10 Tips for Marketing Your Book
Whether you’re a self-published author, traditionally published author, or a writer who wants to be published - you’ll find something useful in these tips for marketing, promoting, and selling your book! These ten tips will smooth your journey to the bestseller list.
Here’s a tip for writers trying to get published:
“We’re looking for authors who will work hand-in-hand with us and find promotional opportunities for their books,” says Pamela Krauss, editor at Clarkson Potter.
Fellow scribes, you need a writer’s platform to get published. For thousands of tips for promoting your book – whether you’re published yet or not – click on 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer – it’s a powerhouse of tried-and-true ideas. And read on for ten tips for marketing your book.
10 Tips for Marketing Your Book
“If you really want your book to fly, you need to know that the reality of the publishing business is that publishers print and distribute,” says David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber. “The author has to be willing to promote the book, because no one else will.”
1. Create a brand name. Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is The Adventurous Writer (that’s me!). Jack Canfield is Chicken Soup for the Soul. What’s your handle, your shtick, your brand name? Pick something that appeals to you and projects the image you want for your writing career or company.
2. Repeat yourself. “Repetition is key to creating a brand names,” writes Kremer in 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. “If you decide to try to establish your company name as a brand name, repeat it in all your ads and feature it on the covers of all your books.”
3. Find creative ways to use your business cards. I love this tip for marketing your book: on the back of your business card you could print a brief book excerpt, your book cover, the table of contents, the characters, a rave review, or your elevator pitch.
4. Leave your business card in unexpected places. Leave your card with the tip for the waitress, in the envelope if you pay your bills via snail mail, in library books, in the change room at your gym, or in the bathroom at parties. Be generous!
5. Give talks at all types of places: libraries, writer’s clubs, garden parties, churches, book fairs, colleges, schools, civic groups, senior citizen’s groups, PTA’s, chambers of commerce, businessmen luncheons, workshops, conferences, cruise ships – anywhere that welcomes speakers.
I interrupt these book marketing tips to share a quip:
- “That’s how you get a bestseller – one interview, one bestseller at a time,” – Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World. Successful writers have to take it one step at a time!
6. Blog about your book sales – and share your marketing tips. An even better tip for marketing your books is to blog about your book as you write it – like Gretchen Rubin is doing with The Happiness Project. This tip is perfect for writers not yet published.
7. Specialize in your topic. The more specialized you are in your genre or field, the easier it’ll be to keep writing and selling books. Specialization allows you to market your books together and build a strong network.
8. Set a marketing budget before you get published. This is a “you have to spend money to make money” book marketing tip! “Have a clear plan of how you intend to spend your advertising dollars, reserving the major portion for your prime markets and media,” writes Kremer in 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. “Word of mouth is still the most cost-effective way to advertise your books, but set aside at least one-third of your marketing budget for promotion and publicity.”
9. Create relationships. Whether you’re marketing your first or fifty-first book (though if you’ve published 51 books, you probably don’t need to spend much time marketing!) – remember that successful writers create relationships with readers, freelance writers, reporters, magazine publishers, book sellers, book clubs, bloggers, teachers, etc. George over at Tumblemoose is a master of creating relationships and community (in fact, I’m going to ask him to write a guest post for me right now).
10. Get comfortable with media interviews. My first two radio interviews were horrible because I was nervous and not having fun — and I expect my first couple of television interviews to be almost as bad. But if I want to be a successful writer, I need to get comfortable doing live interviews. For media interview tips, read 7 Tips for Television Interviews for Writers and 10 Tips for Doing Radio Interviews for Writers.
Do you have any questions, thoughts, or tips for marketing your book? I welcome you below!
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Comment by Tumblemoose on 1 July 2009:
Laurie,
Thanks for the kind words and the shout out. Looking forward to getting you that post a little later today!
It’s kind of funny. Whenever you mention “marketing” to writers, most will get this dull glaze form over their eyes, the mouth opens slightly and drool starts forming at the corner of the mouth.
