How to Market Your Book
When people think of time-consuming careers, they might envision people working in the medical field. Initially, people likely don’t think self-publishing authors have a very time-consuming career. However, authors who self-publish have a lot on their plate—not only do they have to finish a book, they also need to find ways to successfully market it.
We, at AlphaGraphics in Logan, Utah, have gathered 10 essential tips for self-publishers to effectively market their products. If you’ve considered
self-publishing your work, but marketing sounds intimidating to you, these tips will prove to be very beneficial for you.
1. Understand Your Audience
When it comes to
marketing your masterpiece, you must know who your audience is through demographics and psychographics. In other words, you should try to get your audience on a deeper level than just knowing their age and gender.
What are your audience’s interests, hobbies, passions and jobs? Once you answer that, you can cater more appropriately to your audience’s desires.
2. Identify Your Market
Researching the market for your book’s genre before officially marketing it can be useful, because you’ll get an idea of what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are.
Knowing if there is an existing market for your book can help you decide how to price and market it.
3. Find Your Category and Keywords
After identifying your target audience and market, you can find current bestsellers or other popular authors similar to you and use that to your advantage.
You need to compare your book to others like it and make sure to identify some keywords unique to your masterpiece to help it perform better, sales-wise.
4. Refine Your Product
Investing in professional editing for your piece will ensure a more pleasant experience for its readers. Although you may be decent at editing and would like to edit it yourself, professional editing can take your book to the next level.
Additionally, it’s wise to design a front cover that catches people’s eyes and attention. Your front cover must be striking because it’s often what establishes the reader’s first impression on your story.
5. Hook Your Readers with a Call-to-Action
Most written works include a description or blurb to give potential readers a taste of what the book encompasses and whether the stories within it will be a good fit for them or not.
It’s vital for your description to ‘hook’ them and grab their attention; oftentimes, a call-to-action can help attract readers’ interest.
6. Build Your Brand
Building your platform can increase your name recognition. Consequently, it’s highly important to create an author profile website including your professional bio and purpose for writing it.
Establishing your brand early on will benefit you in the long run; implementing a mailing list and providing consistent content for your followers on your social media channels can help build your brand.
7. Prepare Your Launch
Before your official launch, try to acquire as many positive reviews on your work as possible. Whether it be testimonials from other authors or experts on your subject, these reviews can cause members of their audience to gain interest in your piece.
Be active on social media and include a pre-order option for people to build up the perceived demand for your launch.
8. Prepare for Promotions
Promoting the book digitally is a major factor in how well it performs. Create a multi-tiered promotion strategy for it; perhaps, consider scheduling your promotions in advance.
Make sure to only give your work out for free to people who will promote it, otherwise you could be losing more than you’re gaining.
9. Identify Other Marketing Opportunities
You can market your creation in several ways, including utilizing media coverage, blog posts and social media influencers. Although, these opportunities require help from other outlets (I.E.: professionals), using them can increase your success more than you may initially anticipate.
The more exposure the better, even if it isn’t always positive. As long as people spread the word about your writing, it’ll raise your brand’s recognition, awareness and overall sales.
10. Cross-Promoting
Often, people may assume other authors who write similar books are enemies, but in all actuality, they aren’t. Similar authors can help promote your sales, because your work could become a reference of theirs.
Cross-promoting can help build your network and audience’s respect for you, and likewise, your respect for them.
We Can Help
We know we just overloaded you with information on how to market yourself, so if you have any questions or need advice, please reach out to us in Logan, Utah. Come into our office or call us today at
(435)-753-9598, and we will help you in any way we can.