Book Marketing 101 - What Every New Author Needs to Know

00:02 - Lynn Smargis (Host)

Hello friends and future authors. This is Lynn Eliquity Smarges, the owner of the Unicorn Publishing Company and ghostwriter. I am so excited to have another episode of Write, edit and Publish your Podcast. This is the podcast for people who don't write for a living, but you do want to write a book. Maybe it's a memoir, maybe you just want to write about your life and leave a legacy for your kids or your grandkids. Or maybe you're a speaker and you want to get better paid speaking gigs or up your game in speaking and get put in a whole nother level from other speakers who don't have a book. This is the podcast for you. I'm so glad you're back. Or, if you have just discovered this podcast, welcome.

00:47

My name is Lynn Smarchus and I am your host, and today we're diving into a topic that strikes fear into the hearts of many authors and business owners book marketing. Now, I know what you're saying. You are a professional, you might be a speaker, you might be a thought leader, but you're not a marketing expert. But the hard truth is, my friend if you're going to want your book to succeed, you have to start to embrace your marketing maven. Don't worry, though by the end of this episode you're going to have a idea of what you need to know with book marketing basics, right? We're just going over the basics today. We're not going in depth into like doing funnels and email chains and all of that stuff, right, like email drip campaigns. We are just going over basics on what you need to do when you're marketing the book, because the easy part is writing it. The quote unquote easy part is writing it, right, the hard part is marketing it and getting it out there. And one of the biggest challenges with marketing your book is like and this happens almost every time I write a book, right, I'm like, okay, I'm going to write this book and I want to publish it on like in January. Right, in January rolls around, I'm like, ah, I'm not ready to publish it yet. So you know, life gets in the way and that's okay, but you still need to plan. And what I like to do is, instead of planning a date, I like to plan a month. So I'm going to have my book done by the end of March, right, or something like that. Or I want to have my book done by spring. That's a little more general, but anyway, you still need to have some kind of timeline or goal. So you need to know how to plan, because you want to start marketing early, right? So first things first. You want to start with a marketing plan about six months ahead of time. Figure out your marketing plan. So if you're planning to publish the end of April, you want to start thinking of a marketing plan in November, right?

02:42

One of the things I always recommend is never publish your book in December. It's a bad idea on so many accounts because, like one is like everybody's Christmas shopping, everyone's busy. There's so much competition for advertising. If you're going to advertise, don't publish in December. A couple times to publish that are really good times are January, which is why I'm publishing my book. This in publish my book in January.

03:04

And another great time to publish your book is September, because kids are going back to school. There's not a lot of competition for ads and stuff like that. It's a really good time to publish your book. You can also publish your book.

03:13

Another good time is May, because people aren't super busy, right? You don't want to publish your book around major holidays, when people are super busy, that's for sure. And you don't want to publish your book during the holiday, christmas time and winter because ads are so expensive, because everybody's buying advertising and you're going to get lost in advertising, so it's going to be more expensive and not as many people are going to see your ads. So definitely keep that in mind. All right, but anyway, you want to start planning three months ahead of time and you want to or excuse me start planning three months ahead of time and you want to or excuse me start planning six months ahead of time and you want to start initiating your campaign at least three months before you want to publish your book. That is ideal. Now, it doesn't always happen. It doesn't always happen with me, and I've done this like several times, but that is what you want to do. That's the ideal thing.

04:00

So this is called your pre-launch period and you want to do what's called building buzz. Right, like generating excitement, maybe putting your book up for pre-order and ensuring your book hits the ground running on launch day and that people already know about it before you launch your book. So some key pre-launch marketing activities might include building your author website, but you don't have to have an author website to launch a book. Maybe you're a professional and you're a speaker and you have a website already. That's great. Make a page that says book and put your book on there and start talking about your book. Maybe you're talking about your book in your blogs. Maybe you're starting to talk about your book on your podcast, right. Build a stream of early reviewers. So take your book and you can share it with people. And I always have them fill out a non-disclosure agreement so that they're not going to talk about the book, that they know it's copyrighted and they're not allowed to take any information from it. But I ask people to like, read a chapter of my book and I have it on a Google Doc and they read that chapter and then they can write a review about it before the book even comes out. So things like that are super helpful.

05:08

You want to build your social media presence and also, if you don't have a podcast, pitch yourself to podcasts, right. So one of the things I always recommend to people a lot of these places that say, oh, we'll come out and find people for you. They are not great places because I've gotten so many emails from people like that and you can tell they haven't even listened to an episode on my show, because what they're writing about is not what my show is about and what they're pitching their expert for is not going to be a good value for my listeners, right, and you can tell, a lot of these places don't even do their research. So a lot of these places for hire to find podcasts to be on not good. What I highly recommend is a platform called Podmatch, so you can get on there if you have a podcast, or you can get on there if you want to be on a podcast or if you want to do both, and so what you do is you set up a free account and you can get up to, like, I think, four a day for free. But if you want the paid account, you can get more opportunities to match with people.

