There are similarities between promoting fiction and nonfiction, but there are also some real differences in what's most effective for selling novels. Wouldn't it be great if you could learn how the most successful novelists promote their books?
After writing several nonfiction books and establishing herself as a leading book marketing expert, Joanna Penn sold more than 18,000 copies of her novels, Pentecost and Prophecy, in just one year.
As you probably know, that's quite an accomplishment for an independently published author. And it certainly didn't happen by accident.
I have invited Joanna to share her fiction marketing expertise in an educational webinar, How to Promote Your Novel: 21 Ways to Sell More Books Online, and that program is now available in video format.
In this practical training program you will get a wealth of actionable ideas for promoting fiction and you'll cut your learning curve by discovering what works and what doesn't.
Visit this page to learn more about Joanna's webinar, How to Promote Your Novel: 21 Ways to Sell More Books Online.
To get a taste of Joanna's expertise in promoting fiction, I invite you to read her excellent article about writing effective sales copy for novels.
For certain marketing and promoting a work of fiction is not as straightforward as it is for a non-fiction or reference book. For a start you are competing against general genres that have a huge range of books written under the same categories whereas with a reference book you can be very specific about what you are providing and put it in the title. Not so easy for fiction.
Posted by: BrianRS | August 25, 2012 at 05:04 AM
Brian, thanks for your note. If your book fits into a specific sub-genre, you can list that in all of your promotional materials. For example, cozy mystery is a sub-genre of mystery. On Amazon you get to select 2 categories for the book to appear in and you can choose very specific categories. If you have a Kindle book, you can join KDP Select and do a promotional campaign designed to push your book up the bestseller list for your particular sub-genre.
Word of mouth is very important for novels, so it's a high priority to get lots of people reading the book and sharing it with others. Another thing to keep in mind - most of the highly successful indie novelists write multiple books, often in series format.
Joanna's training program referenced in the article above is available now on video at: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/savvy_book_marketer/how-to-promote-your-novel.html
Here's a collection of articles about promoting fiction: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/fiction/
More information about KDP Select: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/ebook_publishing/2011/12/amazon-kdp-select-proceed-with-caution.html
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Posted by: Dana Lynn Smith | August 25, 2012 at 08:50 AM