Marketing plays a significant role when trying to increase your book sales. Here’s how to market a self published book more effectively.
When I first got started with self-publishing, I didn't know what I was thinking. I thought my book was going to sell itself. Well, that was a huge mistake that I made and that's exactly why we're going to talk about how to market a self published book.
So, there are a couple of things you need to know exactly about why you need to market your self-published book. The first thing is that it isn't going to sell itself. Now, you may be thinking that the quality of your book is so amazing.
You may be thinking that therefore people are going to just grab and buy it. The problem is they don't know about it and they don't know why they should read it.
That bit of information is the number one reason why marketing is so important when it comes to getting your self-publishing book sold. This is probably the main reason why you see so many books on Amazon that aren't selling any books at all.
Platforms to market a self-published book
Now, in terms of marketing, there are a lot of places where we're getting the word out to people. Regarding the different things that can be done or how they can purchase our book and how they can get to know us.
Check out this related article: Self-Publishing: The Best Option For You?
But where exactly? Which platforms should we use? The platforms to market a self-published book include the following: the first one is YouTube, which is the primary place where I like to market my specific books as well.
1. YouTube
So, if you're looking at places where you're going to do marketing for the different books that you have, you should consider YouTube as a top place. The main reason is the number of people that are coming to YouTube monthly is in the billions.
The other thing with YouTube unlike many of the other platforms is that it sticks around for a long time.
2. Twitch
The second place you're going to want to consider marketing your book is going to be on Twitch. It is just like YouTube.
But you can do live streaming and it's one of the top places for that. It gives you the ability to connect with your audience. You can also do of course live streaming on YouTube but Twitch still has a massive following and is a great place to help your readers get to know you.
3. Facebook
The next place you're going to want to go to is Facebook. This is a very powerful platform. Even though it is an aging audience, a lot of the people who are buying books are also aging.
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They're your target market very well, maybe on Facebook. So, you're not going to want to neglect this site that has so many active users every month.
4. Instagram
After that, we move on to Instagram which is also owned by Facebook. Instagram is really powerful especially since they rolled out reels. It's not just a matter of putting out the cover of your book but also talking about your book.
Getting people exposed to it and getting people excited about it. So that when you're releasing books, your followers are going to see what exactly you're coming out with. This is a great platform for discoverability.
5. Twitter
The next place after that is going to be Twitter. Now, I know what you may be thinking, over the last several months, it's been very unstable. So many authors have left the Twitter platform.
But that means there's all the more place for you to take advantage of the current situation going on. Now, I do know that many people complain on Twitter. Regarding all sorts of stuff that's being said in different areas of Twitter.
But I can tell you when it comes to finding your ideal customers, you're not going to be interacting with some of the negativity that's going on on the platform. Rather, you're going to be reaching out to people who are already there. Those who have been using it for a decade.
Your target audience or the people who are interested in exactly the books that you're writing. The ability to let them know and to connect with them on this exact area here when it comes to knowing the latest books coming out.
As well as how you're going about making the books and interacting one-on-one with other authors. They can also help leverage you. But also in terms of interacting with your readers as well, Twitter is a fantastic location not to be neglected.
6. TikTok and Snapchat
The next one is a combo between TikTok and Snapchat as platforms that we want to target. TikTok is the fastest growing and you will see that so many other platforms are copying the style and flow of TikTok.
Keep in mind, you only need to create 30-second to one-minute videos and you can go somewhat viral on the platform. Assuming you're playing along with the music and the different things that they're doing. As well as the latest trends and fads that are passing through TikTok.
You can leverage that to find it and Book Talk is one of the main things that's used to find a lot of your readers. As well as networking with other authors in terms of marketing your book on that platform.
Snapchat's the same way, giving you the ability to broadcast to a large group of people. Usually, a younger demographic as opposed to Facebook. So, we sort of are going to need to figure out which of these platforms is right for our specific audience and the people who will be reading our books.
7. Mailing List
The final platform is your Mailing List which is in my opinion the most important area for marketing all of these others that I've just discussed. The reason being is that it gets straight into the inbox.
It has the highest open rate for the people who are following or subscribed to your email list in any other place that you can be. So, when you're sending out these emails regularly, hopefully at least twice a month. If you can go up to twice a week which is what I normally do.
But again, we focus on one target audience, one specific genre up at your books. If you have 50 books, choose the genre that's the most profitable. Make sure you're targeting just that one.
Mailing lists are extremely powerful ways of going about building your audience. Getting people who are willing to leave reviews for your book. As you're moving forward with your book after book after book.
How to Market a Self Published Book
If you pay a lot of attention to my self publishing blog and my YouTube channel, that is one of the things we talk about so often. It is continually producing content but also using a third of your time for marketing and a third of your time for learning.
