17 Effective Book Marketing Tips for Self-Published Authors

Congratulations on finishing your book! Completing a book is a massive undertaking, and few people make it to the end.

Unfortunately, your indie author journey doesn’t stop when you hit “publish.” Now you have to market your book.

In this article, we’ll consider best practices for getting your book more exposure and building a loyal following.

Market your self-published book

Writing a book doesn’t guarantee that your book will sell. Even if your book is the next Great American Novel, if it doesn’t reach your audience, it won’t be a success. That’s why book marketing tactics are indispensable.

Proper book marketing takes planning, organization, and consistent action; it’s work. But the good news is that marketing your book is also about connections and relationships, which makes the journey more enjoyable.

Below we’ll walk through play-by-play sales and book marketing steps so potential readers find your book and buy it.

1. Define your target audience

The first step in creating a book marketing plan is to define your target audience. Who are your readers? What are their interests, demographics, and reading habits? Understanding your audience is key to developing effective marketing strategies that will resonate with them.

2. Set Goals

A little (or a lot of) prep work can save you massive headaches. Before your book release, you should ideally have a book marketing plan ready to go. It’s also helpful to prepare your materials and graphics ahead of time.

What are your overall goals? Do your research and set healthy, challenging goals for your book.

3. Create a budget

Book marketing can be expensive, so it’s important to create a budget and stick to it. Consider the costs of each marketing tactic and prioritize those that will have the biggest impact on achieving your goals. If you have a budget of zero dollars, don’t sweat it too much—with a little work and a lot of support from your community and/or readers, you can create an impactful marketing plan with virtually no budget.

4. Develop a timeline

Develop a timeline for your book marketing activities, taking into account the release date of your book and any events or holidays that might impact your marketing efforts. Be sure to build in time for creating marketing materials and reaching out to media contacts. The more you can do ahead of time, the less stressful your marketing process will be.

When you’re planning the book marketing campaign, here are a few things to brainstorm content:

• Title reveal
• Cover reveal
• Excerpt release
• Teaser images and quotes
• Early reviews
• Readings
• Games and events (these are easily hosted online, through venues like Twitch or YouTube, or Instagram/TikTok Live)
• Pre-order giveaways
• Release party

Select your book marketing tactics

To craft an effective book marketing plan, you should set goals that can be broken down. Setting specific goals, especially with time segments, makes progress and hitting milestones easier. Try setting achievable, realistic goals, but don’t be afraid to challenge yourself!

Here are more book marketing tactics to consider:

5. Book marketing launch team

If you aren’t in the position to have a team of readers ready to help, you might just have your mom, a spouse, and/or a writing partner, and that’s totally fine, too. 

Whatever your team, here are a few things you might consider to manage them:

Choose your members

If you are in the position to be a little choosier with your group members, you might post an open call to your platform to ask for signups. Lots of readers love to join street teams for their favorite authors because they’re typically enthusiastic about the book, excited to hang out with the author, and ready to be helpful!

Gather the team

You’ll want a place to speak with your whole street team at once to give instructions, swap book promotion ideas, and keep everyone up-to-date with the current goals. This might be a Facebook group, a Discord channel, or a Twitter group chat. 

Make a plan with clear instructions

The very first task is usually to read the book itself. While you can ask your street team for input and book marketing ideas, you will usually do most of the planning yourself. Consult that marketing plan you made and see what can be broken down into smaller tasks to delegate to your volunteers.

Thank them profusely/use rewards

Ideally, you can offer a reward for each task your members do. For example, you might have a weekly “challenge” for your team (e.g., post a review, call a library, make a social post), and everyone who participates is put into a drawing for a prize.

Do whatever makes sense for your budget.

Examples of tasks you might give your launch team:

• Requesting their libraries/local bookstores to stock your book
• Leaving reviews on places like Goodreads and Amazon
• Making videos, blog posts, and posting about your book on social media
• Recommending you for podcasts and other forms of interviews or guest spots.
• Sharing a link to your book on social media
• Mentioning your book to others who would be interested in your topic
• Reviewing your book on Amazon
• Downloading your book from Amazon to boost numbers
• Reaching out to bloggers or other media
• Helping out with your webpage or social media accounts

The street team can be a very effective piece of the book marketing puzzle, so be sure you utilize and thank your team properly!

