You’ve spent days and days, months and months, or even a number of years writing your book. You’ve finally hit go on publishing the final draft and you now have your masterpiece in-hand. Now comes the great challenge of how you are going to market your book to an audience. It would be nice if you could just make a quick Facebook post about your new title and have sales just flow in from there. But unfortunately, that’s not realistic. Having worked with hundreds of authors through their process of self-publishing, we have gathered some insight into the unique ways that some authors choose to market their book to lock down sales. Here are 4 creative ways to market your book:

Giveaways or Contests

High engagement on social media means that the algorithm is triggered to show your post to more people. Social media platforms are set up to both encourage and reward quality content and it is celebrated by expanding your reach. Therefore, giveaways/contests are a great way to produce high engagement on a post and grow an audience. The only cost to you is whatever product you are giving away.

Post a (high quality!) photo of the prize (your book, your series, bookmarks, etc.) and then write out a caption instructing followers to “tag 2 friends in the comments” to be entered to win. You will announce the contest closing date as well, and on that date, you can use one of the many free websites to enter all of the entrees into a jumble to select a random winner.

Not only is this a fantastic technique to grant you high exposure on a post, but it also introduces new people to your page. The friends that are tagged in the comments section may not follow you, so they are drawn to check out your profile when their friend tags them in the contest. You also need to be sure to include the caveat that giveaway winners “must be following you” in order to win. This means that everyone interested in the prize will now be following you and it’s a great way to build your follower list.

Influencer Partnerships

Influencer marketing is growing in popularity. Why? Because people tend to trust their “peers” more than companies or celebrity endorsements. When an influencer posts about, or offers a review on a product, their audience tends to trust their opinion because they have built up that trust through branding themselves and connecting with their audience over time. Reaching out to micro-influencers especially (less than 100,000 followers) can be very effective as they tend to specialize in a niche and have built amazing rapport within that community.

So, for example, if your book is a fantasy book, you might consider reaching out to a local cosplayer and have them post about your book. Obviously, nothing is free, so you usually need to incentivize them to post, in the form of free product, money, or exchange of services.

Ads

There are many places that you can purchase ad space for your book, and choose the audience you’d like to target. A few options include; Google Search Engine ads, Facebook or Instagram ads, and ads on sites such as Written Word Media or EReader News Today. You are in control of how much money you spend, as it depends on your goals. Ads can be fairly inexpensive if you do them right. Do some research into creating an effective ad.

Book Clubs

A good idea to get your book out there is to petition book clubs to feature your book. You can reach out to a member of the book club or donate a copy. A lot of times, the book club members will post about books they liked, or you could request a review online such as a Google review. Sometimes, this can transfer into word of mouth recommendations as well, which are always powerful and effective.

Takaways

Your book could feature a highly attractive cover, a well-written story, and quality printed pages, but if you don’t have an audience, you’re not going to make any sales or get a return on all your hard work. Remember, as an author, you are your own brand. (Please check out our post on building an author brand here.) It’s a good idea to take some or all of these ways to market your book into consideration so that you have the success you deserve.