How to Best Prepare for Book Marketing by Guest @CaballoFrances
Are You Ready for Book Marketing? Take This Quiz
Book marketing involves so many steps. When people come to me, they erroneously think that all they need is social media marketing.
Au contraire.
Social media alone won’t cause your books to start flying off the proverbial bookshelf. So, take this quiz and see if you’re ready to tackle book marketing on your own.
Did You Write the Best Book You Possibly Could?
Yes, book marketing starts with your book. If you wrote a historical fiction novel, how well did you research it? Did you hire the absolute best editor you could afford plus a copyeditor? And did you attend writing workshops to hone your craft?
Who Created Your Book Cover?
It’s best if you don’t rely on Fiverr for your cover. And it’s best if you don’t use a photo you took. Subscribe to TheBookDesigner.com. Every month, Joel Friedlander, a book designer, judges submissions from writers.
By reading his reviews, you’ll learn a lot about good and bad covers, and you’ll glean names of good book designers. Or, you can ask Joel for a recommendation. That’s how I found mine.
Book Marketing Essential: Choose the Best Amazon Categories
You could upload your book to KDP if you’d like and select your own categories. Before doing that, I suggest you conduct some research.
Selecting your keywords and categories is critical to being found on Amazon. So, make your selections carefully. Here’s a post by Kindlepreneur with Dave Chesson on how to find the best categories: Secret Method to Choosing Amazon Book Categories in KDP.
Are You Planning on a Preorder?
Preorders are de rigueur these days. When you schedule a preorder for a month, you are building sales and then when your book is available to download, you’ll have a boatload of reviews.
All those reviews boost your book in Amazon’s search engine.
Can People Listen to Your Book?
These days, it’s important to publish your book in as many formats as possible. You want your readers to be able to read a paperback, download an ebook, listen to an audiobook, or enjoy a boxed set. I’ve had clients who have only had their books formatted into paperbacks. Guess what kind of book sales they had? Yep.
No amount of social media marketing can help an author who doesn’t take advantage of all the ways that consumers buy books these days.
Do You Have an Author Website?
Every author needs an author website. In fact, you need a website, and possibly a blog, before you even embark on social media marketing. A simple website would include these pages:
- home
- about
- contact
- and a page with a list of all of your books.
Do You Have a VIP List or a Street Team?
If you have a street team of ten people, you can sell a lot of books. Ten raving fans will post information about your books everywhere online. Imagine that they are super connected. I’m talking about 2,000 Facebook friends and 500 connections or more on LinkedIn, at least.
If you have ten super fans with 2,000 Facebook friends each, we’re talking about 20,000 people who will learn about your books. Whoa!
A VIP list works the same way. It doesn’t matter what you call it, just build it and the book sales will happen.
Do You Promote Your Book Free?
I know what you’re thinking. After spending all the time and all that money getting your book reading for publication, why would you discount your book to $0 for five days? Well, because discounting your book will lead to downloads which will increase the number of readers you’ll get, which in turn will bring you more reviews.
And more reviews will boost you on Amazon’s search engine. So, do them. They’re worth it on a promotional basis.
Are You Willing to Pay for a Blog Tour?
Blog tours may not boost book sales initially, but they will increase awareness of your books. As a new author, you need awareness. Of course, you don’t have to pay for a blog tour. You can always organize one on your own.
On this Amazon page, there is a list of books on how to conduct your own blog tour. Buy one of the books and start doing it.
If you want to hire someone, I can vouch for TLC Book Tours. They aren’t cheap, but they are professionals. I’ve used them and really enjoyed working with them.
Do You Have a Social Media Presence?
Whether you hire someone like me or do it yourself, a social media presence is essential to a writer’s marketing platform. Whether you’re a new author or a seasoned author, you need to have a social media presence for visibility and for book sales.
Social media is how you’ll keep in touch with readers, find new readers, and connect with influencers in your genre and in the book marketing field.
Are You Building Your Email List?
