10 Marketing Strategies to Promote Your Book

Writing is certainly a rewarding experience whether it is your passion or profession. But, only writing does not make you a writer, popularity does. So, writing is not enough. If you want to build a strong and supportive reader base who will pick your book as soon as it is released or probably wait for your next book, you need to do something extra. When it is true that building a reader base is a time-taking process, a clever and steady marketing can reduce the wait time as much as by half. In fact, some authors have had overnight success and worldwide attention by running a proper promotion. I know, some people hate attention, but it is not the short-lived media attention, but the readers’ interest that makes it so desirable.

Content is king, you also have to spend some time giving this king a proper coronation. It is the same process everywhere. When you publicly launch your book, you let people know that you have written a book. And this is significant.

Marketing is probably the most challenging part of publishing a book (after writing of course). Marketing decides the fate of your book to a great extent by influencing the reader’s decision whether or not one reads it. Even when you deliver your best work at the peak of your career, you need to promote it. Even your one book can be more popular than others because it is well-promoted. Romeo and Juliet is more popular than Troilus and Cressida although both come from Shakespearean canon and both have love and destruction as some of their major themes.

Let’s look at 10 Ways to Promote Your Book

  1. Go Public: This is the first and foremost rule on your way to popularity. Find out some time to share your thoughts and idea with your friends and relatives. Like charity, publicity also begins at home. No, this does not necessarily mean that you always have to be surrounded with your friends and community. You need to scoop out some time for them, maybe a morning tea session or a gathering in the evening or a holiday over the weekend, and read a chapter from your book, After all, publishing means sharing.
  2. Start a blog: A blog is considered to be a virtual diary. It gives you an opportunity for idle musing. It allows freewheeling. But, beyond that, it does some marketing favours as well. Being a blogger adds to your reputation as a writer. Moreover, if you are a blogger, you have some recurring traffic on your site already.
  3. Social Network: In the digital world, a person without a Facebook account is rare. Writers usually prefer to live like a recluse but the virtual society is not immediately demanding and useful for network building and content sharing. In fact, they are the best place to promote your upcoming work. One uniquely great thing about social media is that they give you an opportunity for slow and steady brand building. So, if you have a book under processing, you can engage your readers from the very beginning.
  4. Goodreads: By definition, “Goodreads is a social cataloging website that allows individuals to freely search its database of books, annotations, and reviews.” On the Goodreads platform, people can write blurbs (a promotional piece praising a book) and rate books they have read. So, it is a wonderful forum to promote your work and get people to talk about it. You can do it yourself or ask your publisher. Some online self publishing companies like Exceller Books offer Goodreads page setup and blurb writing as part of a marketing service.
  5. Book Posters: This is a conventional method and can make your book sell like hot cakes. Just post it on your social accounts. It is important to get your readers used to your book cover and poster. Psychologically, a lot of sales do take place on eye connection.
  6. Book as Business Card: Use your book as a business card with new as well as old contacts. Psychologically speaking, it generates positive sentiments and that helps to create an engaging reader base. You may as well want to follow them up asking whether or not they have read the book. Remember, you have to work your readers’ way to your book. That’s it. The content will take care of the rest.
  7. Interview: It does not need any introduction. Before the digital world took us over, this used to be the most impactful way of introducing newcomers and presenting accomplished professionals to the common crowd. It gives you a wonderful opportunity to touch upon different subjects related to your book, your experience that motivated the book. This helps you build credential for your brand as an author.
  8. Critic Review: This is self-explanatory. Get a critic or editor evaluate your book and put those reviews inside the book or on the rear cover, wherever you please. This is an effective process as it gives your readers a much-needed overview of your book as soon as it is released. If it is persuasive, it can make people buy the book.
  9. Press Release: Ideally, it is an official statement about the release of your book. You can always add variation to ginger it up like Publishing a detailed article focusing on the major USP of your book. For an offline press release, think about some eye-catching headlines.
  10. Book Launch Event: This one might sound expensive but a brilliant marketing formula in reaching out to the target audience and has been around for ages. Give your book a grand launching, invite the media, build your crowd and spill your beans. Most commercial publishers can arrange a book launch event for you. So, if you get one working with you, just ask them.

So, the bottom line is: Content makes authors great and marketing makes great author popular.

117 thoughts on “10 Marketing Strategies to Promote Your Book

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  2. Kevin Hobbins

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  3. Mcglory

    I do agree with all of the ideas you have presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work.Thanks for the post.

    Reply
    1. Anjita Ganguly Post author

      Thanks for your appreciation. You can share our articles on your blog with proper acknowledgement.

      Reply
  4. Agware

    I learn some great stuff here that I didn’t know before. Thank you for such a nice and informative article!!

    Reply

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