3 Steps to Successfully Market a Book for a Market-Challenged Author

In today's guest post, author and online marketing expert Kathleen Gage shares her tips for successful book marketing.

Ask most any author what they love most about writing and they will likely say writing the book. The second most rewarding aspect of writing is the feedback they get from readers, with book sales next and marketing way down the list of “love to do’s”. 

Even though you, as an author, may not know how to market or just don’t like marketing, the fact remains that without marketing you likely won’t have sales, and without sales you won’t hear much back from readers because you won’t have many. 

As a self-published author or one published by an independent publisher, the responsibility of marketing rests on your shoulders. If you’re an independent publisher, it is to your benefit to work with your authors, helping them to understand the importance of their involvement in marketing. 

Marketing used to be some mysterious process by which a book made its way into the hands of the reader. Today, with the onslaught of social media, marketing and promotions is not so mysterious, but more like sharing with a friend than some “it’s all about the numbers” process.

With social networks, blogs, web radio, teleseminars, online article directories, virtual-book tours, and video sites galore, authors have so many options that the challenge today can be narrowing down what will give the author the greatest return on time invested.

One huge benefit in today’s marketing arena is it can be done for virtually nothing, which is very, very appealing to authors who are on a limited budget.

If I had to narrow down all the marketing avenues to the three that would give most authors the biggest bang for their buck, I would recommend their own blog, guest blogging, and social networking.

Author’s Blog

It’s hard to imagine anyone without a blog, but it’s more common than most would realize. Authors who do not have their own blogs are holding themselves back unnecessarily. (If you are an author and don’t have your own blog, you are holding yourself back unnecessarily.)

Blogs offer some of the best SEO you can get. With every post you make, you increase your visibility and potential readership.

Make sure to use keywords in the titles of your postings as well as throughout the post.

Guest Blogging

This can be one of the most effective marketing strategies you can use. When you are a guest blogger you are reaching a whole new group of potential buyers for your book. As a guest blogger you are viewed as more of an authority due to the fact you are writing on someone else’s blog.

Finding guest post opportunities is actually not that difficult. However, finding those that offer the best match for what you are writing about can be a bit more difficult. Don’t invest time and energy guest blogging to a readership that would not have interest in what you write. 

A quick search on a blog directory site like Technorati will bring up ample choices of blog owners who would love to have skilled guest bloggers.

You may be pleasantly surprised at how willing many blog owners are to have fresh content for their blogs. Your inquiry may come as a welcome relief to many blog owners, especially when they get stuck for ideas of their own.

The more guest posts you do, the more opportunity you create. Visibility creates activity. After a point, it is not uncommon for a blog owner to approach an author about being a guest blogger.

As with anything, be consistent with this strategy. A onetime shot at guest blogging is not going to give you anywhere near the results you will receive if you do two or three posts per week.

Social Networking

As with blogging, if you are not involved in a few of the key social networks you are behind the eight ball. The flip side of not being involved are those authors who believe they have to spend countless hours in several social networks seven days a week. This is a surefire recipe to social-network burnout.

Be very targeted in your approach to social networking. For example, in Facebook you can have a book fan page also known as a professional page. This allows you to build a following of those interested in you and the genre of your book(s).

As with anything, you must actively communicate with your FB Fans. The more you become a “real person” to others, the better. The best way to do this is to be yourself, be actively involved and be responsive to posts your members have made.

There you have it — three highly visible, results-driven methods to market you and your books. If you have not done any of the above-mentioned items, start today with one.

If you’ve incorporated any of these ideas into your book marketing, it’s time to up the ante. Evaluate what has been working, then do more of it. After all, the more you do of something that works the more book sales you are likely to enjoy. The more book sales you enjoy, the more readers you will have. The more readers you have, well . . . you know how good that feels. It’s a surefire way to inspire you to write more.

Kathleen Gage is an Internet-marketing advisor who works with spiritually aware speakers, authors, coaches and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge into money-making products and services. Find out how you can learn from Kathleen on how to market more books, faster and for less through her Street Smarts Marketing VIP Club.

Comments

[Stas Antons]

All good recommendations, I would only add two points:
1. This is a perfect example where the whole is greater than the sum of parts. I think having a comprehensive approach makes marketing efforts more "packaged" if you will.

2. When implementing this approach consistency is key. Have to keep going day in and day out.
Good article.
-Stas Antons
SmartSymbols for Books

[Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D.]

I like the idea of balance so as not to burn out, Kathy, but that's easier said than done. Our proposal is out to publishers now and we're busy blogging, distributing articles and publishing newsletters. Is there a 'tutorial' for social networking, as it seems to involve a whole new learning curve?

[Dana]

Thank you Stas and Phyllis.

Yes, it's definitely a challenge to juggle writing, publishing and promotional tasks, especially if you have a day job. I think the key is to have a plan and to prioritize. Here is a list of resources for learning more about social networking:

http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/resources/promote-your-book-with-social-media-marketing.html

Here is a recent time management article:

http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/ezine/making-time-to-promote-your-book-january-2010.html

Good luck with your book!
Dana

[Doreen Pendgracs]

Great post, and a topic that I have thought much about, as I have one book coming out this week, and another in the works.

Social media is definitely the key to an author's success in today's market.

With 80 followers on my blog, more than 1250 on my twitter feed, 145 fans on the FB fan page for my new book, a newly redesigned website ... I think I'm ready to go!

Please join the fan page for "Before You Say Yes ..." and help spread the word about the book to anyone you know who is involved with a non-profit or volunteer board. Find the page at:
http://www.facebook.com/beforeyousayyes