Writing a book is never easy. Don’t let your efforts go to waste by not taking your promotions seriously. With the following tips, you can build up interest in your work and for yourself as an author.
Consequently, these tips can help drive sales and improve your reputation.
Table of Contents
1. Find your first readers in existing communities.
While completing your book, which related online communities do you go to?
Perhaps, if you’re writing a romance novel, you head to Facebook groups or online forums for chick-lit lovers. In case you’re a fan of a book or movie that has similar themes to your work, you might be into virtual fan groups as well.
Unless it goes against the rules of the online community, you might want to post about your work therein.
2. Develop and sustain your reader base by using mailing lists.
You shouldn’t completely rely on an author website and various social media pages. Many readers these days don’t want notifications all the time. Not everyone frequently visits their favorite authors’ sites and channels, and you don’t want to miss out on connecting with your readers because you aren’t doing any outreach.
With a mailing list, you can send emails occasionally. This way, your subscribers are less likely to miss out on big announcements like giveaways and discounts. You can also send them information about events like book launching and autograph signing.
Never underestimate the usefulness of email marketing. Even bestselling authors like Anne Rice and Danielle Steel send newsletters occasionally.
3. Seek the assistance of influencers.
Influencers are often accused as vain. However, there are those who focus more on the quality of their content. These ones also tend to value their reach and influence; they want to use it for worthy products, services, and ideas. These are the kinds of influencers you should look for.
You can find influencers on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The main factor you should consider is the demographics of the influencers’ reach. Such should cover the age and other aspects of your intended readers.
Expect that many influencers want payment in exchange for promoting your book. However, some of them are book lovers who are willing to do it for just a copy.
You don’t need to find pages, accounts or channels with more than a million followers and thousands of daily engagements.
If you like to market on Instagram, you might want to work with a bookstagrammer like @jordys.book.club.
If you prefer YouTube promotion, you can consider a booktuber such as readwithcindy, a channel with more than 200,000 subscribers.
4. Get close to your target readers through Facebook advertising.
Facebook ads are among the most sought-after digital marketing services out there. They’re relatively easy to use after all. Plus, you can only spend as little as $10 a week if you want. Or, you can also just post for free if you don’t have an advertising budget.
Instead of hiring a Facebook influencer, you’re going to advertise using your own page. Check out how romance author Kendall Ryan does it. She even offers free books as long as you sign up for her mailing list.
5. Shine on author interviews.
If ever you get interviewed for a popular website, magazine, or TV show, don’t hesitate to highlight that on your website and social media pages.
Gregory Maguire, the novelist behind The Wicked Years series, has a link to his interview with Oprah on his website.
Smaller, more niche sites are fantastic as well. Sites like Wired for Youth for nonfiction or Addicted To Romance for romance tend to be easier to get interviewed on and can still reach some great fans!
6. Help popularize the works of other writers and let them do the same thing with yours.
Treat your fellow writers as allies, not competition.
You can help each other, especially in promoting your works and establishing a good reputation.
You can do it like how romance author Amy E. Reichert praised Helena Hunting’s Good Luck Charm. Chris Tebbetts does it differently. On his website, you can find a list of his favorite books written by other authors.
7. Provide previews or snippets to further entice buyers.
If you’re on a book’s sales page on Amazon, you can find a Look Inside button on top of the photo of the book.
Clicking or tapping the button will show you portions that you can read for free. Many buyers are taking advantage of this feature so they can get a feel of the authors’ writing.
Aside from online bookstores, you can also see book previews and sample chapters on author websites. Authors send them as part of newsletters, too.
The Twilight Saga author, Stephenie Meyer, tempted her readers by adding previews of her books on the last few pages of her other works. This has been a common practice for many authors who have written multiple books..
If you still don’t have a significant reader base, you might want to tap online platforms that allow you to post and read snippets for free. For YA, romance, and fantasy novels, Wattpad serves as a great platform. Multi-awarded Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood is into this practice.
Commaful is also an emerging competition of Wattpad. The former’s user base is less than that of the latter as it is still quite new. However, that can be an advantage. If you can make notable multimedia stories, you can have a better chance of standing out on the budding reading-and-writing platform.
Conclusion
The right marketing strategies can help your book gets its well-deserved attention and acclaim.
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The cool thing with influencers Hayley is that the more you help these pros with zero expectations the bonds become more powerful. Influential blogging buddies then promote you, your eBooks and whatever you have to offer based on their trust of you and your skills. Anthony promotes me tirelessly; I help him freely too. We promote each other’s success based on simple blog comments, retweets, FB Shares, etc….the simplest way to sell an eBook is to market other skilled authors who market your read as an act of trust, generosity and bonding. Works like a charm.
Ryan
Great points, Ryan. It’s all about building relationships, and when you help each other promote one another’s content, everyone thrives. You build that level of trust, and you give freely to help others.