by Ali Shaw, Executive Editor

Image courtesy of Unsplash

What can I do to market my upcoming book?

I receive this question a lot. Book marketing can have countless approaches, and I think the idea of reaching out to a dedicated book publicity firm—knowing that they often charge in the realm of $10,000+—can feel scary.

No wonder so many authors want to do DIY marketing!

But then, that means figuring out a whole new element in the publishing world. And if you’ve already gone through learning the ins and outs of editing, design, printing, and distribution, well, it’s understandable if you’re feeling overwhelmed by now.

The foundational concept of marketing is that customers need to cross paths with a product or service at least seven times before they’ll commit to it. Seven! You probably thought it was three, huh? (I did too.)

So then, how do we let people know about your book seven times without it becoming an annoying repetition?

By having various approaches.

I’ll reiterate again that there are countless approaches to book marketing, but here are some common paths that can help get you moving in the right direction:

Book Review Campaign
Sending advance reader copies (ARCs) of your book out to reviewers is a great way to build buzz about your book. Kirkus Reviews are generally the easiest to apply for, though they do require a fee for most submissions. A seasoned book publicist can also do a full-scale review campaign for you, targeting book industry publications and even other industry platforms that relate to the topic of your book. If you do a book review campaign, though, start early! At least nine months before your book will be released. A year is even better.

How it links to the Rule of Seven: Booksellers and librarians read reviews, so this gets you on their radar, and then they make displays and recommend books to their customers. Depending on how much they love your book, this could count as two to five exposures for readers listening to these booksellers and librarians.

Newsletter Marketing
Maybe you’ve got friends and family who are already excited about your book. Maybe you’ve got a larger community of readers that you’ve been building up over the years and they want to hear updates about your book. Or maybe you’ve got a huge online platform and want to be sure your book events are popping up in your followers’ email inboxes. Any of these are great!

A regular newsletter can keep your fans up on all your news, and it also provides a free and easy way for interested potential readers to get some info on you and your book.

How it links to the Rule of Seven: Every newsletter you send out is an exposure just when they see it in their inbox. Then when they click and read more, especially if they click through your newsletter to look at something else—say, a free chapter—that adds another two or three exposures. Give them something of value—a downloadable phone background featuring your main characters, for example—and every time they see that, they’ll think of you and your book. That’s way more than seven exposures!

Award Submissions
There are so many book award programs out there! Undoubtedly there are some categories for your type of book. Go ahead and submit your book to some of them. If you are a finalist or a winner, you will be shared in their newsletters, you’ll have something very exciting to share in your newsletter, and you’ll get to put the award in all of your metadata for online sales plus a shiny sticker on your cover for in-person sales. Some awards even have their judges write feedback to entrants, which can be interesting to see how they evaluate your work and might give you tips you’ll find helpful on your next book.

How it links to the Rule of Seven: Award lists are yet another way that booksellers and librarians keep up with book news. Those booksellers will help your readers be exposed to your book.

Keep Writing
There’s an adage that the best way to sell a book is to publish a second book. It’s true! For every book or related product you launch, you can include “Author of ____” in your byline, share more info in your newsletter, add that “Winner of _____ Award” to your bios, and so on.

Plus, nearly every writer will tell you that a certain level of anxiety sets in when they release their book into the world and wait with bated breath for people to read it and say something about it. It’s not healthy to obsessively refresh your Goodreads page. Trust me. So put that anxious energy to work and start writing your next book.

Get Creative
The more creative you are—as long as it’s authentic and doesn’t feel too gimmicky—the more your readers will want to attend your events, follow you on social media, and hopefully buy your book! So think outside the box.

Most author events these days have two or more authors on the stage interviewing each other. Could you do that? Or they incorporate an interactive healing ritual into the reading for a book about grief. Or they make coasters for the bar that’s featured in the book. So many possibilities. Have fun with it!

What have you done to promote your book that was especially creative and surprisingly successful? We’d love to hear!

And if you want some help coming up with book marketing ideas and a plan for executing them, you know where to find us.

Happy marketing!
–Ali


Ali Shaw scours front-of-bookstore displays, looks up award winners, and writes book proposals for fun. When she’s not editing, producing audiobooks, teaching Entrepreneurship in Publishing, or, you know, reading, she’s probably playing with her dogs, planning epic road trips with her family, or gardening.