06:11

So fill out your profile, like you say I'm a podcaster and you can have two profiles. So you can say I'm a podcaster and I'm looking for to be on a podcast, and then you can talk to people on that platform who have podcasts and say, hey, this is why I would be a good guest for your show. But if you're going to do that, because I've been in podcasting for seven years now, what I would highly recommend is that listen to at least five or six episodes of the show, so you know exactly what that podcast is about. And you have to pick a show that does interviews. Some people don't do interviews on their show, so if you're pitching a show and they don't do interviews, that's not going to get you anywhere, okay.

06:46

So make sure that you understand what the show is about, what the niche is, are their listeners your listeners right, and also know when you get on that podcast you're not going to pitch your book the whole time. You're going to give them some really good informational value and then at the end you can usually pitch your book and make sure that you have a collaboration call with the podcaster ahead of time to make sure that you both understand what you're coming on there for, what you're going to do, what the format of the podcast is, and that you get their permission ahead of time to pitch your book at the end. That's super important. You also would be sweet in the deal if you want to give them some money for being a featured guest on their podcast, like 75 or $100. That's really helpful because a lot of podcasters they don't get paid from their guests, especially if you don't know that person already and you haven't met them in a networking event or something you know. Giving them money is really good because they're spending their time and effort and they're marketing your book on their podcast, and that's one of the actual best ways to grow your audience is to market your book on a podcast.

07:51

All right, some other things you can do is do some guest blogs, and you can also do some guest posts on other websites. So if you know other people who have websites that have a complimentary audience or a complimentary service that has the same audience, that's a great thing to do a guest post and offer them to do a guest post in return. Right? Don't just ask but say, hey, do we do mind if we did? Like swapped guest posts on our blogs? That's an awesome way to get some early marketing in for your book right?

08:21

The more groundwork you lay before your book is released, the better position you're going to be for a successful launch. Right so, leveraging your existing platform, so your existing, you might have multiple platforms right. So and that is your biggest book marketing assets you have is the platforms you already have going platforms. Right, and that is your biggest book marketing assets you have is the platforms you already have going on right, especially your email list. So many traditional publishers won't even accept anyone for publishing their book unless they have at least 10,000 subscribers on their email list, and there's a reason why People still read their emails. That is the best marketing you can do for your business and it's one of the best marketing things you can do for your book in addition to podcasts. Right Is having that email list and sending that information out to people, letting them know that you're coming out with a book right, and then here's some of the information you can find in it. Here's some of the pain points that it's going to answer. You're going to have a book special when it's launched, or do a prelaunch. Definitely mention that in your email as well, right, and it's really, really important.

09:17

Some other platform assets you can use are your social media following. One of the things I love to tell people is, if you get on your social media and just make little videos about like each chapter of your book and then just post those you know and you can rotate them out and repeat them every you know three weeks, that's a great way to market your book. Another great way to market your book is to contact some influencers in your space and say, hey, if I send you a PDF copy of my book, would you, would you do a little blurb on it on your channel? Maybe you can give them something in return, right? Maybe you can take that video and put it on your platform. Or maybe you can take that video, put it on your platform. Or maybe you can take that video, put it on LinkedIn and tag them on it, so you know see, what they would like in return for that exchange. Another thing you can do is, you know, market your book on LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn newsletter, especially, that's a great place to market a book. Or if you have a network, either in person or virtual. That also helps your podcast, if you have one excellent way, like I said before, your YouTube channel or your website.

10:19

So one of the things I like to do is take my book chapters and make them and summarize them into blogs and say if you want to find out more, buy my book. That's another great way to talk about your book on your own website. So your existing platform consists of anybody you already know and any platforms you have out there already, right, like YouTube channel, podcast, linkedin, right, and so the people already know, like and trust you, which makes them the perfect audience to promote your book to. So start by announcing your upcoming book to your email list. Offer them the pre-order bonus or discount. Create a sense of insider access, because people love that kind of stuff. Get them to be excited about your book. Launch right. Get them to be excited about your book. Share behind the scenes content on your social media channels, or sneak peeks of your cover design, snippets from your manuscript, photos of your writing process. Build anticipation so people get really excited and give your followers a reason to invest in your book.

11:17

All right, one of my favorite marketing ideas, too, is to summarize a chapter on an episode of my podcast. You can see this an example on my podcast Caring for your Aging Parents. So if you look up that podcast, my last few episodes that I'm going to publish all highlight a chapter of my book and I talk about that in the episode. So people get a sneak peek into the value of my book. So they know what to expect in the book, what pain points my book Sensible Senior Solutions is going to solve for them. So keep that in mind when you're marketing your book.

