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How to market your self-published book
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Marketing your self-published book doesn’t have to be difficult – Green Hill Publishing can help you develop and implement your strategy. We offer a variety of services to help authors get their books out in the world and into the hands of readers. To be able to promote and sell your book, Green Hill provides guidance on how to engage in marketing successfully and can offer marketing advice and assistance at an hourly rate.
1. What is book marketing?
Book marketing is the process of promoting a book to potential readers and increasing your book’s visibility within the book market. This can include many different tactics which will be touched on below, such as, creating a successful social media presence, reaching out to book bloggers and book reviewers on different platforms, using paid advertising, collaborating with authors and reading groups or book clubs, and more.
The goal of book marketing is to generate interest in your book, attract new readers, and increase sales. It is an ongoing process which requires creativity, persistence, and a deep understanding of both your book and the target audience, as well as your book’s place within the market. Additionally, self-marketing efforts would work best in conjunction with book publicity, which is a focused effort to help generate reporting and coverage of your book via the media.
2. Who is the target audience for my book?
Determining who the target audience for your book is an important and vital step in the marketing process. A target audience is a group of people who are most likely to be interested in your book and will more than likely purchase it.
Consider the following points when determining your target audience:
- Genre: Who is most likely to read your genre of book?
- Theme: What themes does your book touch on?
- Setting: Where does your book take place?
- Character: Who are your main characters and what are they like?
- Audience demographic: Understand and consider the age, gender, income level, education and occupation of your target audience.
- Interests: What are your target audience’s interests?
3. Strategies for marketing my self-published book
Self-marketing is not an easy job by any means. You must put in the work if you want your book to succeed. Remember: marketing of any kind is a long-term job, and it takes time, effort and consistency, but it will pay off in the end if you do it right.
3.1 Establish an author platform
The first key component of marketing your book is ensuring that you have an author platform to use as your ground-zero. Building an author platform means that you need to develop a strong online presence to help connect with readers and build a fanbase which will be loyal to you and your book or books.
3.2 Self-marketing strategies
There are also many marketing strategies that can you can use to promote your book in a specific way that works for your author platform, author brand, and book type.
Some of these include:
- Social Media: Use online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest to connect with potential readers and promote your book. Engage with readers and authors to determine your place in the market.
- Online distribution/bookstores: Make sure your book is listed on online retailers such as Amazon, Book Depository and Booktopia.
- Advanced reader copies (ARCs): Give away copies of your book in exchange for honest reviews. This can help boost visibility on online retailers, as well as other online platforms such as social media and online blogs. It not only does this, but can also generate a buzz on your book and attract new readers.
- Blogging and guest blogging: Reach out to online bloggers, social media influencers and website owners who do work related to your book. Ask if you can write a guest post or review of your book on their website. There is the chance they may say no, but this is good way to reach a wider audience which you may not get the chance to do in the future.
- Book clubs and reading groups: Contact book clubs and reading groups in your local area to see whether they would be interested in hosting an author talk, or if they’d be interested in featuring your book as one of their monthly reads.
- Readings and book events: Attend events and conventions in your local area to connect with readers and authors. This helps to expand your audience.
- Book launch: Planning a book launch is a great way to make sales and get the local community around a new author. This can include a launch party, book signing, book reading and an online launch.
- Author networking: Attend writing conferences, workshops and festivals to expand your network and connect with likeminded authors and readers. There often publishers and literary agents in attendance, too!
- Email marketing: Build a list of email contacts who are interested in your book and send them updates and exclusive content.
- Create a website or blog: Promote your book and gain readership by having your own website to drive traffic back to.
- Reviews: Encourage your readers to leave reviews of your book on online retailers’ websites, social media and review platforms such as Goodreads.
- Podcasts: Reach out to book podcasters to see if they would be interested in talking about your book.
- Use paid advertising: Pay for paid adverts on a variety of different online settings, such as Facebook and Instagram. You can narrow down audience and demographics to target the right people.
- Influencer Marketing: Partner with well known book influencers to promote your book.
- Publicity: Consider reaching out to journalists, newspapers and magazines to secure coverage for your book.
- Consider hiring a marketing expert: Sometimes you just need a little extra help. Look for marketers that specialise in helping authors gain readership. Green Hill offers book marketing services at an hourly rate.
Developing a well-rounded marketing strategy that combines at least a couple of these tactics is a good idea. It is also important to be consistent and to research your target audience. The more you know about your target audience, the more you can tailor your marketing efforts to make sure you reach the right people.
The most important thing is to keep your readers engaged. Keep in touch with them through a website, social media and email lists to keep them up to date on your writing and any new projects or opportunities you are working on.
4. What does successful book marketing look like?
Successful book marketing is one that generates interest and sales for your book in an effective manner. Your marketing should have a strong and consistent message which can be determined easily—it must effectively communicate the value and unique selling points of the book.
Successful book marketing has measurable results. This means that clear goals and objectives should be set to measure the results of the marketing (this also makes it easier to track).
Ultimately, successful book marketing is dependant on the individual book, the target audience, and resources used in the marketing campaign. As well as this, the author must be willing to consistently work on the marketing. It is essential for both the author (and/or the marketing team) to have a clear understanding of the book market, the genre of the book and the target audience, and adapt their marketing strategy appropriately.
5. What is a good book review and how does it help with marketing?
A good book review is an honest and well-expressed analysis of a book that provides prospective readers and a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of a book. Some key elements of a good book review are:
- Reviewer objectivity: A good book review should be unbiased and provide a critique of a book with no prior influence. Sometimes reviewers add personal opinions on the book’s readability also.
- A good analysis: A good book review should include an in-depth analysis of the book, including structure, themes, characters, writing style, strengths and weaknesses.
- Provides clarity: A good book review should be clear and concise. It should be written well and easy to understand for the average person. Reviewers should also steer away from using jargon or complex language—it should be accessible for all.
- Goes into specifics: A good book review should provide specific examples from the book to support the analysis. This helps readers understand how the book was perceived by the reviewer.
- Provides context: A good reviewer should be able to place a book in a specific genre and compare it to other books of the same genre.
- Has a personal touch: A reviewer should also be able to share their own perspective, but not in a way that sways the opinion of the reader. It will provide the reader insight into how the book affected them.
- Doesn’t include spoilers: Reviewers should not give away any spoilers or reveal vital parts of the book’s plot.
- Comes from a credible source: A good reviewer should have knowledge of the book’s genre and a history of reviewing in your genre. A credible reviewer will have a history of offering extensive reviews and usually do so on more than one platform e.g. Goodreads, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Book reviews assist in marketing your book as they provide potential readers an overall idea of what they can expect in a book, which gives the reader a chance to decide if this is something they are interested in. Not only do they do this, but they also give an independent assessment of the quality of a book, often shortcutting lead times and encouraging people to pick up a copy.
Positive book reviews also provide word-of-mouth advertising, as most readers, reviewers or book bloggers will share their thoughts with their friends, family and followers. In addition to this, a good number of positive reviews can help books become more visible on online retailer websites such as Amazon, Booktopia and Book Depository (as well as others) which can lead to increased sales.
6. Connect with Green Hill Publishing
Marketing does not happen overnight—it takes time, effort and consistency. However, it can be easy once you wrap your head around the wants and needs for your book!
Don’t know where to start on your marketing journey? Green Hill can help you! Contact us to organise a discussion about your book and what we can do to help marketing-wise. Don’t forget to enquire with us to claim your copy of The Little Book of Big Marketing Tips and give yourself a head-start into the book marketing world!
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The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.