6. Presale period

A presale is a huge tool for authors because it gives you lots of time to hype up your book, get sales rolling before it is available, and qualify you for a few different writing awards. It’s a great idea to offer incentives for people to preorder, like exclusive content (e.g., the first few chapters of your book), deleted scenes, a preview for your next project, a physical gift—whatever you think would entice your audience.

7. Social media

One of the most powerful book marketing tools authors have at their disposal is social media. It’s free, it’s accessible, and the growth potential is infinite.

Here are a few of the major ones to consider when setting up your social media profiles. 

YouTube

Here are examples of specific things to do on YouTube to promote your book:

• Book trailers. Book trailers don’t do much for drawing in new readers and viewers, but it’s a good way to let your current viewers know that you have a book out and to give them an idea of what to expect.
• Plug your book at the beginning/end of the videos. If you’re making compelling content, you’ll draw viewers, so that’s free space for you to mention anything you’d like people to pay attention to.
• Promoting giveaways and promotions in your videos. This is just something else to mention at the beginning/end of your videos. If you’re hosting a giveaway, definitely announce it on all of your platforms!
• Craft content that works as a hook for new viewers and as a selling point for your book. For example, instructional videos on interesting topics around your book’s genre or theme.
• Offering ARCs to booktubers. Even if you don’t have your own YouTube channel, it’s great to form relationships or get in contact with BookTubers so you can offer them an advanced copy of your book for them to mention or review in their own video.

Facebook

Like I said, Facebook is great for a mature readership. That considered, Facebook users tend to respond well to engaging posts where they can share their opinion, and accessible content, like videos and pictures directly uploaded to your Facebook page.

Instagram

Even if you don’t have your own Instagram, you can reach out to Bookstagrammers the same way you can reach out to Booktubers to get them to post about your publications.

Twitter

Twitter is a great place to connect with other writers, editors, agents, and readers. Utilize hashtags to connect with people interested in your genre, or just writers in general. Some good tags to start with are #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #AmWriting[YourGenreHere]

TikTok

For a younger audience, use younger platforms. Platforms like TikTok offer quick content in digestible bites that are easier to consume.

Each social media platform has unique user demographics, so once you know your ideal reader, you can find where most of them congregate. It’s usually more effective to choose 1 – 3 platforms to focus on. That is why we recommend you choose two social media sites and post to those.

8. Advanced Readers

Advanced readers are people you send your book to (ARCs – Advanced Reader Copies, also called book galleys) for them to leave reviews before the book is released. This is another good reason to have a pre-sale period because you can collect reviews from ARCs before the book is available for purchase. Most people are more likely to buy a book that already has reviews. Another important part of distributing ARCs is to strategically target certain content creators to get your book exposed to more audiences.

Positive reviews are HUGE for continued sales and getting your book in front of new readers. Note: It’s against most platform policies to request positive reviews, so ask your readers to leave honest reviews instead on Amazon, Goodreads, or their blogs.

9. Giveaways

Offering giveaways is a great way to boost book sales. Gifts can range from writing critiques to merchandise — whatever gets your readers excited is what matters.

10. Guest Spots

Look for guest opportunities on other people’s streams, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc., to talk about your book, writing, or something you’re an expert on. Putting yourself in front of other creators’ audiences is a fast way to grow your own.

11. Release Day Event

Even if you can’t host one in person, a release day event can boost your sales. TIP: When you’ve got an event coming up, mention it at least a month in advance, then remind your audience with increasing frequency as it approaches.

12. Promos and ads

While some advertising spots cost money, there are a few free options, such as finding websites that review books in your genre and applying for or paying for a review of your book.

Another good option is newsletter swaps with other writers, where you trade a section in your respective newsletters to advertise each other’s books.

And of course, you can run paid advertisements on the social media platforms of your choice. This can be pretty useful (depending on your genre) but isn’t necessary.

13. In-person and virtual readings

Lots of writers opt to sell their books in person by attending school and library events, like book readings and signings. Book readings are a great way to sell children’s books, both by appealing to the children and the faculty and parents present.

14. Author Website

Author website: Create a website that showcases your book and provides information about you as an author.

Having an author website is the difference between renting or buying a piece of property. When you rent, you are living in someone else’s space. It doesn’t belong to you and they can cancel your lease at any time.

