You’ve written a book. Congratulations! Your manuscript is finished, edited, and self-published after months or perhaps years of work. Of course, you deserve a celebration. So pop the champagne!
Once you’ve taken some time to acknowledge your achievement, go back to reality. The book won’t sell itself! Fortunately, you found this guide with valuable tips on how to promote your book as a self-published author. Let’s dive in.
Tip1: Create your own website
Once your book is published, you must already have a strong brand that people will love and follow. A website and a blog are essential for this. Even before you have finished writing your book, you may help potential readers to discover you. Update your website with content that will show up in the organic search results for your target demographic. For instance, if your book is about managing emotional well-being, you can cover the most recent scientific advances in the area and sprinkle your book’s ideas throughout your blog posts. If your book is a work of fiction, you might discuss the best-selling titles or iconic figures in the field. Then you can promote your book by holding giveaways and contests as the release date approaches.
Furthermore, you must be able to send your potential clients links to your website and blog. It will be how you establish a great deal of trust with your audience. So take the time to build a mailing list a long time before the book release.
The following are some crucial components that your author’s website must have:
- Make a compelling author bio that conveys to readers what you and your books have to offer.
- Include links that allow readers to buy your books from any book store with just one click.
- Invite your readers to join your community by including links to your social media pages or groups.
- Permit users to sign up for your newsletter. This will enable you to send readers your most recent books, articles, and updates right to their mailbox.
Tip 2: Contribute articles about your books on popular blogs
Try posting your articles on well-known websites that receive a lot of traffic. Check out for opportunities on forums that discuss topics related to your book. Also, look for websites or blogs that are popular among your potential customers to feature you in an interview or guest post.
Don’t forget to link to your website and any books you’ve authored or are currently working on in your byline.
Tip 3: Obtain book reviews
If there aren’t enough reviews for your book, readers won’t be eager to buy it. Reviews can lend professionalism, legitimacy, and credibility to your independently published work. Potential readers are gently informed that your book merits their time and money when they see others leave reviews under it. So when someone gets your book, you should urge them to leave a review.
How do you get these reviews? One of the easiest ways is to send a copy to some influential book reviewers and ask them to post their opinions on their blogs, newsletters, and social media accounts. Such partnerships will assist you in bringing in more readers and raising the profile of your works.
Bonus tip: Use a professional email signature for outreach. Add your name, title, and, of course, links to your author’s website and social media. This will let your recipients find information about you without having to google for it. If you add your photo to the email signature, you’ll make your email more human.
Check out these email signature examples to see if you like them and understand how you can make your own signature. Fortunately, you don’t need Photoshop or a designer! Just enter your info (name, links, etc.) in the email signature generator, and you’re done!
Tip 4: Be proactive in social media
It’s easy to forget the essential word on social media: social! Talk to others. You should read and interact on social media for at least ten to twenty minutes each day. Be sincere and personable. Post interesting content that is pertinent to your intended audience. Share the most recent book reviews that you have found on various online stores or review websites. When uploading content about your books on social media channels, come up with original hashtags.
And remember that your message should be different on each network because your target demographic differs depending on which platform they use. Before posting, make sure you are familiar with the social networking platform. For example, Instagram is fairly informal and tends to focus on daily events. You could show the writing or preparations you’re making. Help your followers see you in a much more personal and intimate way. On Facebook, on the other hand, you can write longer texts. Its audience is slightly older when compared to Instagram.
Bonus tip: Who you would like to be talking about your latest book on social media? These people ought to be able to influence your potential customers. They don’t necessarily need to provide a book review; instead, they should tweet or update their Instagram status to say something like, “I’m reading a new book and I love it.”
In this way, they promote your book. As a rule, bloggers and public figures have a big impact on their fans. And when these fans see the influencer testing something, they want to use the same things too.
Tip 5: Learn the promotional experience of the most popular book in your genre
You can learn what works in your genre by analyzing the titles, covers, and typography of other books. Make a short list of the inferences you prefer or find objectionable, and consider your reasons for each one.
Studying the best books has further advantages. You will come across terms and phrases that resonate with and characterize your target audience as you read their reviews. You may aid your target audience in finding your book through their search queries by mentioning these in the metadata descriptions for your book.
Keep an eye out for fair and informative reviews as you move through this process; you can add the reviewers to your shortlist and ask them for a review once your book is finished.
Final thoughts
It can be difficult to know where to start with your book’s promotion, but you need to do it. Pick one of the techniques we listed today and start using it. It can just be a straightforward Facebook post about your book. Or you can make a list of blogs that can promote your work.
Over the coming weeks, test out a few other tactics. Since you’ve worked out how to promote your book, keep doing what works! Continue looking for methods to improve your book advertising strategy. Good luck!