As an author, there’s nothing better than making the final revision to a manuscript, turning it into the editor, and getting a green light for publication.
Knowing that your work will soon be appearing in print is deeply rewarding, and something you ought to be proud of.
However, if you’re a self-published author, the work isn’t over just yet — in many ways, it has just begun.
That’s because you probably don’t have a marketing team dedicated to the advertisement of your upcoming release. Instead, you’re going to have to leverage all of your creative skills to build excitement around the release of your book.
Here are a few ways you can market yourself and create a buzz around your book.
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Research
It is almost impossible to build excitement around your book release if you don’t research your target market and establish a “reader identity” early on. This might sound a little unnecessary — after all, you have a good idea of your audience just from writing the book — but doing some hard market research can save you time and streamline your efforts.
Professional book marketers recommend constructing a “reader avatar”. This reader avatar is a kind of imaginary, ideal reader that helps you make key strategic decisions about everything from your tone, the events you’ll hold, the book cover, and the platform you’ll publish your book through.
You can also collect more formal research through the use of social media channels and pages which collect key analytic data that will give you a more objective insight into your reader base. To collect these kinds of insights, you’ll need to set up a few social media pages, and should try to tend to them regularly.
Social Media
Big-time authors around the globe maintain a strong social media presence all year round. Just check out Neil Gaiman’s Twitter or John Green’s YouTube channel as evidence. That’s primarily because social media, when leveraged correctly, can be a great place to meet readers and create meaningful connections.
As an author, you can also tap into the power of social media to create excitement around your book release and pick up readers that otherwise would have missed the chance to buy your upcoming book.
However, marketing books in the social media age isn’t as simple as posting a hyperlink to a preorder page and walking away. Instead, you must give your social media audience something of value — primarily, that should be a chance to interact with you regularly.
If you’re new to social media, you can give yourself a head start by utilizing online tools like Pinterest, Adobe, and VSCO that will improve the quality of your posts and attract more followers. This is important, as many folks will correlate the quality of your social media posts with the quality of your book — so ensuring you put forward the right impressions is vital.
Email Marketing
A lot of folks mistakenly believe that email marketing is dead, or simply not as useful as other avenues. But, in reality, email marketing can give you a great boost and can be used to remind interested readers about your upcoming release.
As an author, you’re already in a strong position to utilize email marketing. That’s because most folks who think poorly of promotional info that lands in their inbox won’t feel the same way about a message from an author that they’ve expressed interest in previously.
However, you still need to have a clear email marketing strategy to avoid any faux pas before you press “send”. The best way to do this is to simply take a short email marketing course. This will get you up to speed with all the email marketing tips you need to know and will help you design emails that will attract potential readers to your book’s pre-order page or any upcoming events you have planned.
Events
Writers are pretty split on whether or not book events are enjoyable. Some writers love interacting with their new readers, and get a sense of satisfaction from interacting with the real-life humans who have read their stuff — others couldn’t imagine anything worse.
But, book events are undoubtedly useful. This is particularly true for fledgling writers who are just starting to get off the ground, as the readers who come to your event are probably going to consider buying your book, too.
However, as a self-published author, it can be hard to fill a room of potential readers, as you probably don’t have the same reach that a publishing house does. But, you can still increase attendance at your event by setting a clear date well in advance, advertising provisions like free food and drink, and creating a “theme” that will actually excite attendees.
Wrap Up
Writing and publishing a book should give every author a deep sense of fulfillment and motivation for future works. But, it’s important to pay attention to the work that occurs after your manuscript heads to publication. You can improve your chances of finding success by correctly leveraging social media, running an email campaign, and hosting events that create buzz around your book that will bolster sales and create a community of engaged readers.
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