A book must be marketed right for it to become a bestseller. The best marketing technique is still word of mouth. It is a highly credible and viral resource to create buzz about your work. All you need is a good book and people who are willing to spread the word about it. The marketing process starts before the book is even finished. Start creating an audience while you are writing, leave excerpts and keep your readership ready.
Marketing is an extra responsibility for an author but if you wrote something, you have to promote it, add to the discoverability of the book. Now for the tips of how to market your book:
- Make a budget: How much are you willing to spend on the promotion and marketing of the book. Add travel costs, event costs and everything to it and then make a budget.
- Social Media: The world today is a trend follower, so what you need to do, is making your book the trending hot topic. Share links, snippets of your books at appropriate time on appropriate platforms and write articles that will link your book to the popular interests.
- Get Media savvy: Local media exposure can also do well for the promotion of a book. A nice review in a newspaper or a mention in the radio will get people curious about your book. So you better have a great blurb and author biography to go along with it.
- Pre-release reviews: Early reviews by influential book bloggers is another way of getting your book on the TBR of readers. Start the marketing process at least 2 months before the release of the book by distributing Advance Reader copies to bloggers who will spread the word about your book and create the hype.
- Giveaways: Hold giveaways for a signed copy of your book. Post some free chapters online. The word “free” is often successful in bringing readers towards a book. Give away special bookmarks along with your book.
- Ads: Google Advertisement or Facebook advertisement can help you get a lot more results with little investment.
- Get Amazon reviews: Everyone from publishers to readers check Amazon reviews to decide whether a book is worth it. You have to get at least 20 reviews. Approach any one you know and ask them to leave an honest review on Amazon.
The only thing for you to do is find out your community. What kind of people would be interested in reading your book and what other activities will they be interested in? Connect with them. Have a pitch ready for when someone asks you about your book and make it charming so people get interested in your book.