Email marketing is also de rigueur. You won’t get far in your book marketing without building an email list. The truth is, email marketing is more effective at sales than social media. However, Facebook advertising is awesome.
Have I confused You?
I hope not. Social media and email marketing are both essential components of your book marketing strategies.
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The second edition of Social Media Just for Writers is both a primer for authors new to social media and an advanced study of platforms that weren’t widely known four years ago.
Whether you write romance, historical fiction, young adult, or steam punk novels, you’ll find help in reaching your online audience of new and dedicated readers.
rocket
THE GIVEAWAY
A social media audit with Frances Caballo (value: $275!)
Want to win this giveaway? Simply leave a comment WHY below!
All comments must be left prior to midnight on Monday, May 13th, 2019 in order to be eligible to win. Winners for the week announced on Tuesday, May 14th.
Good luck!
Frances Caballo
Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
For a more detailed plan on developing your book marketing, purchase Rachel’s new book,
The BadRedhead Media 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge now on Amazon!
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I still haven’t totally figured out social media. I know how to use the platforms, but I don’t know how to best use them. Would love to win the giveaway! Like many other things in my life, I can use all the help I can get!
Great post! I’ve worked hard on alot of the steps listed, but I know I could do better on some of them. I’d be most grateful for a ‘check up.’ I especially appreciate the tip about book covers. Thank you very much!
Very interested in how a social media audit works. I don’t get instagram at all and am sure I’m barely scratching surface of Pinterest!
I am trying to hard to better my online presence!
Whew! Some great advice here. Every time I think I have my ducks in a row, I find that at least 2 or 3 wandered off and didn’t get counted. Thanks for sharing the tips and links!
Thanks for a comprehensive, helpful article. Like many new authors, I find the issue of promotion confusing and, at times, overwhelming. It’s particularly difficult with my current project, since my upcoming novel is very different from anything I’ve written previously.
A year ago, I was a screenwriter developing sitcoms. All the people sharing their stories of sexual assault triggered a horrible memory-the rape and murder of a fifteen-year-old girl I knew. I decided to write a novel. My story deals with the rape and murder of a teenage girl but is otherwise fictitious. I’m donating from the proceeds to organizations that help rape survivors and their
families.
I appreciate the links provided in your article and will look into your course to evaluate your online presence. Thanks for helping me to find and reach the audience for this story.
Sincerely,
Dana Lemaster
Writing Community,
Trust me when I tell you this is the golden goose, chicken or hen egg prize. If you don’t read Frances Caballo’s guest post from today (day 13) of #NaNoProMo and respond from your heart, shame on you. Frances provides an in-depth social media audit that will benefit you in ways you cannot imagine.
Frances,
As usual, you provide very beneficial information. I hope that those who read your guest post and see the potential prize they could win respond, begging for your social media audit.
Sincerely,
Donna
I’m not yet published, but understand the importance of working on my platform before I publish – thanks to the advices from wise ladies like Frances and Rachel 🙂 I’d love to win the giveaway to know what aspects need a tune-up!
Excellent post – especially your first point. I constantly find people wanting to know how to better market their books, but their Amazon book description doesn’t sell the book’s concept, or their Look Inside shows substandard writing.
After doing this writing and social media things for more than a while now I like to think I’ve got things at least going on the right track. Then I read things like this and I am 2nd guessing myself.
One of my biggest problems is reaching actual readers on social media. I can connect and interact with writers all day long but getting direct to potential readers is a tough one; at least for me. I used to do this reasonably well with online book tours but they are also something I struggle with now. I know a few years ago they (book tours) were all the rage and worked very well but I’m hearing about less and less quality results now. Honestly, I felt I made more headway as an author by being a stop on other authors tours rather than heading my own.
Building an email list is something I just can’t even figure out in a workable way. I know we are supposed to have one but I’m failing big time at this step. Yes I have a newsletter but I’ve been stuck basically at the same amount of subscribers (around 50) for nearly two years now.
Good read. Informative post.