Marketing for self-publishers
Ideally, marketing begins whilst you’re still writing. The sooner, the better. After all, you need to keep yourself and your book in the conversation and make it interesting. Both online and offline efforts are equally important. Tell stories about your book and spark a desire to read. To help you with this, we’ve summarised a few key points here:
1 | The foundation of any marketing campaign is the right target audience
Look at your book through the eyes of your readers. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who might be interested in the genre or the title. Ideally, you’ll have already considered this when designing the cover. Even better if you’ve already devised a reader avatar whilst you were writing. This ideal reader is your target audience. Think about where your target audience spends their time, which media they use, and what appeals to them. That way, you can place adverts for your book exactly where they’ll be seen. This ensures that nothing you invest in advertising goes to waste.
2 | You need a plan
Advertising only works if you’ve thought very carefully beforehand about what makes sense where, and how much time and money you have available. A non-fiction book requires different marketing strategies to a poetry collection or a science fiction novel. You then stick to this plan and can use it to measure your success.
3 | The right marketing mix will raise your book’s profile
Promote your book wherever your target audience is. Online and offline: share an extract on your social media channels and groups, arrange a book feature in your local newspaper, organise a reading, or hold a book-signing event at a suitable venue. Remember that you’re creating a website for yourself and your first book. On the one hand, you can sell your books there yourself and write your own blog posts to generate interest; on the other hand, a website is perfect for collecting data. Regular and complementary promotional activities are the most effective! A bit of luck is part of it too, of course ;).
4 | Tell stories about your book
Get your readers excited in advance with storytelling and interviews, post free excerpts, hold online readings, reach out to the press and bloggers, run a competition for readers and distribute review copies. This is how you build your community in the run-up to publication. And very importantly: always bear in mind high-street bookshops. They remain the most important sales channel for books!
If you want to try something out of the ordinary, why not make a book trailer or come up with special extras for your fans? Alternatively, you could promote your book in similar books by author friends. You can also reach out to successful authors. They have a wide audience and might like your book so much that they recommend it to their fans.
5 | Stay in touch
As you build your community, make sure you collect your fans’ contact details. It’s best to bring all these contacts together on your website. Then you can send out a regular newsletter, providing your fans with insights and all sorts of extras. And your next book will reach your community much more easily.
More on the topic of self-publishing
As well as marketing, there are other important points to bear in mind. Get Tips for beginners in self-publishing and take a look at possible Dos and Don’ts on this topic. Also the Advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing versus self-publishing might interest you.
