Contrary to the popular misconception, you CAN make your first book successful even if you don’t land a deal with one of the famous publishers. This blog contains twelve proven tips to help you promote your first book the right way – keep reading!
1. Get Help from an Editor
Publishing a book that is full of grammatical and logical mistakes is not the best thing you can do. To ensure that people are convinced to read your book from start to end, you need to check your book before it’s published.
Finding and fixing mistakes from your own book won’t be an easy task. This is why you should consider getting help from a skilled editor. Only an editor can improve your manuscript before it’s published and ensure that people love your book.
2. Choose a Persuasive Book Cover
Keep in mind that people DO judge a book by its cover before exploring its contents. If you want to make your book stand out on the shelf, you have to ensure that you choose a persuasive cover for your book.
You can explore online resources to learn the book cover design best practices if you want to design the cover yourself. However, if you don’t have time and don’t want to spend time designing, you should consider hiring a skilled book cover designer.
3. Understand the Publishing Process
As mentioned above, you don’t necessarily have to wait for years to land a publishing deal with a large publishing house. You can get published by ANY publishing house that takes pride in what they do and follows the best practices of the publishing industry.
However, you need to check which publishing route suits you most so you can promote your book the right way. Comparing different publishing houses will allow you to make a learned decision and ensure you achieve your sales goals faster.
4. Benefit from Online Stores
A great way to promote your book in no time is by getting it published in one of the leading online publications. For example, you can publish your work on Amazon Kindle to increase your book sales and tap into a great audience.
Choosing the right online store for publishing your book is not difficult. You can start by comparing different publications and choosing the one that suits you most. Besides that, you can also consider asking for advice from established writers.
5. Build an Amazing Website
Making your book accessible and promoting it will be easier if you have an amazing website. The good thing about having a website is that it allows you to have a positive first impression on your potential readers.
Besides that, a website can also help you publish your thoughts as “blogs” to keep your audience engaged. Building a new website doesn’t necessarily require you to hire a developer. You can explore online guides to learn how to build a website that resonates with your target audience.
6. Strengthen Your Social Presence
Not being active on social media will only make it difficult for you to promote your book. If you want to get more recognition for your work in a short time, you should consider getting active on social channels.
The good thing about social media is that it doesn’t require you to spend a lot of time or money. Once you create your accounts on different social channels and develop a content calendar, you can automate processes and get better results from social media faster.
7. Focus on Networking
Having more writers, editors, and publishing professionals in your network will also allow you to promote your book. By relying on your network, you can benefit from “word-of-mouth marketing” and ensure that you increase sales of your book.
Growing your network as a writer is not a difficult task. You can start by exploring local clubs and communities for writers. Besides that, you can also explore online channels to find writers who can help you promote your book and improve your skills in the long run.
8. Arrange a Giveaway
Hosting a giveaway session will allow you to benefit from “word-of-mouth marketing” and help you persuade more people to read your book. Contrary to the popular misconception, you don’t need to spend a lot of time and effort on hosting a giveaway session.
You can explore online tools that can allow you to host a virtual giveaway session even if you are running low on budget.
9. Appear on Podcasts
Podcasts focused on book readers can also help benefit from “word-of-mouth marketing.” On a podcast, you can discuss your journey of writing and how you materialized your dream of publishing a book.
Getting interviewed on a famous podcast is not difficult if you start with a proper outreach approach. Build a list of podcasts you can reach out to get interviewed. When writing the outreach email, make sure you state your purpose of reaching out properly and describe how a conversation with you will be beneficial for podcast listeners.
10. Run Ads Online
The easiest way you can attract the attention of book readers is by running persuasive ads on social media and search engines. For example, you can run social ads so your book can pop up in the feed of book enthusiasts.
Getting started with online advertising is not a difficult task. You can explore online advertisement guides to find out how you can run ads all by yourself without spending a lot of money.
11. Get Book Endorsements
It will be easier for you to increase sales of your book if it’s endorsed by one of the famous writers. Convincing a writer to endorse your book won’t be difficult if you have a strong network. Follow the networking practices mentioned above so you can add more writers to your circle in no time.
12. Grow Your Mailing List
Having a sizable mailing list will allow you to present your book directly to the right people in your target audience. You can use any of the free email marketing tools to get started with your journey of building an email list.
