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7 Things Creators Should Know About Marketing Their Book
Writing a book is a gargantuan task, and reaching the finish line is a feat equal to summiting a mountain.
Getting the “It’s a great book, you did it!” email from my publisher was a high I hope I’ll never forget. I thought all the hard work was over after that. What a sucker I was.
Book marketing felt completely overwhelming to me (which I’m embarrassed to say as a professional marketer). And there are endless book marketing strategies and click-bait articles on how to become a New York Times bestseller.
And there’s a lot on the line: good book marketing attracts readers, leads to book sales, and more books down the line.
What I wanted more than anything during my book marketing process was an honest, thorough conversation with another author on how to market a book. And that‘s what I’m sharing with you today.
5 Helpful Book Marketing Tools
7 Tips for Marketing Your Book
How I Marketed My Book
My book, How to Be a Digital Nomad, was published by Kogan Page in January 2024. I was eyebrows-deep in my book marketing plan when my publisher let me know that they’d be funding a 12-week publicity campaign.
The campaign, run by The Book Publicist, got me in BBC, Reader‘s Digest, and Forbes, among other print and digital publications. Book promotion services are incredible assets, but they’re not in every budget and they’re still only one piece of the puzzle.
Before you spend money on professional marketing services, you’ll need to wrap your head around the basics of book marketing strategy.
These are the steps I took to market my book on my own, plus some bonus advice if you’re considering a professional campaign.
Step 1: I budgeted lots of time.
Magazines are planned a season in advance. Some podcasts are booked nine months out. Articles can take months to rank on Google.
Marketing and publicity take time. This means that your first step in marketing your book is beginning early enough to have your marketing efforts come to fruition at your release date.
You can promote your book for weeks, months, and years after it‘s released, but marketing is most important during its release.
This is what generally qualifies you for best-seller lists, and these numbers are also used by bookstores when they’re deciding what to stock on the shelves.
Here’s the book marketing schedule I used for myself:
- Marketing research: Began August 2023
- Marketing plan development: Began September 2023
- Plan execution: October 2023 – February 2024
- Release: January 2024
I’ll share a word of warning for your late-game marketing efforts in a minute.
Step 2: I got publicity training.
Publicity is similar to normal marketing, but they’re cousins (not twins). Marketing is the act of getting your name and message out there.
Publicity has the same end goal but does so by leveraging respected …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