With that said, these are very cool, unconventional and easy marketing tips. Who couldn’t do these? For that matter who wouldn’t want to?
I employ some of these, but I’m going to work on using them all!
Tumblemoose´s last blog ..Is your writing blog a success?
Comment by Val Wake on 1 July 2009:
Laurie,
My wife who is a BC girl used to spend her holidays on Bowen Island. My novel White Bird Black Bird was published by Booksurge and is available on Amazon.com. It is about the start of the aboriginal rights movement in northern Canada and is based on my experience as a CBC News reporter working out of Yellowknife. Your marketing tips are interesting. On my walks along our coast I hand out a Booksurge card about my book to fellow walkers. Only one Canadian bookstore has agreed to accept my novel on consignment. Its the Yellowknife Book Cellar in Yellowknife. I have tried very hard to get the book placed in other bookstores but from this distance it is difficult. Steve Hume, the author of Simon Fraser, and I worked together in Yellowknife during the 70s. I saw Steve in 2007 and thought he might be able to help in placing my novel but it didn’t work out. Steve lost his Mum at a critical time and he was also working on the Simon Fraser book.
If you have any thoughts I would be interested to hear from you. By the way Authors Den is a total waste of time for selling books but it does make a useful website reference.
Val Wake
2/6 Harbour Lane
Port Macquarie
NSW 2444
Australia
Comment by Laurie PK on 2 July 2009:
Great to hear from you, Val — and from halfway ’round the world!
I tried Authors Den once a couple of years ago, but not to market or sell my books. Rather, I was trying to increase my Suite101 exposure. As I recall, it didn’t really help….but I didn’t give it much of a try!
Definitely, it’s difficult to get your books in Canadian bookstores when you’re in Australia. Have you considered hiring a publicist or book seller, here in Canada? I think Raincoast distributes books, but I don’t know what their policies are.
Another possibility is creating your own blog or website, apart from Authors Den. There are so many writing blogs around! — so you’d have to make yours different somehow…for some writers, that’s tough to do. Other seem to have no problem carving out their own little niche.
And thirdly, have you tried Twitter? It might help with book sales, and it’d definitely connect you with other likeminded folk (though it does take time to find your “twibe”).
Let me know what you think of these book marketing possibilities!
Laurie
Laurie PK´s last blog ..8 Tips for Breaking Bad Writing Habits
Comment by Val Wake on 8 July 2009:
Laurie,
Thanks for that. I lost your address which accounts for the delay. I am not a natural blogger. It seems to take a special mind set. I have explored a number of blogger sites, WordPress and Blogger.com but they need so much care and attention, taking up time I don’t really have. I am also worried about Spam. I have had to change my emai address twice. I am in touch with a blogger in Yellowknife, John Mutford who has chosen my title as a prize in his Canadian Book Challenge. You are right about finding a Canada based publicist. I have already approached Raincoast books. They seem to have a problem with me being based here. I thought I had a publicist with Jim Carney, brother of Pat, but it was not his line of country. I did send Pat Carney a copy of the novel but did not hear back. Do you know what Steve Hume is doing? He thought he might lose his column at the Vancouver Sun.
Thanks for your interest.
Val Wake
Comment by Broderick on 4 August 2009:
Really cool stuff. Can I copy your article for my blog?
Comment by Laurie PK on 5 August 2009:
Hi Broderick,
Please don’t copy the whole article to your blog. Instead, I’d prefer if you took the first 2 or 3 tips for marketing your book, and then linking back here. If your readers want the rest of the post, they can come here. If not…they still get the gist of the article!
Thanks,
Laurie
Laurie PK´s last blog post ..A Freelance Writer’s Spreadsheet for Invoices and Payments
Comment by Hobosic on 2 September 2009:
Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
Hobosic
Comment by Laurie PK on 2 September 2009:
Glad you liked this post, Hobosic. Hope to see you around Quips & Tips more!
Laurie PK´s last blog post ..8 Ideas for Blog Posts or Magazine Articles at Halloween