seen as an industry professional by readers, but you may also meet other authors like you, and even publishers who may be willing to buy the rights to your book. If you’ve always dreamed of publishing traditionally, having a good reputation on LinkedIn might help you achieve that goal. - Instagram
Show readers how cool you are and how deserving your book is to be on their shelves by letting them in on your daily life through the square-cropped photos of your Instagram page. Have you seen John Green’s Instagram yet?
If you think about it, promoting your book is quite easy. However, it would definitely take time before it yields the desired results. Don’t stop promoting your book. Just keep it up and you’ll get closer to having a bestseller in your hands!
Jill Bennett a marketing specialist of LitFire Publishing, a company based in Atlanta, Georgia. For the past six years, she’s been working with several self-publishing authors in terms of book marketing, publicity and distribution.
