Many writers love to write books but hate to market them. Unfortunately, that’s totally counterproductive. Book marketing isn’t the enemy. On the contrary, it’s the pathway to a writer’s greatest dream – making a living doing what we love. So, if you truly love writing, it’s important to leave the dream world of creativity and make peace with promotion. Better yet, as hard as this may be to imagine, have fun with it.
In the same way that brainstorming and organizing your book’s content and then writing your book are creative acts, so is brainstorming and organizing your promotional plan and them putting it into action.
Since promoting your book on social media is quick, easy, and free, many authors focus primarily on social media marketing. Yet, to give your book, that you’ve put your heart, soul and time into, its greatest chance for success, you want to promote it across a variety of platforms and mediums, not only during your book launch, but before publication and for a long time afterward. So, let your promotional creativity loose and do let potential readers know about your book through as many of these seven promotional pillars as you can, remembering to focus on sharing the value that your book has to offer to make people’s lives better. Of course, you don’t have to do all of these at once or any of them perfectly, you simply need to get the word out about your wonderful book, as best you can, to as many people as possible.
Here are the 7 pillars and how you can apply them during the book writing process, as well as at your book launch and after publication. As you’re reading through this list, see which ones you feel drawn to and which you don’t. And them commit to doing a few of each. Stretching beyond your comfort zone is so helpful, because in most cases you’ll probably surprise yourself. You’ll discover that something you were scared of doing really wasn’t that bad at all, in fact you might discover that you enjoy it or are good at it. Be willing to give a new skill (or avenue of promotion) to get past your nervousness about it, and because no matter how much you may study how to do something, it takes actually doing it and seeing how it feels and works to get comfortable enough and learn enough through in the trenches feedback to do it effectively or discover it’s truly not for you.
Pillar #1 Promote on Both Social Media and Traditional Media
Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, podcasts) can help you build buzz around your book as you’re still writing it. You can share your writing journey, get feedback on your material, or simply let your followers and fans know that you’re working on a new book and when it’s coming out. Of course, once your book is published, you can post excerpts, quizzes, book-based tips, sample chapters, and other promotional posts with purchase links, as well as do a coordinated blog book tour and submit topic-focused guest posts to appropriate blogs.
Traditional media (newspapers, magazines, television, radio) can also be used both during the writing process and after publication. You can pitch topic related stories to local and national media outlets by contacting reporters, issuing press releases, and submitting articles. As you’re writing your book, any publicity you go after would mostly be focused on sharing your expertise, building name recognition, and growing your platform. After publication, in many ways, it would be the same. For the most part, you’d simply be sharing your expertise, but as “the author of…” Of course, around your publication date you could also share book excerpts, seek book reviews, and give interviews focused on your book’s content.
Pillar #2 Cultivate Social Proof
You don’t want to be the only one saying how wonderful your book is. Let others praise it, as well. While you’re writing your book, you can seek testimonials from clients who’ve used the techniques you’re writing about in the book, as well as book endorsements from experts in your field who would be willing to write an endorsement from several sample chapters. But mostly, endorsements will be gathered in the months directly preceding publication, using galleys (an uncorrected proof or advance reading copy of your book). You can also gather endorsements after publication for use on your website, social media sites, and in your media kit.
When seeking book reviews, national magazines will want a copy of your book months before it’s publication date, while book bloggers would want their review to come out at launch time, as well, but might not need such a long lead time. You can offer free downloadable copies for review through places like NetGalley.com.
Because book award competitions have their own annual submission dates that usually last for several months, unless your book will be published after their annual deadline, there’s usually no need to send pre-publication copies. Many book awards require you to send multiple print copies to distribute to their judges.
Pillar #3 Host Live Events—Online and Off
During the book writing process, giving talks using the material that’s going to be in the book can help you in several ways: You can record the talk, transcribe it, and turn it into book content. You can learn what works and what doesn’t from your audience’s response and their questions. You can also use live events to gather email addresses and build your email list so that you have a ready-made audience to notify when your book comes out.
After publication, you can do book readings, hold meetups, give talks based on your book or individual concepts in it, or create classes and workshops that help readers put what you’ve written about into action in their lives. If people like your talk, they’ll want to buy your book and get you to sign it. You can also make readings more fun by holding them in unusual places, making them interactive, and running a raffle with great gifts.
