Once you have published your book, all you have to do is sit back and relax as you wait for readers to discover it, right?
Wrong! Nowadays, if you want your book to reach a wider audience, you just can’t hope that someone buys your book and tells everyone he knows that they must purchase it too. You also have to consistently market and promote online. This is because in this day and age, the internet plays a major role in book marketing and promoting. In fact, a poll created by Penguin Random House in 2016 showed that 69% of readers discover books through Goodreads, while 46% learn about them through Facebook and 37% through blog reviews.
While it may seem easy to post about your book on your social media accounts, book marketing is much more than that. As a matter of fact, you need an effective online marketing strategy to promote your books. If you have no idea where to start, here are some advice that can put your right on track:
Identify your audience and reach out to them
Take a moment to answer these questions:
- What kind of readers would read your book?
- Where do they go to find suggestions for books to read?
- Which communities would they be affiliated with?
Once you have done that, reach out to your target audience by joining the online communities you think they would also be a part of, and market your book to them. For instance, if you want to promote your YA novel, join Facebook groups, Discord communities, and forums that are centered around books that are similar to yours. You would surely find readers there that would be interested in your work.
Advertise on Facebook
Once you have identified your target audience, you can create targeted ads for your social media sites, particularly Facebook. Organize a giveaway or a contest to get excellent audience engagement. You can also experiment with driving traffic directly to your webpage or Amazon. Just make sure that you understand the ROI you are getting and you are able to track everything so that you can check if you are actually making more money than you are spending.
Create a mailing list
Another marketing strategy you can do once you have identified your target audience and reached out to them is email marketing.
Create a mailing list by asking your audience who among them would be interested in receiving updates, discounts, and other details about your book in a digital format, and creating a database of their email addresses. Then, send them emails, ads, and other relevant information through MailChimp. This way, you could establish relationships with them and keep them engaged about your works.
If you are having difficulty attracting your audience to join your mailing list, consider hosting a free giveaway of your book or giving them a freebie when they sign up.
Tap influencers
Nothing can make a bigger impact on your book than established influencers endorsing it. Hit up online creators with book-ish contents, such as podcasters, book bloggers, BookTubers, and Bookstagrammers, with around 10,000 to 100,000 followers and ask them to promote your book. Just keep in mind that while some of them will be willing to endorse your book for free, there will also be others who would want a free copy of your book or payment in exchange for promotion.
You can find these influencers by searching specific topics on Instagram and Twitter or checking out the top post in specific hashtags. For example, if your book is about Greek or Roman mythology, search for hashtags related to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Give author interviews
Reach out to blogs and podcasts for interview opportunities. Present them with information about your book and let them know why their audience would be interested in you. If you can, you should also send them a free copy of your book and a press release describing what it is all about so that they can see if you’d be a good fit.
Start with smaller blogs (sites like Wired For Youth for nonfiction), where you’ll have an easier chance to land interviews and then use that momentum to score larger interviews on places like HuffPoand eventually even the New York Times.
Post snippets on writing platforms
Nowadays, plenty of readers turn to online writing platforms, such as Wattpad and Commaful, to discover stories. As a published author, you can make the most of these websites and apps for marketing and promotion. Post a few chapters or scenes from your book on them to build awareness about your work and establish an audience.
Final Thought
As an author, you write books to share your story to the world. In order to do this, you need to market and promote using the different marketing strategies mentioned above. Some of them may be out of your comfort zone, but remember that the harder the work you put in marketing and promotion, the more people you will reach and inspire with your work.
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