Marketing your book before it’s published—9 tips for success
Posted By Sue Collier on May 19, 2010
One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is waiting until after they have books in hand to start promoting them. Initial sales are often disappointing, and authors end up discouraged. A book marketing plan should be in hand well before the book’s publication date, and there are many steps authors can take to help ensure their books success.
1. Have a website. This might seem like a no-brainer. It’s worth mentioning, though, since I still do get approached by potential authors who seek help self-publishing their book, only to find they have no website. Or authors might have a website but no information on their book—even after it’s been published.
2. Make your website “sticky.” Not only do you want to have a reason for visitors to stick around—and come back—but you want to have a way to capture their email address so you can stay in touch. Offer a free report in return for their email address; then stay in front of them with a regular ezine that provides valuable content and shares your expertise.
3. Start a blog—and update it regularly. I know, I know. Blogging takes time, which is at a premium for most people, and it’s tough to commit to two or three entries per week. But it gives you the opportunity to share your expertise with potential book buyers. Plus search engines love the fresh content, and it will help in your web rankings. You can also share the links on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media sites (more on that later).
Incidentally, make sure your blog is parked at your website and doesn’t have “WordPress” or “Blogspot” in the address. You’ll miss out on valuable search engine optimization if you don’t have your own unique URL.
4. Comment on other relevant, high-traffic blogs. Not only does this give you another opportunity to showcase your expertise, but it’s a great way to get to know people. When you leave good, informative comments in other blogs (not simply “Great post”), you can increase traffic to your own blog. People who read your comments may want to read more of what you have to say and find themselves clicking over to your own blog.
5. Write articles. Informational and how-to articles should be submitted to high-traffic article sites. They will attract visitors back to your website, where you can offer a signup for a free ebook or ezine to share more information.
6. Sign up for Facebook. With more than 300 million users—and growing daily—can you afford not to be there? Because your profile page is all about you—people don’t want to “friend” a book or a business; they want to connect with a person—it’s a nice way to bond with people on a bit more of a personal level and build relationships. Avoid hard selling here.
Join relevant Facebook groups. You can find like-minded people by searching for groups in particular subject areas. This is another great way for you to communicate with others, provide valuable information, and exhibit your expertise.
7. Create a Facebook fan page for your book. Because your profile page is all about you, you’ll want to create a Facebook fan page for your book. Here you can promote your book by adding useful tips and linking to your site.
8. Complete your LinkedIn profile page. If you are a professional, you probably are already on LinkedIn. (If you’re not there, it’s easy to sign up.) Make sure your profile is 100 percent complete. And make sure your profile is public because it allows search engines to find you.
Join relevant LinkedIn groups. These groups are similar to those on Facebook; they also have the added benefit of letting you communicate directly with other members, even if they are not part of your network.
9. Join Twitter. This is the fastest-growing social networking site. A microblog that limits “tweets” to 140 characters, this busy community allows you to connect directly with people better than Facebook or LinkedIn. It offers another opportunity for you to share valuable content and your expertise. When you post a new blog entry, for instance, you can tweet it here—driving traffic to your website or blog. You can “follow” industry experts to keep abreast of the latest news.
You are probably thinking this all sounds like a lot of work. Well, it is. But you can publish the best book in the world—but if people don’t know about it, no one will buy it. These online techniques are simple, free (unless you hire a consultant), and effective. And necessary if you intend to successfully sell books.
About The Author
Sue, a good rundown of basics that every author ought to be familiar with. There’s not bigger online source of readers than social media, and no reason why authors shouldn’t be taking advantage of their skill as communicators. Thanks!
Excellent article – I’ve been working on my blog for the last couple of months, concentrating mainly on using Twitter to develop an audience. Currently getting over a 100 unique visits a day most of which are coming through Twitter. Still not sure about Facebook, mainly how to use it effectively and not much traffic is coming from there – though I haven’t devoted the time to it as of yet.
Joel–I talk to so many authors who are so hesitant to jump on the social media bandwagon. It’s such a great source of potential readers–and relatively easy to maneuver through, once you have a basic understanding of how it works. Thanks, as always, for reading! =)
It sounds like your Twitter strategy is working quite well. (And kudos to you for knowing where your visitors are coming from!) Have you joined relevant groups on Facebook? That can be a great way to interact and increase your following. Thanks so much for stopping by and reading, Ziggy! Hope to see you again!
i really enjoy going through your posts here and i’ve been following from a distance but felt the need to comment to let you know. keep posting. Do you have a RSS feed? I just downloaded bloglines and want to put your blog in there.
Hello, Sue;
I’m getting ready to embark with my novels and was wondering if when I set up a website, blog, Facebook, etc. if I should use my real name or my pen name.
Hi Robert–Thanks so much for the comment! As far as which name to use–if you are only going to be known by the pen name, I’d use that. But if you are also known by your real name, and then will sometimes be writing under a pen name (such as “Robert C. Nelson writing as John Smith” as some writers do) , I’d stick with your real name. For Facebook, though, I would probably go with your real name, and create a fan page for your pen name (and your books, of course).
Hope that helps! Thanks again…and hope you’ll stop back by.
[...] Collier has written a great article here about how to maximise the effectiveness of your online book marketing. She makes the important [...]