Check out this related article: Get Your Short Story Published On Amazon
That's why we're focusing today on the marketing side of things. But let's get down to some of the more detailed strategies. How to market a self published book? So what exactly do you need to do?
1. Have your own blog or website
So, there are a couple of things I'm going to tell you. We already discussed a little bit about these platforms. But here are a couple of really powerful ones, the first one is to have your blog or website.
As we're building things up, keep in mind one of the best places to be discovered is right on the internet. Google sends tons of people and you're not even having to pay for that traffic.
2. Increase your online presence to spread the word about your book
The second thing is that you're going to want to increase your online presence to spread the word about your book. Online presence means maybe you're doing guest blogging on other people's platforms. Or you're participating on all of these existing platforms I already named.
And that you're getting yourself the presence that you need. So that when somebody Googles you, up comes a whole pile of things directly associated with your specific book.
3. Use social media to Promote via paid ads
The third one is to use social media to promote via paid ads. This can be a wonderful way of getting the word out. Once you find out who your target readers are, they join your email list.
You can take those emails and plug them back into Facebook and these other places to target. Even other people you may not even know about. Who has the same interest and are very interested in finding out about your book and reading your books.
One of the most powerful ways there is to have some sort of lead magnet. Some sort of a free ebook that the goal is to getting them on the email list. So we can tell them more about the amazing books that we're writing regularly.
4. Find out what makes the most popular books in your genre so successful.
Number four, find out what makes the most popular books in your genre so successful. If you're a client of mine or if you've been a client of mine, you know that this is one of the things I spend a lot of time focusing on, what are the winners doing?
I define a winner as somebody who's got a book that's in the top hundred thousand in the same genre or niche. Or targeting that same keyword that you're targeting for your books. We want to see exactly what they're doing, so we're doing a lot of research.
This is a key aspect of marketing, it's making sure that when we are putting our book just the content and the way that it's being put together, we're making sure that we're targeting other authors and seeing how exactly they're doing it to draw in this audience.
5. Get Amazon Reviews for your book
The next thing is you're going to number five. You're going to get Amazon reviews for your book. It is probably a way to multiply, let's say five times the amount of sales on your book for these reviews that you'd be getting.
But how are you going to get them? The answer is you're going to build an advanced review team on your email list. By getting people to subscribe and then asking them if they're interested to join the team in exchange for free copies of your books.
You're asking them to leave honest reviews on Amazon which is powerful. Or joining other sites that specifically target this whole subject of getting reviews.
6. Create an enticing book blurb
Number six is to create an enticing book blurb. When they get to the sales page for your book or the back cover of your book, they're going to see your book blurb. It must not just tell them what the book's about or tell them the storyline but rather pulls them into the story.
Or tell them the benefits or the pain of the problem that they have if it's non-fiction. The benefits of what it feels like if you just follow the secrets that are in this book. To achieve and reach their goals of getting over whatever that problem may be.
The benefits that they get by reading this specific book. Never underestimate the power of the book blurb in your marketing endeavors.
7. Invest in a professional cover design service
Number seven invest in a professional cover design service. The reason you are going to want to consider, you know, I point out Fiverr, Upwork, and 99Designs as my top picks for the cover design process.
The main reason I push these specific ones it's because the cover is so important. The keywords in the title and the niche targeting are the most important when it comes to getting sales on your book.
But the second most important is the cover. Even if your book title comes up and they see the cover and they don't click on it, then Amazon will punish you. By not letting your cover in your book come up at all.
This means nobody clicks on it, nobody reads your book blurb and nobody buys your book. So, the importance of the cover cannot be understated. It is overstated, it is such an important aspect when it comes to your thing. So, you're going to want to invest in a professional cover design service.
8. Maximize your distribution channels
Number eight, you want to maximize your distribution channels. We want to go omnichannel, we want our book on as many different networks as possible. I can tell you, Amazon continues to send warning messages out as you have lots of books, and people claim infringement.
Like, oh you took their content even though your book was out before theirs. Or other things where they suddenly don't like things they did previously. Suddenly, it creates problems and they risk threatening your entire account over it.
So, what you're going to want to do is to make sure that when it comes to the books you have them spread out in as many formats and as many channels as possible. In my case, I would tell you, to start with Amazon.
You have your paperback, your hardback, and your ebook. Then, we go to Audible for our audiobook or find voices if you prefer for the auto audiobook. But I still would say Audible is probably my first pick if you're in the United States.
As well as if you’re in Canada or the UK. Then, the other thing you're going to want to do is to put your books onto IngramSpark, the ebook, and the paperback. And then Draft2Digital for the additional ones.
In the old days, I would say Lulu for the hardbacks. But now, I'm leaning a little bit more toward the Amazon hardbacks. As you're making your book available in as many different distribution channels as possible.
