After working hard to write and publish your book, you deserve the visibility, book sales and accolades that comes with most successful books but like most authors, you must learn the right strategies to promote your book online, if you want to attract this level of success.
Because thousands of books are published across online platforms every single year but most of the times, a large number of these books do not make any sales. To set your book apart and get it across to your readers, you have to find a way to get the sales coming.
As someone who’s worked with different authors over the years, I know a number of writers that have given up their writing dreams because it’s getting more competitive and increasingly difficult to make sales especially as a self published author.
But, I also know about a number of other authors who have braced the odds to make actual sales with their books, in spite of the difficulties. And even in some of the most underrated genres and niches.
Regardless of your status, genre or target audience, I believe you deserve to make sales. Your book deserves to reach as many people as possible. And for this reason, I’ll be sharing with you in the following paragraphs, some of the key strategies that’s worked for most of the top selling authors and how you can use these strategies to promote your book.
Leverage Social Media
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One of the most realistic steps to promote a book online is to leverage the social media. I’ve seen a lot of first time authors focus a large chunk of their book promotional activities solely on social media promotion options.
The Good thing about this strategy is that it’s actually available for everyone. And can be used by anyone, regardless of whether you’re a first time author with zero audience or not.
Another good thing about social media marketing is that it can be tweaked in different forms. From sharing written text to videos, images and even audio, you can create content in different formats just to promote your book.
That said, social media promotion for books will work very well if you have an existing audience or a decent number of followers. And it will work even better if the book you’re promoting is on a topic, industry or niche your audience actually care about.
Where you don’t have a large audience on your social media platforms, this could also serve as a good opportunity for you to use the promotion (and audience building period) to create visibility for the book organically while also building your platform.
If you want to get the most out of social media promotion, you don’t want to target all social media platforms. You may soon run out of steam. Work on using only the social media platforms with the largest number of your target audience so you can be more effective.
This is very important.
Organize a Virtual Book Launch
Even if you’ve already launched physical copies of your book, setting up an online launch of your book is also one of the easiest steps you can use to promote a book online effectively.
And yes, online book launch can also be very effective and even less expensive, when done correctly. I know of an author that did only an online launch for her book. People supported her launch. And the book eventually went on to become a best seller on Amazon.
One notable thing about the virtual book launch is that it brings people together, creates a buzz and awareness about your book and actually brings in the sales. When done right, it can even generate shares, mentions and engagement for the book.
Also, considering that you’re sharing links to your published books during your online launch, this creates an opportunity for new visits to the book’s platform which is very important for book visibility especially on ecommerce platforms like Amazon.
And then there’s the other part. If or where people cannot buy your books directly, you can encourage them to share the links to the page, thus increasing publicity for your work. Either ways, this is a win-win strategy when implemented properly.
Run Targeted Ads
Paid advertising is a great way to boost visibility for books and make sales from scratch. It’s also one of the popular ways to promote your book online as a self-published author.
This option can be a very effective marketing strategy for books that could do the magic, especially where you’re an author without an audience. As an author with an established audience, this can further amplify your sales.
Now, as far as targeted advertising is concerned, there are different online advertising options for books that you can choose from based on your goals. This can include any of the following either individually or combined.
PPC Advertising: Outside social media advertising, there’s also pay per click advertising on platforms like Google among other search engines. The outstanding thing about this ad is that these are usually highly targeted intent based advertising with a higher chance at conversion although they can be very expensive as well and might not necessarily be the best option for authors with a tight budget.
Amazon KDP Advertising: Amazon ads provides a great opportunity for Authors publishing on Amazon to promote a book online and get it across to a larger audience on the platform. Using amazon advertising gives an author different options to promote a book online, based on their budget however, your book has to meet certain criteria to be qualified for paid ads on Amazon.
Sponsored Advertising: As part of your targeted advertising, you can also launch a sponsored advertising option where you promote your book on popular websites, blogs and platforms with your target audience either using a sponsored post, banner ads or direct keyword links back to your website
Consider Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is one of the most popular options used by authors. It can get you visibility and some sales drive especially in your first few days especially if you have a handful of followers or audience generally, interested in your subject matter on your preferred platform.
As a new or existing author, you can also leverage this promotional option to promote your a online and reach a larger audience, depending on your goal.
Also, if you’re planning to use paid advertising, social media advertising can come in very handy, if you’re on a tight budget. This means that you can consider this option to fit in with your budget. And you can cover platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc., depending on your target keywords and other specifics.
Like I mentioned earlier, to get the most out of your social media advertising, you don’t want to target the whole social media platforms. Take time to study insights and use only platforms with the largest number of your target audience.
Also, to make the most of promoting your book online using the social media, you want to consider building thought leadership and creating a solid brand and content around your subject matter. This can work very effectively especially if you’re targeting genres or niches that demands you demonstrate a lot of credibility.
Use Email Marketing
Although not very popular compared to most of the strategies here, email marketing provides you a great option to promote a book online, especially if you’re an author with an existing email list or an author targeting an academic or a very advanced audience.
With an email list, you can share updates about your book, put out promotional offers, send newsletters around your book’s subject matter with snippets from your work and even give readers a few free pages for reads.
Even where you’re without an email list, it can still serve as a good book promotional option. For example, you can partner with other authors or creators with an email list of subscribers interested in your niche content, promote your book to them using exclusive content, free pages or some other freemium or free offers.
There are also situations where authors without an email lists used upselling to get new email subscribers, giving out a free page of their books in return for user email address where they now use to further promote the books.
This option serves two purposes. Can get your subscribers to buy the book after reading the first free page or they can get to buy it based on your strategic email promotional activities.
