Book sales are on the rise!
In 2017, NPD Bookscan reported that over 687 million printed books were sold.
With so many books being published and sold, you are going to need to be creative for your book to get the attention it deserves. However, promoting a book requires strategic planning.
If you have been searching for tips to promote your book, here are twenty suggestions you will find helpful.
1. Give Away Review Copies
If you want people to talk about your book you need to let them see it. One of the best tactics for building an audience is to give away review copies. There are several publications that will review your book for free or at a cost to you. The more notable publications will charge you a fee but it is usually well worth it.
2. Seek Out Book Tubers
There are YouTube channels that review books. Just type “book tubers” into the YouTube search bar and you will find several such channels. Some of these booktubers have thousands of followers and get thousands of views for their videos. Contact a booktuber in your genre and ask them if they are willing to feature your book.
3. Engage Your Friends And Family
Once you have published your book give copies to your friends and family and have them do reviews for you on sites like Amazon and Goodreads. This will jumpstart your book in these arenas and get people talking about it.
4. Pin It
Pinterest has an ever-growing population, and most of them are women. If you have written a book that will appeal to women, then one of the best places to kick-start your book promotion is on Pinterest. You can even promote your pins to get further exposure.
5. Take Out An Ad in The Newspaper
With the influx of technology, you may be one of those people who feel that newspaper ads are no longer effective. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newspaper ads are just as effective as they always were and if you can take out a full page or even a quarter page ad in the paper to promote your book, then do it.
6. Use Facebook Ads To Promote Your Book
Several authors have been having tremendous success by using Facebook ads to promote their books. The reason why Facebook advertising is one of the best book marketing strategies is because you can get a target audience based on your specific criteria.
7. Get Yourself On The Radio
Radio stations will always be interested in new authors. Write a publicity letter to a radio station and mention interesting bits of your book to see if you can spark their interest. If you do, you are likely to get on the air.
8. Give Away Books To Bookstores And Book Clubs
Giving away your book for free to the owner of your local bookstore or book club is a great way to gain momentum and get people talking about your book.
9. Giveaways
Give your books to people who host giveaways. Go to radio stations, magazines and book clubs, see if any of them would be interested in running a competition with your book as a prize. If you have a children’s book, consider giving away your book to schools so that they can use it at their prize giving functions.
10. Start A Newsletter
This is one publicity gimmick that will work if you put it in place way ahead of your book’s launch. On your website you can encourage people to sign up for a newsletter and then use it to promote your book.
11. Review Other Books
Get attention in subtle ways by reviewing similar books to yours on Amazon. Make sure that you identify yourself as an author and tell the name of the book you have written when you leave reviews.
12. Create A Youtube Ad
Does your book have a trailer? If not, then make one, put the video on YouTube and use it as an ad. YouTube will allow you to advertise your trailer to a relevant audience for a cost.
13. Comment On Videos
In addition to featuring your trailer on YouTube, an effective way to gain attention is to comment on book review videos. If you see a video about a book that is in your genre, read the book and then make a comment on the video. People will see your comment, click on your profile and check out your channel.
14. Create A Webpage For Your Book
Even if you have a website, you should create a web page specifically for your book. Drive traffic to it with your ads on Facebook and YouTube.
15. Give Free Downloads
Do promotions that give away the first few chapters of your book for free. If you give away the right chapters, you can effectively hook your readers and get them to buy the rest of the book. If your book is a series this is even better because you can give away the first book and hook readers into buying the second book in the series.
16. Use Someone Else’s Email List
There are several book advertisement sites that have email lists for themselves. These lists target book buyers. Contact them and see if they will send your book out to their list.
17. Write Blog Posts
The secret of a good promotional blog post is to sell without making it obvious. Write a blog post on your website about the material in your book and reference your book as a source. This tactic works especially well if your book is non-fiction.
18. Guest Post
Don’t just write blog posts for your site. Find blogs that will let you write articles for them and reference your book. In that way you can drive traffic from other sites to your book.
19. Podcasts
Radio talk shows are not the only on-air promotions that you can do. Try reaching out to people who do podcasts and see if they would be interested in interviewing you, especially if your book is geared towards their audience.
20. Direct Mailing
Get the word out about your book via good old-fashioned mailing and print marketing. Buy a mailing list from a reputable company that targets the right demographic and you are on your way to gaining an audience by mailing them promotional flyers or postcards.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to promote your book is a must if you want it to be successful. However, you should be prepared to use several different strategies if you want to get maximum exposure.
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