5 Ways to Market Your Book or E-book

Note: I may earn money or products from the companies, products, or links mentioned in this post.

It’s 2016, and more and more people have started to either publish or self-publish a book. Many of those people are bloggers. Bloggers have realized that publishing a book is a great way to get more readers and subscribers, and also to show their knowledge and expertise in one or more areas.

While I only have one book out so far (Journey Through Deployment: Stepping Forward with Confidence During Military Separations), I plan on writing several more and have already started working on them. Even though it was published back in 2013, I have sold many copies and learned so many things along the way.

One of the most important things about publishing a book is marketing it. Without a proper marketing plan, it may be hard to get good sales. That’s why I’ve compiled these tips and suggestions on some of the best ways to market your book. Good luck!

How to Market Your Book

1. Make a Marketing Plan
I know this one seems obvious, but it is very important to start marketing before your book is even ready. With a marketing plan you can start figuring out beforehand who your ideal readership is and start your marketing months beforehand.

As a virtual assistant, I have done several book marketing plans for authors. At the price of $200, I will write up a book marketing plan of at least 5-6 pages. If you don’t know how to start your marketing plan or how to do one yourself, let me do it for you! Once it’s finished all you have to do is follow the plan and put it into place.

“You’ve put in the hard work it takes to write a book, but marketing it in order to make sales doesn’t get any easier. We will create a marketing plan to help you easily promote your book through social media and other outlets. We want to help you become a well-known author with a steady income, saving you time so you can focus on writing more books. “

Interested? Check out my services page for more info!

2. Find Your Marketing Team
This tip is another one I suggest doing before your publishing date. Find a group of people (friends, bloggers, family, etc), that will help you market your book. I prefer other bloggers because they are good at getting the word out about these types of things and many love doing book reviews.

Many authors like to start a private Facebook group and add their marketing team to it so everyone can brainstorm together. Having a group will let you easily give your team updates and information plus any marketing graphics you may have. Usually you can give your team a free copy or copies of your book for themselves and to giveaway in exchange for them helping you market the book. Be creative and you will find a great team to help you out!

3. Host a Twitter and/or Facebook Party.
Once published, you can drum up sales by doing a Twitter or Facebook party. I decided to do both. I did a Facebook party when it first came out and then later I did a Twitter party. Spreading out the two social media parties helped keep the marketing momentum going even months after the publishing date.

During the party, give away copies of your book and other prizes. Make it a big deal so that people will want to join. If you already have a few reviews, include some in the party and let the words convince your party-goers to purchase. Plan the party ahead of time and plan out or schedule what questions you will ask to get people talking. Make sure you have a way to choose multiple giveaway winners and most of all, have fun!

4. Use Email Marketing.
While this is a popular method, there are actually several different ways I believe you can use email marketing for your book. The first would be to give your email subscribers a copy for free or at a special discount that only they get.

The second would be to cold email bloggers and others with your press kit which includes a book sheet and a bio sheet. These two sheets include info about you the author, your book, and how to get in touch with you. You can see an example of my press kit here.

In your email, you can let people know beforehand when the official publishing date is to get them excited. You can also send them excerpts, or a summary of what it’s about. Feel free to ask if they would review it (for a free copy of course). Attach your press kit and you are good to go. If you send out a bunch of emails you should get at least a handful of interested people willing to do a review.

5. Shout Your Book
Only recently did I find out about this awesome site called, Shout Your Book. I decided to try them out because it seemed like a very cheap way to get some help with marketing. I was very very pleased with the results and the month I purchased their services I had over 60 sales. I’m not sure it was all from their promotions, but I think the majority of the sales were.

How it works is you pick a promotional plan (monthly, quarterly, or bi-yearly), and they will feature your book on their site, on their Facebook and Google+ pages, in their email newsletter, and most importantly on all four of their twitter accounts – tweeting about it once per day on all four accounts. I picked the monthly plan (I only paid for one month) for only $14.99 and was very happy with the results.

Note: I was not asked to write about this site. I liked their plans and prices and wanted to tell others how great they were. I was not paid for this review.

Are you a published author? What are some marketing tips you have used?