Congratulations! You’ve published a book or are in the process of publishing your book, or are thinking about publishing a book. No matter the stage, whether you’re just dreaming or are finally assigning that ISBN, it’s never too late to devise a marketing plan for your book.
And for many writers, this is the difficult part, whereas for myself, with 8 years of marketing experience under my belt, I drafted up my marketing plan before my book.
So good job on coming here to read this, because those who publish a book know that they have to wear many hats to further their writing career. Not only are you researching marketing tactics for authors but also, how to do your own accounting, administrative work, design, and much more. Writing a book was the easy part for you, and you’re already forgetting the painful editing phase and multiple moments of writer’s block. But now, you require a marketing strategy to sell your book. And thankfully, there are multiple branches of marketing you can venture into that best suits your genre and budget like these:
1. Social Media Marketing (Paid & Non-Paid)
2. Digital Paid Ads
3. Influencer Marketing
4. Public Relations
5. Search Engine Optimization
6. Email Marketing
7. B2B Marketing
Of course, you don’t have to engage in every marketing medium listed to promote your book. Authors starting off will sometimes choose to spend their budget on one branch because it will yield the highest conversion because of the latest book trends, IE: TikTok Influencers promoting the YA High Fantasy on BookTok.
In the end, you need to select what works for your book, time, and budget, because it’s all you who will be doing it. Better to do 1 strategy well than 7 badly.
Social Media Marketing (Paid & Non-Paid)
Social Media is one of the most popular forms of marketing that almost all businesses activate. The platforms permit you to post your bio, links, and content for your audience to gain easier access to you and your products. Social media facilitates the spread of information that would activate other forms of marketing, such as promoting your blog and acquiring emails for your newsletters. It can be the hub of your marketing, and also the hub of your community since you can provide a certain level of customer service to your readers, like when your next book will be released.
All this marketing is non-paid. Though no money is required, you still need loads of time and skill to create content for your platforms.
And all forms of content will be different depending on the platform you select: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok.
Create an account for each and scroll through them to get a sense of where your messaging would best fit. Search popular hashtags like #amreading to see how people talk about books. Not only should you search other authors' accounts but readers as well, connect with their aesthetic if you’re a fan of it.
By doing this you’ll narrow down what type of content you wish to create IE: Reels on Instagram that show illustrations of your characters (readers LOVE this one, especially if you pick the right reel song).
Again this is all non-paid, and what I mean by this, is it’s not an advertisement on the platform. It will still cost you to buy props, ring lights, time, outfits, and more to simply post about your book.
But if you have the budget, and decide to boost (put money behind a specific post to promote it to a new audience that is not already following you) then you’ll be activating paid social media marketing. There are multiple social media ads that you can do using Facebook Ad Manager such as launching a basic carousel campaign on Facebook or Instagram feed or in stories.
If you have an e-commerce website, then you can do shopping or retargeting Facebook ads which can be very effective.
How long you want the campaign to run or how much money you want to invest is up to you, start small and see the results. Ask yourself if you are gaining more followers, more users are going to your website, do you have an increase in book sales.
What’s important when running social media ads is to establish yourself as a brand, you have a good amount of content on your platform already, you have a few reviews of your book, and your website, if you have one, is easy to navigate through. All this will increase the confidence of a potential reader to buy your book should they come across your platform, whether it be paid or organic.
Digital Paid Ads
I separated this section because there are other types of ads that you can launch for your brand and book. And what’s great about digital paid ads, is that you don’t need a website to activate them. You can launch ads on many platforms, wherever your book might be listed, like Amazon or Goodreads.
One great type of digital paid ad would be to run Google Search Ads which you can link to the site where your book is listed. These ads pop up at the top of Google searches.
There are also Shopping and Display Google Ads that you can run (would work best if you have a website). These types of ads follow the user, appearing on other sites after they've visited yours. You will need to create images for the display ads which is great if you want to increase your brand awareness.
Influencer Marketing
In my opinion, influencer marketing is essential for getting your book out there for all to hear. The main form of highly effective marketing for authors is word-of-mouth (WOM) which in this day in age can be called Digital WOM.
A dream would be a post of your book going viral and bookstagram readers begin to buy it to see what all the fuss is about, then they post a review about it, furthering its popularity.
That’s Digital WOM.
It ties into organic Social Media Marketing. But there is always the possibility of hiring influencers to post about your book, where they can leave a review on their own social platforms or review sites like Amazon and Goodreads. This strategy can boost your platform’s engagement as these influencers typically have an audience starting at 5000 followers that they actively engage with regularly.