It also can be potentially used to target a high end audience like C-Level executives, Administrators, policy shapers etc.
Launch a Virtual Book Tour
You’ve probably heard about book tours and how it can potentially help authors boost sales. In 2018, Michelle Obama’s Memoir “Becoming” made headlines as sales hit 3 million just as she increased the number of cities toured to promote the book.
A virtual book tour is the online replica of a physical book tour. And just like any book tour, when you pay attention to do it right, a virtual book tour can lead to a lot of buzz and visibility for your book across platforms.
Unlike offline book tours where you may need to visit actual cities, countries, regions etc. physically, with a virtual book tour, you can get on online platforms targeted at users within those places, cities and regions you have in mind like specific online communities, platforms, groups, spaces etc. and do exactly what you’d do, if you were going on an offline book tour.
For example, as part of your virtual book tour, you can identify specific platforms, communities and groups in your niches whose audience will be potentially interested in your content, find ways to collaborate with their platform leaders and then hold a book tour on the platform.
Good thing is, there are a lot of these spaces on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Find ways to provide value to their audience and then your book can naturally come in as the next best step
As part of your online book tour, you can also host book club meetings with book clubs in your niche, host live question and answer sessions etc.
One standout advantage with online book tours is that you don’t need a very large audience or influence like Michelle Obama to get on platforms. You can leverage a good relationship with the community, your book itself or your brand influence to get on this platforms, add value to them and get the word out for your book.
Host Online Book Events
One exceptional thing about online book promotion is that it comes in relatively cheaper, compared to other promotional options.
Let’s say you want to use virtual book events as one of the options to promote a book online, be rest assured, you may not need people to leave their homes so they can be able to attend your event. That means you’d have cut off on logistics expenses.
That’s because to promote a book by hosting online events, you can use virtually any option. And users can logon or join from any geographic location.
As part of your online event, you can host book reading sessions, book signings, book readings etc., exclusively via platforms like Zoom, Google meet, Social Media Live etc. and have people join you from wherever they are. This can be very effective for a book with an international audience.
You can also host live chats on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc., where you get to interact with your readers, tell stories and share lessons around the subject matter covered in your book, answer audience questions or even host free giveaways to further promote the book.
And finally, you can create further buzz for your book by creating a promotion where you get featured on niche websites, blogs, magazines etc. either by way of your blog posts, guest posting, author interviews etc.
Ps: To be successful with online events, it has to be well planned and coordinated.
Partner with Influencers
When it comes to options to promote a book online, influencers with a large platform in your target niche or industry are a good resource persons you can leverage to get your books the visibility it deserves.
It doesn’t really matter the platform you want to opt for. What matters most is the target audience and the capacity of the platform to deliver on your expected outcomes.
To get started, head over to your preferred platform. This could be anything from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to blogs, websites, online communities etc.
When you’ve been able to identify the platforms you’re able to identify their relevance to your goals, it’s time to identify the platform keepers and then find ways you can partner with them to deliver value to their audience and get visibility for your books in returns.
These partnerships can come in terms of hosting or sponsoring an event, headlining an event that is valuable to the community, hosting contests or giveaways or providing a specific value to the community.
There are also options where you can pay the influencers directly for this kind of partnerships. This can include paid promotion where they promote or introduce your book to their audience, host an event or create content to promote the book directly.
PS: Depending on your preferred choice of influencer or promotional option, this strategy is very effective because it can be paid or free. And it can work for beginners just as it can work for established authors but, be ready to offer a lot of value in return.
Book Reviews & Podcast, Interviews & Features
There are a number of book reviewers and online podcast, creating content about books and others focusing exclusively on book reviews.
Some of the book reviewers have paid options, others are also a few free book reviewers. Also, the podcasters, most of them are free.
You can consider leveraging this as one of the options to promote your book online. Sign up for online book reviews, using either the free or paid options, depending on your budget.
In some cases, you can also reach out to these book reviewers, get them your books for free and ask for an honest review online. There are a number of influencers offering this service free as books to read.
Get on podcast discussing books. Find ways to provide value for the audience and get your books promoted across to them in return.
Pitch platforms for interviews and features. Usually, a lot of authors will always write off themselves from such options, thinking no one will be interested in featuring them.
Thing is, you’ll never know who’s interested in listening to you, until you speak up. So, reach out first. Pitch the favorite platform you would like to get on. Also, pitch the low hanging fruits kind of platforms as well. If you get what I mean.
Get an Author Platform
Another way to promote your book online is by building an author platform like a blog or website and using content marketing to promote and sell your book on that platform.
This strategy is very important because it enables you to build a strong brand, improve on your thought leadership and create a permanent base for your audience.
Also, you can leverage this platform to build your own email list, promote your brand and future works, without having to start from scratch whenever you get to publish.
The best part is that you can also sell directly on this platform, build a fan base and have a permanent home for your work on a single page. You can get an author platform by reaching us here.
Final Words
After putting in all the work to write and publish your book, that book deserves to be read by people. Yes. I want you to know that your book deserves to sell beyond your family and friends circles. That’s exactly I wrote this guide for you.
But I also want you to know that you won’t sell your books or get it into its potential until you take these steps to actually get it out there.
Also, remember, value will sell. People will buy your book when it adds value to them. So before you get on aggressive marketing, be sure that your book is that kind of book you will actually pay the same price to buy, if you were to be the buyer.
So, what am I saying? Meet the needs of your target audience. Go above and beyond to eat and leave no crumbs with your value delivery. And finally, to get your books published online, reach out to us here.
Now, it’s your turn! What are some of your top challenges when it comes to publishing online? Drop your comments below.
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