9. Make the most of Amazon’s book promotional tools and programs
Number nine, make the most of Amazon's book promotional tools and programs. Amazon KDP is one of the cheapest self publishing site and it has a whole selection of things they could do. To help promote and get your book in front of as many people's eyes as possible.
Whether it's the ads, whether it's these banners, there are many things you can do for your brand itself. No matter where a person is going on Amazon. Remember, it's one of the biggest search engines.
I think it’s the third largest in the world only behind Google and YouTube. So, it’s a massive search engine. We want to get our branding and all of these things out. Amazon makes it very easy to get your stuff in front of your target readers.
So, take advantage of these services, their book promotional tools, and programs. To make sure that you're maximizing your sales, things like the countdowns and all sorts of stuff. To help you get your book selling.
Marketing is just about awareness, getting people aware that you're out there. That these books are exciting. That's really what we want to do, get them onto the sales page. So, we can help optimize it and get things selling from there.
And speaking of the sales page, one of the things I recently offered is my 7-15 minute Power Session. Where I'm going to be able to look exactly at what you're doing and tell you what you can do to change to drastically increase the sales of your book.
Some people that I tell you can't do that but that's just one of my latest offers. Do contact me or just grab my free Checklist.
10. Use book discounting sites
Number ten, use book discounting sites. So, there are a lot of sites where they'll send books like BookBub. There's a whole series of these, right? It's been a little bit of time since I last even if I ever would sometimes have people who would be able to do this.
You just want to make sure they're reputable. What they'll do is they'll discount the books and then for a fee, they will send them out to tons and tons of people. And that will cause your books to get all sorts of sales.
You can ask those people in the book to leave reviews. Then, we're able to start building it up from there. If your book ranks high enough, you'll get that Amazon best-seller flag.
That's one of the reasons why these promotional sites for discounts are a fantastic way to help you become an Amazon number one best seller. It's a great promotion by bringing in new readers.
Specifically, you want to get these people onto your email list. When they do buy the book at a discount. Now, free is not as powerful as it used to be but at least like $1.99 books, this can be a really powerful one.
11. Join the Goodreads Author Program
Number eleven, join the Goodreads Author Program. By getting on the Goodreads Author Program, you get all of the benefits that you get on Goodreads. Now, keep in mind, Goodreads is also owned by Amazon.
When you get onto their program, you're going to be able to benefit from all sorts of stuff. The reason I always like Goodreads is that you get notified. You're able to notify all of these readers who have previously read your books.
You're able to get right in front of them. They've told you they've read the books and now you're able to send them additional ads. So, the ads saying, hey I've got a new book on the market or I've got this free thing on the market.
It just gives you an additional added advantage over your competition and doesn't underestimate. You need to get out there. You need to make your name known, it's crickets otherwise.
This is usually what happens unless you happen to get lucky or you choose the right keywords. Which is usually a more reasonable thing that happens with many authors. But it’s worth checking out; the Goodreads Author Program.
12. Release Day Event
Number twelve, the Release Day Event. When you're going to release your book, you can sort of do a countdown. Assuming you even have an email list, you're going to want to take a close look at this.
and you're going to want to make sure that you're sending out promotions. Letting them know your book's coming out. You may even come out at a lower price when your book first comes onto the market.
To encourage these readers to jump straight to purchase your books at that lower rate. That will drive up sales and cause Amazon to continue to promote your book further to other readers. A very very powerful technique there.
13. Giveaways
The number 13, is giveaways. Free checklists and things like that. So, in other words, you can tell people to go to my checklist. This is what I like to do, a checklist if it's like non-fiction.
You know me because I'm always giving out my free checklist. Lots of people subscribe to it. A lot of people are getting the benefit out of that in my newsletter as well. But free giveaways, giving away free ebooks, giving away anything for free.
Just make sure that it's related to your book. You do not want to give away a free iPad if your books are Romance Books. Because you're going to get people who are not into romance simply joining to get that free iPad of yours.
That is not a good strategy so make sure that your giveaways are in alignment or value ladder. The next level up is going to be your ebooks. Then, perhaps your courses and Coaching and these sorts of things will be on that value ladder.
Make sure that everything that you have in the giveaways is your marketing technique. Because these are very effective ways how to market a self published book. Things you're not going to want to consider.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, we're looking at this whole marketing and seeing that it is so important. Your books aren't going to sell themselves.
It's completely based on you and the amount of marketing that you're doing to determine how many sales you want to get.
There are so many self-publishers who don't even understand marketing. They think it's about putting a quality book on the market but in reality, it isn't.
That creates a bit of a challenge and sometimes, it comes down to just getting educated.
Learning what you need to know about books, the different marketing channels, and these sorts of things. One of the best ways to learn is in fact by following What Are The Best Self Publishing Blogs and lucky for you, you can check that out as well.