You can partner up with other authors and an influencer to organize a mass giveaway, creating a ripple effect throughout all of your platforms and giving away a free book with other merchandise like bookmarks.
So how do you find these wonderful influencers? You can Google search them and see if there are lists or check out the influencers that other authors are engaging with. It can be tedious to scroll through lists of followers or comments but it’ll be worth it when you find influencers who will champion your book and maybe even become a loyal fan.
Public Relations
Public Relations is often seen as an upscale and lavish form of marketing, which in my opinion, it is. For the author who has signed with a large publisher, you may be assigned a publicist to set up a book tour for book readings and signings, reach out to the press for you, or set up interviews. If you’re self-published or have been signed with a small press, nothing is stopping you from reaching out to a PR agency, specialized in media or publishing. The cost for a publicist can be extravagant, but they can implement forms of marketing that are out of your (and most authors’) reach.
Another method of PR is to register for book fairs and conventions. Having a table where you can display your book and other merchandise can help spread the word of your story by connecting one-on-one with your readers. These types of events open the doors to many other opportunities. You can build relationships with other authors and even distributors so you can expand your sales channels.
Public relations provides a unique source of personal promotion that may bypass the noise of the digital world.
Search Engine Optimization
This strategy is only possible if you have a website. Search Engine Optimization aids in your Google ranking when users search for you, your book, or any keyword relating to your business.
Keywords are short phrases that pertain to the information or product available on your website such as New Young Adult Book. Of course, a phrase like that has been used by many other sites which would make it difficult to monopolize so it’s important for you to do your research on which keywords to use when inputting them into product descriptions and blog posts.
There are multiple sites you can use to use the right keywords like Word Tracker.
Another method to boost your SEO is to ask your sponsored influencers to write a blog post review of your book on their own site. When other sites use your name, book title, and an embedded link to your site, Google will push you further up on the search results.
What’s interesting about SEO is that you’ll be paying for your website and influencers already, so it’s important to be mindful and implement this tactic while you're activating others.
This is a very basic introduction to SEO strategy. You can always check out videos online to learn more and become an expert. If you can monopolize keywords, then you won’t need Google Search Ads if your site is already at the top of the search page.
Email Marketing
It's hard to believe that email marketing is still one of the highest revenue-generating marketing mediums, but it is. Readers who subscribe to your newsletter are letting you know that they are loyal to you and your products, so once you acquire their email, you have a pool of potential revenue to tap into.
Email marketing messaging isn’t cluttered by other ads competing for your reader’s attention. It’s a one-on-one interaction, where you have ample room to communicate multiple messages. There are plenty of email platforms available that can connect with your e-commerce platform, like Mailchimp or Salesforce. These email platforms enable you to design the emails, segment your subscriber list, and track their performance.
Emails with higher open rates have 2 or more blocks of messages with great imagery and concise yet standout copy. Add in strong calls-to-action to increase your click rate.
In one newsletter, you can mix your messaging by sharing news about a new book cover reveal, a new blog post, and your next book signing. Or, you can talk about one event in more depth and blast 2 other emails another time.
Be wary to not over blast emails to avoid aggravating your subscribers and having them unsubscribe. For any author owning a website, it’s crucial to hold a section where people who visit can sign up. This is the non-paid approach, but if you have a budget, you can launch an email acquisition campaign on social media or start an email referral program.
Even if you have a small subscriber list, use it, and stay in touch with your fans about what’s going on with you!
B2B Marketing
This type of marketing would be to expand your distribution channels. Publishing can be a daunting industry for debut authors because it requires you to do your own marketing and even some of the distribution. Much of business-to-business marketing would be cold-calling or cold-emailing stores and or distributors to carry your book.
Fortunately, if you have in place all the marketing platforms needed to communicate with them, it’ll streamline the selling process. You can compile an email list of book distributors and blast them with an unsolicited newsletter about your book and yourself.
Another method would be to combine marketing efforts by sending them over creatives of your book and asking your current distributors to post about your book in a social media post or their emails. After all, if they are selling your book, they should want to market it.
Regardless of the medium you choose for your marketing efforts, it’s trial and error, even if it doesn’t perform, you’ll still learn something about your readers, and what they like and are receptive to. Try one and see how it goes, and keep going, because even the best marketing requires a lot of repetition, just think about the repetitive YouTube ads of the same thing.
With all marketing, you need to be real and authentic, show your work and be honest about your journey and process. Your fans will appreciate it and remain loyal to you and your book.
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