Authors constantly ask me for tips to market their books successfully. I refer them to my blog’s 4300+ posts and alert them that they can of course, hire me to consult with them and/or execute a marketing plan for them. Today, I offer 21 suggestions on what an author can do to market themselves with great results. These are just the tip of the iceberg, but good luck in getting started!
1. When building or revising your website, make sure that it is easy to navigate, and includes in the tool bar these core things:
Home
Books
--summary of each book
--excerpts from each
book
--how to buy each book
About |Me
Blog
Testimonials/Reviews
Media
--list of media
appearances
--links to past media
placements
--press kit
Newsletter
Speaking
--where you have spoken/will
be speaking
--speakers kit
--video of you speaking
Contact
--social media accounts
--contact info
Your site should have a video of yourself and it should contain a free download in exchange for the visitor’s email and name.
2. Be on several social media platforms. On Facebook, join dozens of groups. Same with LinkedIn. Post to those groups twice a month. Connect with each group’s administrator.
3. If you are on Instagram, take advantage of Instagram Reels. If you are on Twitter, contact the followers of a competing author.
4. Set up pages on Amazon Author Central, Net Galley, GoodReads, and other online book sites.
5. Join writer associations based on your genre, location, or other characteristics, such as race, gender, or religion. For instance, if you live near Los Angeles, join the California Writers Club (state), Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (local), Catholic Literary Arts (faith), Romance Writers of America (genre), International Society of Latino Authors (ethnicity), and Women’s fiction Writers Association (gender and genre). There are general ones, like PEN, IBPA, Authors Guild, and National Writers Union to consider as well.
6. MeetUp is a good place to find your readers. Go to meetup.com and find existing events near you – or create one – and just show up. Want to meet people who like poetry? Go to meetup.com and tell everyone to meet at a specific location, at a set time and date, and watch people show up.
7. Contact local news media outlets and seek out individuals who may want to interview you, review your book, or feature you in a story. Make a list of all nearby media outlets: TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers. Then, determine which people at each outlet to contact. For instance, at newspapers, you may contact a book editor, features editor, local editors, and the editor of a section that covers your book’s subject matter. If it’s a TV station, look at the different talk and news shows that are throughout the day and week. Find the producer contact for each show. Same with your nearby radio station. Then, pitch them an idea that involves your book.
8. Cross-promote your book with other authors. Ask them to review your book on Amazon and to post about it on their social media. You do the same for them.
9. Get professional reviews, even if you have to buy them. On the high end is Kirkus Reviews and on the lower-cost part of the spectrum is Blue Ink Reviews.
10. Choose your Amazon promotion if you are enrolled in Amazon KDP Select.
11. Join the Amazon Affiliate program.
12. Seek out local bookstores for a book signing and author presentation. Once you do a gig, ask the store if they can refer you to other stores or places that hold author appearances. Get a testimonial from the person who helped set your book talk up. Share it on social media, your website, your speaker’s kit, your press kit, and in your communications with other venues and groups.
13. Create a Q & A (12-15 questions and answers) for your website. This allows you to share information as if being interviewed by the news media.
14. Create cool graphics for your site. See BookBrush and PicMonkey for help.
15. If you don’t have a blog or a podcast, create a digital newsletter. Will you send it out quarterly, monthly, or every other month? How long will it be? What will go in it? You decide.
16. Try some paid promotion sites, including BookRebel.com, BargainBooksy.com, MyBookCave.com, eReaderNewsToday.com, and BookBub.com.
17. Post an excerpt from your book on Wattpad, a social network for authors and read with tens of millions of users.
18. Give free copies of your book to Amazon reviewers with a “Top Reviewer” badge who have reviewed books that are similar to yours.
19. Partner with relevant organizations locally, from a PTA to a church – or a business, non-profit, or government agency.
20. Run a Google Adwords campaign, using targeted keywords that others would use to look up content like yours.
21.
Write and syndicate a press release about your
book. Use free services to distribute your release, such as: EIN PressWire,
PRLog, NewswireToday, PRFree, PR.com, OnlinePRMedia, IssueWire, and OpenPR.
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Please Contact Me For Book
PR Help
Brian Feinblum,
the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story,
sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in
successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your
advocate, teacher, and motivator!
Read
This!
Top 24 Book Marketing Blog Posts of the
Year
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/top-24-book-marketing-blogs-of-year.html
Great Book Marketing Podcast Interview
With Book PR Pro Brian Feinblum
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/great-book-marketing-podcast-interview.html
Brian Feinblum should
be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue
dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s The Independent. This award-winning blog has generated
over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was
named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of
the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a
"best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the
head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at
two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published,
authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities
such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine
Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren
Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry
Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America,
and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers
Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers
Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His
letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester)
and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The
Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information,
please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.
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