11:52

All right, harness the power of reviews. Book reviews are the lifeblood of a successful book launch. We all know this. Reviews are social proof, which means they show that you have something that's good, right, that other people are going to want. So social proof lends a lot of credibility to your book and it can be a deciding factor for potential buyers. If people don't see any reviews, or they see a couple and they're not good, then they clearly are going to stay away from your book, probably, right? So aim to have at least 20 to 30 reviews posted on a launch date.

12:22

If you're doing a pre-launch sale, that gives your book a boost in the algorithms and convinces browsers to take a chance on a new author, your book a boost in the algorithms and convinces browsers to take a chance on a new author. How do you get these crucial early reviews? By strategically distributing advanced reader copies to book bloggers, influencers and members of your launch team in the months leading up to the publication. That way they have a copy of it and then they can leave a review on your Amazon review. All right, make it as easy as possible for your readers to leave a review by providing clear instructions and direct links. Don't forget to express your heartfelt gratitude, because reviewers are giving you the precious gift of time and their platform. Also, another thing to remember when you're doing reviews too, which I just thought of, is that you can.

13:09

One of the things I like to do when I ask people for reviews is I give them some prompts like hey, here's, you know, here's some things you can write about. Like, what did you think about this? How did you feel this? What type of value did this book bring? What pain point did this book solve for you? Right, these are all great prompts, because sometimes people don't know what to write, so give them prompts when you are sending them instructions or asking them for a review. All right, keep the momentum going post-launch. So after you've launched your book and it's published congratulations. Now that your book is out in the world, you're going to take time to sit back, relax and watch the sales roll in, right? Nope, not yet. Not so fast, my future author, because this is going to take some time.

13:50

The first 30 to 90 days of the book's release are so critical for maintaining your momentum and ensuring your book has staying power. So you want to have a plan, and what I like to do is get a calendar right and write down what I'm doing each week so that I know what I'm going to be doing. Or you can make a checklist right, like this week, this is how I'm promoting my book. Next week, this is how I'm promoting my book. Right, so you can keep track of who you contacted, where you're promoting your book and how often you're promoting your book every week to get the buzz going around. Right, you can do promotions. You can do giveaways, pitch yourself for interviews and guest posting opportunities. Continue to do that in the first 30 to 90 days.

14:31

Right, considered paid advertising options. So Amazon ads has paid advertising options. So does Facebook. I wouldn't recommend Facebook. I haven't heard anything really great come out of Facebook. Also, I know people have done Google ads for their book and I know that hasn't turned out great either. But you can do some ads there, some specialty ad, book ad things that you can do as well. I've got mixed things on those. I've done this myself. I've got mixed reviews from other people on those specialty book advertising things. But definitely Amazon ads is probably the way to go if you are publishing your book on Amazon and most people are, because 80% of people buy books on Amazon.

15:09

Okay, so remember, book marketing it's a marathon, not a sprint, and it's the your success is going to be based on your consistent, ongoing effort, because that's going to be the key to your long-term success. Because you want to build that loyal readership, right? You want to build that loyal readership of people who are excited about your book and hopefully asking you when's your next one coming out? All right, there you have it, my friends. These are book marketing very basics that every author needs to know and be aware of, right? So I hope this has demystified some of the basic process and given you some actionable strategies to try, right? So definitely get out that calendar giving you some ideas to try. You can do them in whatever order you feel fits that you feel comfortable in.

15:59

And remember, you need to do book marketing, no matter who you are, right? Even if you're an A-lister, you need to tell people about your book, because if you don't tell people about your book, no one's going to know. Of course, if you're an A-lister, you probably have to do. You probably do the same amount of marketing, right? But you'll just sell more books because you're an A-lister. But even A-listers have to do marketing. The most important thing, though, is to start early. Leverage your existing assets that we talked about. Keep your momentum going, even after launch day. Right, that's probably one of the hardest things to do after launch day is to keep your momentum going, because that's when you typically fizzle out as an author for marketing. All right, you've got this, my future author friend.

16:37

And if you found this episode helpful, make sure to hit the follow or subscribe button at the top of your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed this episode and you have a specific question about publishing or writing your book or an idea for a future podcast episode and you'd like to have that answered on the show, I'd love for you to submit your question by going to my ghostwriting website, wwwwriteforyoume. Fill out the contact form. I'd love to answer your question or hear your suggestion for a future episode of the Write, edit and Publish podcast. Join me next week as we dive into the topic of ghostwriting what to ask, how to work with a ghostwriter and what to expect when you hire a ghostwriter. Until next time, my friends, this is Lynn Smarges, ghostwriter and publisher at Unicorn Publishing Company. Keep writing and publishing your amazing books out into the world. See you next week.