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Book marketing can be daunting for authors, but it is essential for getting your book in front of readers to make it a success. In this blog post, I will share the most important and effective book marketing strategies authors can use to promote their books and reach a wider audience. 

Why a month? Isn’t book marketing an ongoing process?

Yes, however, you can take thirty days and get your author house in order!

Market Your Book

Your author platform is a slow build, so keep that in mind. Overall visibility is the key to connecting with readers. 

For more info, take a look at my BadRedhead Media 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge – 30 days of easy-to-follow instructions to build your author platform and sell more books! Available in both ebook and print.

• Building an Author Platform

The first step in book marketing is building an author platform. This includes creating a website, blog or vlog, social media accounts, and an email list as your basic first steps.

Your website should be the central hub for all your book-related content and should include information about your book, your author bio, blog topics related to your interests, and a way for readers to contact you. 

Social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, can be used to engage with readers and share updates about your book (and don’t forget TikTok #BookTok and YouTube #BookTube – video is popular).

An email list is a great way to stay in touch with readers and tell them about upcoming events, book signings, and new releases. For more, read this terrific list of tasks from Reedsy.

• Networking with other authors and industry professionals

Networking with other authors and industry professionals is an important aspect of book marketing. Attending book festivals, writing conferences, and book clubs can be a great way to connect with other authors, publishers, and literary agents. Joining online communities, such as Goodreads, can also be a great way to connect with other authors and readers.

As I mention in my book, The 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge, you want to connect with other writers, but not only other writers. Readers are everywhere. Grow your accounts strategically.

• Creating a Book Trailer

Creating a book trailer is a great way to give readers a taste of your book and build buzz. A book trailer is a short video that can be shared on social media, on your website, and on YouTube. It can be a simple animation or a more elaborate production, but it should be engaging and give readers a sense of what your book is about.

To learn more, visit Animoto for free options.

• Hosting a Book Launch Party

Hosting a book launch party is a great way to celebrate the release of your book and build buzz. You can invite friends, family, and media members to the event, which can be held at a bookstore, a library, or even your home. The event should be focused on your book, and you should have copies available for purchase and signing.

Zoom became super popular during the COVID-19 period, so be sure to consider an interactive, web-based platform as well. In fact, you can now hold audio-only spaces on Twitter Spaces (mobile-only), Clubhouse, or do video ‘lives’ on Facebook or Instagram. 

I did a Twitter Space launch Space for my seventh book, Broken People, and had several hundred attendees! 

• Guest Blogging and Podcasting

Guest blogging and podcasting can be great for reaching a wider audience and promoting your book. Reach out to bloggers and podcast hosts in your niche and offer to write a guest post or be a guest on their show. This can be a great way to introduce yourself and your book to a new audience and build relationships with other bloggers and podcasters in your niche.

Consider joining popular blog-sharing memes, such as #MondayBlogs on Twitter – every week, thousands of bloggers participate by adding that hashtag to their posts on Mondays. Share your own, retweet others, gain more site traffic, and followers. Win/win. 

• Advertising

Advertising is another great way to promote your book. You can use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google AdWords to reach a larger audience. And Amazon ads as well! These platforms allow you to target specific demographics, such as age, location, and interests, and can be a great way to reach potential readers.

Here’s a tip: created free universal links with BookLinker. They also have a fantastic blog. Read more here.

• Giveaways

Giveaways are a great way to build buzz and promote your book. You can give away copies of your book, e-books, or even a Kindle. This can be a great way to reach new readers and encourage people to share your book with their friends.

I use both Rafflecopter and King Sumo. Both have reasonable plans. 

• Reader Magnets 

Helpful to authors because they provide a way to entice potential readers to sign up for an email list or take some other action to help the author stay in touch with them. This can be especially useful for authors who are just starting out and are trying to build an audience for their work. 

If you sign up for my BadRedhead Media newsletter, I send you my top 10 blogging tips! Learn more here. 

By offering a reader magnet, such as a free e-book, tips, resources, or a discount on a book, authors can attract people who are interested in their writing and get them to take the first step toward becoming loyal readers.

In addition to helping authors build their audience, reader magnets can also help authors sell more books. By staying in touch with readers through an email list or other means, authors can keep their readers informed about new releases, promotions, and other events related to their writing. 

This can generate buzz and excitement around a new book, leading to increased sales. Additionally, by providing readers with exclusive content or offers, authors can create a sense of loyalty and engagement that can help drive sales over the long term.

• Booksweeps is an excellent company that offers free books in exchange for email promotions for about $50. Mind the fine print: they run email growth promos and BookBub follow promos. Be sure to pick which is right for you!

 

• Author Branding

I wrote a quick-read mini-book on author branding with my top tips and easy-to-follow exercises gleaned from my own ten+ years of successfully branding my many clients. These tips will help you connect with your ideal readers, curate value-added content, and set expectations for readers.

If branding confuses you, this is a great, easy breakdown for any new blogger, writer, veteran author, and even small business.

• Consistency

Google loves fresh content, so take the time to write regular blog posts, learn how to optimize them for SEO, and share them all over your social media. Create a consistent newsletter (monthly, quarterly, whatever works best for you). I recommend MailerLite – affordable. Use a social media scheduling tool to make filling your social media planner easier and less stressful. Buffer is a good deal and super easy to use.

Don’t have a website yet? Visit my friends at Authobytes and mention my company, BadRedhead Media, LLC, for a 20% discount on a new website build!

And be real. It can’t be said enough – authenticity, who we are as people, connects us to our readers in a way that can’t be done via AI. Find your ‘why’ and share it (kudos to free ChatGPT, however, for helping me create a base foundation for this article). We’ll discuss using AI for writing in a future post. For now, read more here. 

In summary: book marketing is essential for getting your book in front of readers and making it successful. Building an author platform, networking with other authors and industry professionals, creating a book trailer, hosting a book launch party, guest blogging and podcasting, advertising and giveaways are all great ways to promote your book and reach a wider audience.

Remember, book marketing is an ongoing process, and you want to constantly look for new ways to promote your book and reach new readers.

For more in-depth details, take a look at my three books written specifically for writers: 

• The Badredhead Media 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge (Updated)
• How to Best Optimize Blog Posts for SEO: 25 Tested Tips Writers Need to Know Now
• The BadRedHead Media Fast and Easy Guide to Powerful Author Branding

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Join Rachel every Wednesday for her free #BookMarketingChat on Twitter Spaces at 11 am pst/2 pm est, sponsored exclusively by BookLinker. Got questions? Follow her on Twitter @BadRedheadMedia (DMs open).

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