As an author, you are often required to wear the hat of a writer and that of a marketer. In this age of self-publishing, you are extremely lucky if you have a large publisher taking care of marketing and promotion of your upcoming book. But since that is not the case with most of the authors (including you), you have to learn how to market your book.
1. Starting early
The best book marketers say that a book should start getting promoted even before it is written. This essentially means that you start promoting your book the moment you have your plot in your mind. While the idea to start early is great, you need to follow up with a great book. But don’t worry if you have already written your book because there are enough marketing channels available.
2. Brand building
In one of my other articles, I mentioned how an author can build their brand. Before you read on, you may want to see why and how you should build your brand as a writer. Your reader today is not just interested in your book, but also in you as the writer. The more people come to know about you; the chances are they will line up to purchase your books.
3. Creating an enigma
When people are able to read excerpts from your book, their interest is naturally piqued. Don’t ignore this vital element of book promotion. Decide on 5% of the book content that you will use as an excerpt and use it to raise the interest among your readers. The excerpt can be in print media as well as in social media.
4. Free promotions
If you decide to opt for KDP Select, you have the choice of controlling the price of your book for a week or so. Lower the price of your book and let your readers benefit. This will result in word of mouth promotion, the best way for your book to get promoted even in this digital era.
5. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is only a small part of your overall online marketing strategy. Before you get into this tactic, you should have created your online space already. Now you can invite journalists and other authors to comment on your blogs where you promote your book. You will also need to do extensive networking to get some eminent people to write about you on their blogs and websites.
Of course, there are many other promotional activities that you can undertake. It’s a time consuming and expensive affair, but if you get your strategy right, not only will you sell more books, but your brand value will also rise.
Image credit: Joanna Penn on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Profile_Pic_Moumita.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Moumita Goswami is a full-time homemaker and a passionate writer. She stays in Pune with her husband and daughter. After giving up working, she started writing about five years ago and can now be seen using her computer keyboard almost all the time. An MA in Psychology from Calcutta University, Moumita has spent time in Kolkata, Delhi and now Pune. For Moumita, writing started as a sudden chance but she soon discovered her likeness for it. And now she has developed a passion for writing and hardly any day passes without her scribbling a few lines. She dreams of publishing her own book one day and is working towards it.
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