Pillar #4 Run Giveaways and Contests
Prior to your book’s publication, you can run giveaways and contests where the prize consists of related books and products or even gift cards as a means of building some buzz around your upcoming book, as well as growing your email list. Once your book is published you can actually give away copies of your book on Goodreads and Facebook, as well as when guest posting or to enhance a book review on someone’s blog.
Running a giveaway of book launch bonuses that readers will receive after proving that they’ve purchased your book are still very popular as a means of getting people to buy your book during your launch period or to make pre-publication sales. Thankfully, the days of huge giveaways with hundreds of gifts are over. It’s better to have a few powerful gifts that will help people apply what’s in your book. These are usually developed by you, but can include additional gifts from others if they’re directly related to your book’s topic.
When working with joint venture partners, keep in mind that your primary goal is not selling your book, but providing value to your partners and to their readers and followers.
Pillar #5 Create Promotional Merchandise
You can create fun merchandise to give away or sell, as well as for you to wear or carry as you go about your day—such as a tee-shirt or tote bag—to pique people’s curiosity and start a conversation.
Using the book cover, quotes or tips, you can create refrigerator magnets, mugs, tee-shirts, tote bags, trading cards, and any other merchandise that you think would be helpful or fun for your readers and would help you get the word out about your book.
When creating a promotional item, make sure it’s a “keeper,” something… inspiring, useful, beautiful, or funny. When clearing out clutter, people don’t usually keep promotional items with book covers or logos on them, they keep items with inspiring quotes, quick and useful tips, beautiful photos or graphics, and funny things that make them laugh or smile.
Pillar #6 Advertise Online and In Print
Author Joanna Penn once said, "Imagine how powerful it is to have a list of 10,000 people and to send an email saying, My book is available now. Click here to buy.” To that end, before publication, if you have an opt-in report or subscriber gift that you think would be of interest to potential readers of your book, you can promote your opt-in offer on your blog and social media accounts, as well as in your bio on guest posts, and anywhere else you can think of as a way of connect with potential readers and grow your email list.
After publication, you can advertise your book directly in all of those places, and on Facebook, Amazon, as well as in magazines, and book and specialty catalogs.
Pillar #7 Recruit Friends and Fans to Spread the Word
Don’t be shy about asking others to share news about your book with their friends and followers. This is especially important during your book launch campaign, but can continue on afterward, as well.
Prior to publication, your focus will be to connect with fans and joint venture partners and nurtur those relationships. After publication, you can create your “street team” of fans to spread the word about your book, and I’ve seen many authors create a Facebook group as a way of communicating with their “team.” You can also invite joint venture partners to contribute relevant gifts for a book launch giveaway, or partner with them in other ways that are mutually beneficial.
The Rule of 5
If you’re exhausted from just reading this list of potential promotional avenues, take a deep breath and relax. As I said, you don’t have to do everything, and you don’t have to do any of it perfectly. The object is simply to keep moving and getting the word out.
Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, after publishing the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, went in search of marketing advice from bestselling authors and successful book promoters. After spiritual teacher Ron Scolastico told them, “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down,” they developed what they called, The Rule of 5: Do five specific things every day that move you toward your goal, whether that goal is to write your book or sell 20,000 copies of it.
The first Chicken Soup for the Soul book made it to the best seller list over a year after being published! The authors attribute the book’s success to their sustained effort of applying The Rule of 5 to book marketing for over two years. And they got very creative about it. In addition to sending out 5 review copies a day or doing 5 interviews, one of their promotional ideas was to send copies of their book to the sequestered jurors at the O.J. Simpson trial. Since the jurors couldn’t watch TV, Canfield and Hansen sent them something to read. During the nationally televised trial, jurors could be seen entering the courtroom holding copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul
It’s never too early to start promoting. When you share your writing journey with your fans and followers, it makes them feel invested in your book. It’s also never time to stop promoting. You can create special offers to promote your book not only at launch time, but when you win a book award, on the anniversary of publication, when something in the news seems related to your book, when you launch your next book, and on any other occasion that seems related.
