10 Tips On How To Market Your First Book
Congratulations – your book is published! Did you know, however, that getting published is just the tip of the iceberg? In this day and age, just writing a story is not enough. You have to market your book. Because at the end of the day, you are not only an author but also an entrepreneur. And entrepreneurs need to know how to get their product to the right audience! This blog is going to take you through 10 marketing tips that you can follow to ensure your book gets the exposure it deserves.
Why do you need to market your book?
You might wonder why you need to think about marketing your book. Surely, unless you’re self-publishing, that is something your publisher needs to look into? Well, not really. At any given time, publishers are looking at two to three book releases a month. Chances are, you have to take care of book marketing yourself. Even though it has been proven that content is king, engagement is still the queen. And unless there is a way to market the said content, chances are that your book might not enjoy the limelight it actually deserves!
1. Brand Building
Human beings, by rule, are invested in people. Who you are as a person, your beliefs, your opinions: all contribute towards curating an audience for yourself. One of the reasons bloggers and influencers, and even celebrities, with a steady reader/fan base, sell more books than others is because they had already spent years building their brand. You would have to start building your brand as well ahead of time for the release of your first book! Also, remember how we talked about being an entrepreneur? Well, we need to ensure that your book can be adapted into a film or web series. And people know the kind of content they should expect from you if you write series and subsequent books – it all depends on the brain that you build from the get-go.
2. Email Marketing
Newsletters are one of the best ways to be in touch with your potential readers. It definitely helps to know who your subscribers are. For example, if they are aspiring authors such as yourself, writing tips would be what they are looking for. Hence, chances are people would be more interested to subscribe to them if you offer relevant information. The practical value offered via these emails will pique their interest, and they will also remember you. You can always send out email blasts to your newsletter subscribers about your upcoming books as well.
3. Social Media Marketing
We live in a digital age. Social media can be leveraged for book marketing. Your content needs to be interesting and fresh. If you have a story about star-crossed lovers, it is a good idea to talk about books and movies that have similar themes. Social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, each have their unique offering when it comes to marketing your book.
- If you have written a business book, LinkedIn would be the perfect place to promote your book.
- For Instagram and Twitter, using appropriate hashtags will bring your book the visibility it needs. Engaging with other authors (especially from your genre), and liking and commenting on their posts and tweets would most likely put you on the map. Talking to authors who are prominent figures in the genre of your book also helps with your visibility.
- On Facebook, creating an Author Page works. Sharing content related to books, writing, blogs, etc. gives people a sense of what they might be signing up for. It is also a great place to share eventual book reviews. We should bring to your notice here that you can run ads on Facebook and Instagram, and promote your posts as well.
- Finally, creating Pins relevant to your book and linking them back to your website will create visibility for both you and your books. Social media marketing, we believe, has a lot to offer when it comes to promoting your books.
5. Book Reviewers
One of the best ways to create buzz for your book is by ensuring that there are reviews from credible sources. There are publications (both online and offline) and individual reviewers with popular book blogs/e-zines that you can approach. It is a good idea to collate a list of them before your book hits the market. You can always offer them an advance review copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review that would be shared on their blog, on GoodReads, and on Amazon. Chances are regular visitors on their site would come to know of the book and the sales of your book might pick up.
If you have the budget for it, also consider doing an influencer campaign for you book as well.
6. Author Interviews
Additionally, you can always ask the reviewers to host interviews of you on the site as well. Some reviewers also have podcasts and YouTube (often dubbed as BookTube) channels. You can request to appear for an author interview. The intention is to be more public because if people see you on their feed, or listen to you, your recall is higher. The top of the mine is equal to the tip of the tongue. They will be more inclined to check out your work and eventually, purchase a copy of your book!
7. Author Website
We spoke about brand building, we spoke about social media marketing as well as interviews and reviews – but there has to be a place that your readers can turn to in case they want to know even more about you. So, where should they go? An author website, even if it’s a simple one-page affair, gives your curious readers exactly that. Ensure that your author website has a little bit of information about you, links to your work (even if it’s articles written for other publications), and a way to contact you via email or your social media handles. An author’s website gives you more credibility.
8. Leverage offers on bookseller sites
Bookselling sites like Amazon, especially their Kindle Direct Publishing platform, have a host of offers that you can leverage. Enrolling your e-book in their KDP Select Program is one. Of course, they come with their terms and conditions, and you have to abide by their rules. You could also consider putting your book up for FREE for the first 24 hours of the launch on Amazon. It would help with pushing the book towards the bestsellers list. Additionally, you can also look at offering a few pages as a sample.
9. Creating a buzz
There are many online and offline book clubs that you can turn to in order to create a unique book launch. If you come up with something truly offbeat, you would get more people talking about your book and push your sales more!
10. Make a checklist for book marketing
It is easy to get overwhelmed when realizing how much needs to be done to market your first book. Our advice is to make a checklist to keep a track of what has already been done and what needs to be done.
Remember, you have a wonderful story to tell the world. We understand that it is pretty overwhelming to market your first book. But if you play your cards right, you just might make it easier for future book releases!