Maintaining your own website on a hosted server with your domain name is like owning that piece of real estate. You can customize your site your way, and publish your own content, and you are always in complete control of how it looks and what gets published. When it comes to marketing your book on your website, the sky’s the limit. You can:

• Publish your book’s landing page on your site.
• Post blogs about your upcoming book.
• Create a countdown timer for the book’s release date.
• Set up an affiliate link to your Amazon page so you get commissions on book sales.
• Include sample chapters from your book.
• Link to video clips about the book on your website.
• Communicate directly with your email subscribers about new releases or your current blog post.

To set up your website and personal blog on a paid server, you can try Bluehost or Godaddy. For a domain name, check out name.com

15. Build your email list

One benefit of having an author website is building an email list. Your email list is yours. It doesn’t belong to Amazon or social media. You control what you want to say to your audience, how you say it, and when. Imagine if every time you had a new release ready to launch, hundreds or thousands of people were waiting for it so they could get it first. Having an email list on your platform where readers can sign up is an integral part of a strong book marketing strategy.

16. Reach out to Influencers

When it comes to book promotion,  influencers can have a big impact. What is an influencer? Influencers can be podcasters, bloggers, or authors with a strong following. It’s someone with an established platform that can get you noticed.

An influencer is someone who has a lot of promotional weight and can spread the word about your book to thousands of people with just a brief mention to their email list, on their blog, or by sharing on social media.

17. Get on book promo sites

Book promotion sites allow you to offer your book at limited-time discounts or free to a larger audience. The benefit can be massive exposure because promotion sites have millions of subscribers divided by genres, reaching potential customers you may not gain access to on your own.

For example, Bookbub has a massive following and can get your book delivered to thousands of readers. The cost isn’t cheap and can run you anywhere from $200 to $2,000 for a promo, based on genre, category, and the price of your book; but it could be worth it.

Other book promotion sites (some are free) include:

• BargainBooksy 
• BookDealio 
• BookDoggy 
• Hellobooks
• LitNuts 
• MyBookCave
• The Fussy Librarian
• BookSends 
• BookRunes 

Don’t launch your book without a book marketing plan

The best time to start marketing your book was six months ago. If you haven’t done that, the next best time for marketing your book is right now.

Many authors make the mistake of getting their book out there, doing a promo with their launch team, and then starting to work on a book marketing plan. The best thing you can do is have your book marketing tools defined and ready to roll into action when they are needed.

Don’t stop marketing after your book is out

Marketing takes planning, and you have to be strategic. This means building buzz early and keeping that buzz going for months up to and even after the launch.

Measure your results

As you implement your book marketing plan, be sure to track your results. Monitor book sales, website traffic, social media engagement, and other metrics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing tactics. Determine your metrics before the marketing plan launches. Compare your results to your beginning goals, and don’t be afraid to tweak your methods as you go.

Creating a great book marketing plan can be a daunting task, but by following the steps in this article, you’ll be well on your way to reaching your target audience, achieving your goals, and building a successful author platform.

Check out this post on book marketing mistakes you’ll want to avoid.

FAQ

What is book marketing?

Book marketing is about getting your book noticed and sold. It involves promoting your book to your target audience through various strategies like social media, a launch team, and free PR activities to boost its visibility and drive sales.

How do I market my book after publishing it?

After publishing, market your book by creating an author website, engaging on social media, building a launch team, and reaching out to bloggers and influencers for reviews. Use free PR opportunities and offer promotional deals to attract readers.

Can I hire someone to market my book?

Yes, you can hire professional book marketing services. Professional book marketers can help create a marketing plan, execute strategies, and reach a wider audience. This can provide the extra help you need to market your book effectively. 

How much does it cost to market a book?

Book marketing costs vary. Basic efforts like using social media and creating a website can be low-cost. Hiring a marketer, running ads, or extensive PR campaigns can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

Can I get free PR for my book?

As a new author, the opportunities for FREE promotion options are virtually limitless. The key is getting your book and face in front of potential buyers. It takes a little effort and coordination to make this happen, but the payoff will be worth it. Five ways to capitalize on free PR include: interviews, external blogs, inbound links to your website, speaking engagements, and book clubs.