Marketing Your Book in . . . many easy steps

Get out your calendars!

Though each book is different and each new app brings another option for selling the words I’ve struggled to produce, after selling more than thirty books, I know that if you don’t have a plan for marketing your book, it’s going to be difficult – if not impossible – to reach your potential readers. Here’s what I know for sure, as Oprah says. I know for sure that you have to start selling your book as early as possible, and you can’t let up for at least three-six months after it’s published.

Here are some ideas to get you started – but use your own imagination to reach your audience “where they live.” Think outside the box! One of the best marketing tools I’ve ever seen is for a book called I Love Men In Tasseled Loafers. The author, Debbie Karpowicz, had a candymaker create chocolate tasseled loafers and she brought those chocolates to a local, upscale bar for the launch party. She sold more books that night than some people sell for the life of a book!

AS SOON AS YOU KNOW when the book will be released (whether you’re self-publishing or have a traditional publisher doing some of the legwork):

• Figure out your target audience. If you’re writing a dating book, your audience probably hangs out on the Match.com site or Tinder. Know where your audience “lives” and brainstorm the ways to reach them.
• Start a mailing list. You might be saying you don’t have one. Yes, you do. What about everyone you’ve ever emailed? Your family? The people from high school and college? Your work friends? Create a list, whether it’s on a spreadsheet or in your email contacts, get it together.
• Evaluate your social media. Which social media sites are you currently using? Are they ones you’d be comfortable letting strangers see? If you’re currently posting drunk selfies, you won’t want to start with that site. Either clean up the sites you already run or start new ones. Don’t wait on this! A brand new Facebook site is the kiss of death. You want to start now.
• Think about a video blog – or better yet, learn how to do it. (This is the perfect time for “lessons.”)
• Create your author platform. This not only means your social media but also tying all that to your subject matter. Think about reaching out to other people in your arena, join clubs and groups, add new friends to your mailing list.
• Check out writers’ groups, as well as publishing organizations, like the Alliance for Independent Authors, PEN America, Authors Guild, National Writers Union. They often offer free advice to members.
• Create your book cover, if you’re self-publishing. Save several sizes. You will use this often!
• Build your plan to reach your audience through a broad advertising campaign. Check out Book Bub ads, Goodreads ads and blogs, Amazon ads and author page, other blogs and publications.
• Prepare your author website for launch. There are many professionals who’ll build one for you, or you can reach out to other authors and see if there’s a free way you can do one yourself.
• Gather the names of bloggers, conferences (writers and others that might pertain to your subject), reviewers, and groups that will be interested in your subject matter. Research them and create a list for each so you can refer to them later.
• Decide on an excerpt from the book that leaves the reader wondering what’s coming next and create a PDF file that you can share on your website. A teaser, if you will.
• Troll Amazon and Goodreads (and other book review sites) and gather names of their top reviewers in your genre. Create a list to refer to when you need reviews.
• Research awards, as well as book festivals and fairs. Send letters to libraries, telling them about your upcoming book and asking to be added to an upcoming event.

SIX MONTHS before launch

• Build your “author street team.” They could be friends, fellow writers, or family. Ask them specifically to help you with the process of birthing your book. I had a group of women who helped me with postcards (I made pizza and wine for them), another group hosted me as I traveled across country via Amtrak to promote the book, and still another had me in their homes or connected me with book clubs. Ask for help. You’ll get it!
• Connect your book promotion to national events. Write a book about dogs? Post blurbs about it when the Westminster Dog Show is running. Romance novel? Valentine’s Day – or a big celebrity’s wedding. Use your imagination.
• Start setting up book signings with local bookstores or gift shops, plan parties for the launch or with book clubs. Yes, it’s important to start this early. I had my launch party in a funky art gallery that owned a disco ball, invited all my high school friends and danced to our favorite music. Bookstores like hosting local writers, and they set up their events months before. The sooner you get to them, the better.
• Decide what kind of ad campaign you can afford and start setting it up.
• Link all your social media contacts to your mailing list.
• Create author profiles on Goodreads, Facebook, BookBub, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.
• Post your book cover and the book’s description wherever you can. Nail 5-7 target key words that describe it and your audience.
• Create your book trailer. You can hire someone to do this, which will give you a professional trailer you can easily share, or you can do it yourself on your cell phone.
• Start gathering blurbs from writers you know or from experts in the field.
• Check Café Press for themed merchandise you can sell on your website.
• Create images and ads to start dropping into your social media to promote your book. Book banners are always useful and can be quite striking. You can get free images on a number of websites, and you can also create the banners yourself on Adobe.

