Book Marketing Guides
Here you will find resources to help you with book marketing. In addition to the advice on how to personally market your book, which follows below, we want to recommend Reedsy Book Publicists and Reedsy Book Marketers. They only accept the top 1% of publicist and marketer applicants, ensuring you are in good hands.
Reedsy Book Publicists & Marketing
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Blogging:
You should blog! Also, consider guest blogging. You can write for other people's blogs. The majority of blogs are a volunteer effort and many bloggers find it difficult to keep up with posting. To get around this many will allow a writer with a relevant topic to guest spot an article on their blog. This will of course get you a greater audience. Remember to include a small amount of bio and contact info at the end of your blog. Blogs that allow guest blogging: www.thebookbinge.com Lists of Book Blogs: Book Blogger List Book Marketers:
Email:
Let people know your book has been published! Whether by email or mail, send out a short message. Try and get them to let their mutual friends know as well. If you tell them on Facebook, it doesn't hurt to request that they share your post. An example message: Dear (blank), I'm just letting you know my book was published! The book is about (enter content). I'm trying to get the word out about it, and I decided to tell people I know. If you wouldn't mind, I'd love if you passed word on, but I understand if you are busy. In any case, I hope you check out my book. Signed (your name) (links) It is smart to send messages like this via social media, and be sure to ask them to share your link. One person with a dozen friends could potentially see their link posted hundreds of times. Your email signature is also a powerful marketing tool. If you are like most people, you send many emails and each recipient is a potential customer. Making an email signature, especially one with a link in it, provides these people with an easy way to examine your book. There are plenty of guides online on how to make an email signature for your service. It is a good idea to put links to your product and site, as well as your blog or author page. Forums:
These are gathering places for people with varying interests, and if their interests are your book, then it would be wise to post on them. Just remember to join the conversation and not lean too heavily on posting about your book. Useful forums: http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum http://www.nookboards.com/forum http://www.goodreads.com http://ebookgab.com http://www.mobileread.com http://www.writingforums.com/ Update your message board signature! Just like with email signatures, many message boards will also let you update a message board specific signature. Again the procedure and value of this is similar to making an email signature. Some sites like www.KBoards.com even let you post your book cover. Google Alerts:
There are conversations out there on the internet that are relevant to your areas of expertise and to your book. Find out where you need to be by using Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts. Google will then send you an email when a topic you have entered appears anywhere on the web. This service is also useful for catching people who are pirating your work or violating copyright. Handouts:
You can make business cards, bookmarks, and fliers. Remember to include some way for the readers to find your book, whether that is by putting a link on it or even a QR code. Leave some wherever people are gathered and it's always a good idea to bring this kind of marketing to a convention. Make sure to do a small test run with this marketing method before you go and spend any risky amount of money at Kinkos. Remember that this method of marketing is highly dependent on the cover art. HARO:
Sometimes a reporter has nothing to write about. That's why there is HARO (Help-A-Reporter-Online). You can sign up and give a reporter something to write about, namely your book. Other Authors:
Authors can be a serious help to each other. Find online author groups, whether online (Facebook also has these) or in the real world. Remember to help others out in turn, and share what has worked. There is also the opportunity for you to cross promote, and in a sense cross pollinate your fans. Potential ways to collaborate:
Other Titles:
Publish Multiple Works. Each book you have published out there is a recommendation to customers for your other books. Many distributors will link the works to your name or pseudonym, and ultimately indirectly to each other. People will come to know your author name or pseudonym as a brand, and they will follow it. So one answer to selling more books, is to write and publish more books. This doesn't just have to be with us obviously. More books by an author will contribute to the readership body and the cross marketing regardless of where they are published. These don't all have to be novels, a short story in circulation can accomplish the same effect. Advertise in your other titles. If you ever publish a short story, essay, or poem online or in print, see if you can’t take that opportunity to mention your novel somewhere within it. If you publish, put an advertisement in the back. This may seem like a small thing, but we have noticed a significant follow-up by readers. Let them know what other titles you have written. Make it easy to follow you. Once the reader has finished your book, if you have done well, they will want to know more about you and if you have other books. Be sure to put biographical and contact information in the back of any other titles you control, as well as a listing of other books you have published. Let people know where to find you on various websites and social media. Press Releases:
You should try to have your press release out on your release day, and tagged for your local area. We recommend Prlog.com. Press releases are a way to get your message to the media, and for the media to then pass on that word to the public. However, note that Prlog.com requires that your website of note have its own domain name. An easy way to acquire, and bind your domain to your site is via weebly (see Author Website). This is the format you should write your press release in: Headline: Should be written in all caps. Summarizes the press release. Subhead: Capitalize the first letter of each word. This provides a little more info than the header. Dateline: Next write out the City, State -- Date. Body: First tell the reader what the press release is about and why they should care. Then inform the reader of the details of the book, where it was published, and go into the plot. Give your author bio, and of course, gratuitous amounts of links to relevant content. Include contact information (no address). If you created an RPG book, Roleplayerschronicle.com is another good venue for press releases and announcements. Social Networks:
There are the obvious social media sites to take advantage of: Facebook and twitter. Set up a page on facebook, and get a twitter account. There are also book-focused social media sites as well though. Good Reads is a reader specific social network. Readers go there to make recommendations, join reading groups, rate their favorite books, and meet other readers. While this site is not as well known as Facebook, you can go there, meet potential customers, and encourage them to read your book. LibraryThing is a book discovery website with social features more than it is a social network. It allows you to catalog the works you have written and to find other novels that have similarities. It's just one more way to get your book in front of people. They have a quick introduction page here. Shelfari is owned by Amazon and is another social network directed specifically for readers. Just like Good Reads, it offers you access to a large number of people who are looking for new books. aNobii is an online community built by readers for readers allowing them to shelve, find and share books. Just because you are an author doesn't mean you can't get involved. The word “aNobii” comes from Anobium Punctatum, the Latin name for the most common bookworm. It integrates with twitter and Facebook. Promocave: This is a great new platform which is author oriented, and helps you find readers. It might be worth checking out. |
Reviews:
Children's Book Reviewers
YouTube:
YouTube can be used to show prospective fans a book trailer. You could show your book, talk about your book, or show images reminiscent of scenes in your book, the medium is basically as limitless as film. Now for the bad news. Our experience with book trailers has not been good, and our experience has shown that book trailers get few views and even less follow through. Our advise is that if you happen to have video making skills and feel confident about it, feel free to make one. However, if you don't, then save your money. |
