What’s Your Book Marketing Approach?

 

Authors know they need to market their books. There are many strategies one can follow to effectively brand themselves and sell more books. There are four big ways to approach book marketing, well, four, if you don’t include the answer: “hiding and doing nothing.” 

Here are the four major areas: 

·         Earning

·         Initiating

·         Paying

·         Trading 

1.      Examples of earned marketing may include: 

·         Getting the news media to review your book.

·         Convincing a bookstore to have you come speak.

·         Having an interview with a podcaster.

·         Placing an op-ed in a major publication or online media outlet.

·         Seeking a blogger who allows you to guest-post on their blog. 

The above each requires someone’s permission in order to get some exposure for your book. You must earn their approval, which requires you to be confident, persistent, assertive, lucky, a strong communicator, etc. 

2.      Initiating your own content: 

·         Create marketing materials: website, fliers, press kit, business card, etc.

·         Launch a blog

·         Have your own podcast

·         Publish a newsletter

·         Post on your social media platforms

·         Start a video channel 

These are things that you initiate, create, and do that require no one’s permission, cost nothing, and can help you get attention for your book. 

3.      Paying for exposure: 

·         Buy book reviews

·         Hire a book publicist

·         Pay to do a mass mailing or e-blast

·         Purchase advertising

·         Enter book awards for a fee 

These areas are things you can only do if you open up your wallet, but they often come with results. 

4.      Trading favors: 

·         Agree to write a book review for an author who will do the same for you.

·         You agree to post about someone on your social media if they do the same for you.

·         You volunteer to donate books somewhere in exchange for their promotion of your book.

·         You agree to do someone a favor in exchange for them doing one for you, like hand out fliers promoting your book. 

As you can see, these are four distinct, but connected ways to promote yourself. Which methods work for you? I guess, additionally, one can also lie, cheat, steal, beg, or borrow their way to champion their book, but I won’t advocate for such methods to be employed )except for begging). 

The key take-away here is that you have options. Explore them and experiment to see what produces results for you.

Need Book Marketing 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!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, 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 www.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, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, 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: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.