THREE MONTHS until launch

• Draft more friends to help you spread the word – either by visiting their local libraries, bookstores, and book clubs or by posting on their social media.
• Print some business cards you can easily pass out to interested people. If you print on both sides, you can often get a lot of info on that little card.
• Post your book excerpts and add a special “gift” for everyone who clicks. It might be a music list or some recipes from the book. Think creatively.
• Create some “swag” to give away to readers, reviewers, and bookstores. Bookmarks are always nice, but you might get a bit more imaginative. I used postcards for invitations to bookstore events, and people told me that they were so pretty, they posted them on refrigerators or bulletin boards. Magnets of the book’s cover are great, too, because people tend to keep them.
• Distribute free copies of the book (preferably e-book versions) to your list of reviewers.
• Write your elevator pitch (if you haven’t already done so).
• Send press releases to all local press and to any blogs that are interested in your subject matter (from the list you accumulated earlier).
• Post your cover and blurb on popular blogs (from your earlier list).
• Create pre-launch specials on Amazon, BookBub, NetGalley, etc.
• Inform your social media friends of your launch date.
• Post pics about the book on Instagram and Pinterest. Celebrate every little moment!

A MONTH BEFORE

• Send second press release to all the local press and blogs you reached during the 3-month period. Remind them of launch date and that you’re available for interviews.
• Post review links to your website and social media. Every time you get a review, blast it!
• Ask for more reviews from friends, family, other writers, teachers, students, anyone you meet.
• Create and send a newsletter to everyone on your mailing list. Post your event calendar to the newsletter. Make it something that offers them some enjoyment.
• Mail your invitations for the launch party, as well as the book signings. Post those events on your website and create event invitations for each one. Invite everyone you know and ask them to share it on their social media, as well.
• Post pre-order sales on all social media.
• Check with the bloggers you sent press releases to. Offer them copies of the book, as well as some swag.
• Create a short list of the topics interviewers can ask you about.
• Post to BuzzFeed.

LAUNCH and THREE MONTHS+ AFTER

• Write daily posts on your social media. Post pics whenever you meet with a group – or even just one person. Tag the people in your posts and use hashtags on them, as well.
• Create a book giveaway on social media and respond to everyone who shares/likes your page or enters your contests.
• Check out price promotions for the international market.
• Email those who have bought the book or posted about it, thank them – better yet, write them a handwritten note.
• Partner with other authors to run promotions. If you’re with a publisher, find some authors in your area in the country. If you’re self-publishing, check out other writers who are doing the same and get together with them.
• Run a Google Ads campaign (or Facebook, or other large social media site).
• Offer to guest blog on your topic. Write to those bloggers you’ve already listed.
• Invite readers and writers to house parties – and ask your friends or local dignitaries to host them for you.
• Visit the bookstores where you’ve already scheduled signings, as well as any you pass in your travels. Smile, tell them about your book, have something to leave with them.
• Continue to stretch your social media net to include Facebook Live, TwitChat, SnapChat, YouTube, Reddit, Quota. Post on those sites.
• Connect with more book clubs.
• Write essays on your topic for local newspapers, magazines, bloggers.
• Regularly refresh your metadata. Find someone to do it for you or to teach you, if you’re not familiar with the process.
• Start writing the next book!

BEST OF LUCK!