6 Tips for Effective Fiction Book Advertising

When it comes to being a full-time writer, producing the book is only part of the job. This is true whether you’re traditionally published or self-published, and it’s the part of publishing that often catches new writers off-guard. The work is the most important element, but the business side of this industry often goes overlooked. 

One example of this? Fiction book advertising. Fiction advertisements are a vital part of the business end of writing, but a lot of writers have no idea where to start. In this article, we’re going to talk about why fiction book advertising is essential for authors, and how to get started advertising your fiction book. We’ll also cover some examples of fiction book advertising done right. 

Why fiction book advertising is essential for authors

So, why bother with fiction book advertising? If you’re self-publishing, you probably already know that you’re going to need to do your own promo. But if you’re traditionally publishing, chances are you’ll still be responsible for most of your own promotion—this is equally important information for both parties. 

Increase sales 

Most obviously, fiction book advertising will help you sell more copies. It’s just like advertising anything else. Getting the word out there about your book and about yourself as an author, if done correctly, will mean more people buy your book. 

Reach a wider audience 

Ads aren’t exclusively created with the objective of driving sales, though. Ad campaigns are often created with the goal of increasing awareness of a product’s brand—in other words, fiction book advertising will introduce you and your book to a wider audience. You may have friends and family or even an existing online platform, but you’ll want to expand that platform to sell more copies. 

Grow your author platform 

Speaking of expanding your platform—because fiction book advertising is designed to reach a wide audience, it means you’ll pull more people into your platform. Even if someone doesn’t make a purchase because of your advertisement, they might decide to follow your Facebook page or subscribe to your newsletter. This is still a success, and it dramatically increases the chances that person will make a purchase in the future. 

How to advertise a fiction book successfully

The idea of creating ads might sound complicated, but fiction book advertising can be relatively painless. And, if you do it right, you won’t have to spend a ton of money, either. 

1. Create a great cover 

Your cover is your most important marketing tool. This has always been true, but it’s especially true in today’s world of online shopping. 

If you’re already an expert in graphic design, awesome! You can make your own. Otherwise, self-published authors will want to work with a cover artist to get the best possible cover for their book. It should look good as a thumbnail as well as in person, and it should hold up next to other covers in the same genre or subgenre. 

2. Hype your book with reviews 

Reviews are enormously helpful in boosting your book on places like Amazon. In the runup to your book launch, work with a street team to get reviews posted before the book even comes out. When your book does launch, offer incentives for leaving reviews—maybe people who send in a screenshot of their Amazon review get entered to win a giveaway, for example. 

Not only will this boost your book on the platform’s algorithm, but it’ll also lend you credibility as an author. When other people go to check out your book, they’ll see all the existing reviews and feel more comfortable buying it. 

3. Utilize social media 

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and X are all completely free to set up and use, and they’re a great place to start. Do a little research to see where your readers are—teens are more likely to use TikTok than anything else, and readers thirty-five and older are probably on Facebook. 

Work on building a following on whichever platform you choose while you’re producing your book. This way, you’ll already have some followers to whom you can announce your book, and you won’t be kicking off your book launch at ground zero. 

4. Start and use a newsletter 

It may seem strange, but email newsletters are still a reliable way to communicate with your audience. If you don’t already have one, get one set up on your author site (which we’ll talk about in a second). As is the case with social media, you’ll want to have a newsletter established before your book launch. 

5. Create an author website 

If you don’t have an author website, get one set up! You can do it for free on places like Wix, and it’ll make a world of difference. Think of it as a command center for your platform. From your website, readers can find all of your social media accounts, all of the books you’ve written (and links to purchase them), and they can sign up for your newsletter and learn about upcoming projects. 

6. Look into purchasing ads on social media 

If you’ve already got these steps down, the last you’ll want to turn to is purchasing ads on social media. There are a ton of different options which vary depending on the platform you use, so you’ll want to do some research to figure out what your best option is. 

What makes a good fiction advert?

Now that you know where to get started, let’s talk about how to make your fiction book advertising the best it can be. What makes an ad work well?  

A strong hook 

You want something to catch the eye of a potential reader. This might be a sale advertising a bargain, a photo of your beautiful cover, or an engaging graphic with information about your book’s publication on it. 

Easy storefront access 

You also want to make it as easy as possible for the reader to get to your book from the ad. The ad should link directly to your storefront, whether you’re selling books on your own website or through a third party like Amazon. If a reader has to close Facebook, look up your book, find the storefront, and then buy it, they almost definitely won’t. 

Call to action 

Fiction book advertising should have a clear call to action. This might be to enter in a giveaway, to buy a book while it’s on sale, or to pre-order your book before the launch. Whatever it is, it should be very clear. It should also, ideally, be something you can link to in the ad itself. Instead of “go to my Instagram and DM me a photo of your receipt,” link to both the storefront and your Instagram page, so the reader has everything they need to complete the task right in front of them.

Clear campaign 

When you set out to create fiction book advertising, have a clear idea of what you want that ad to accomplish. This will help you in the creation of the ad itself, and it’ll help you track the success of that ad.

Say you’re running a giveaway to get some reviews under your new book. Your goal should be to get more reviews on your book, and everything you do should be geared toward that objective. When the campaign is over, you can easily see how successful you were based on whether you got the reviews you were after. 

Where is the best place to advertise a book?

So, where do you start with fiction book advertising? 

Use what you’ve got

Before spending a bunch of money on Facebook ads, make sure you’re using social media to your full advantage. Making a post on your author page is completely free! Your marketing posts should always be shareable, so that readers can share them with potential new readers.

Create an advertising or business account on social media 

If you decide you want to buy ads on social media, you’ll want to first do that research I mentioned—figure out who your target audience is (which you’ll have done before you wrote the book, probably), figure out which social media platform they’re more likely to use, and set up a profile on that platform. 

Then, you’ll want to create a business or advertising account, if needed. On Facebook, for example, you’ll need to create a business page to run ad campaigns. From this point on, you’ll be following the instructions as detailed on the platform. 

Create multiple ad campaigns across social media platforms 

Finally, you’ll want to run multiple campaigns for fiction book advertising. If you only have one objective—let’s use the giveaway example again—you’ll want to create different versions of that same ad campaign to test for things like ad titles, graphics, and descriptions.

Examples of fiction ads

Let’s take a look at a few advertisements to get a sense for what to do. This is a mix of sponsored posts, or paid advertisements, and regular posts which advertise books. 

Rebecca Yarros: Onyx Storm

This fiction book advertising is successful for several reasons: It included a link to buy the book, it displays the author’s New York Times Bestselling status, and it includes previous books in the series to increase the chance of sales. Not only that, but the covers are on full display and we have an eye-catching background to boot.

Alison Espach: The Wedding People

Alison Espach’s author site uses social proof very well. It not only shows that the book was a New York Times Bestseller, it also includes a Read With Jenna badge and statistics from Amazon sales. If you continue scrolling down the page, there are reviews from famous authors and links to buy the book on multiple platforms. It also shows that The Wedding People will soon be made into a movie!

Emily Henry: Great Big Beautiful Life

Here is is a fiction book ad for a book that has yet to be released as of writing. It’s easy to create an ad with a preorder button to get more people excited about your book. This ad works well because it has a catchy synopsis of the book and uses social proof to show that it is one of the most anticipated books of the year.

Now get out there an make your own ads! Fiction book advertising doesn’t have to be hard – it can even be fun! If you need more assistance with book marketing, feel free to reach out to the team at Self-Publishing School for help.