What Is The Best Thing You’ve Done To Promote Your Books? [Roundup]
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How can I promote my book?
That’s the question I get asked the most by many authors.
I put that question out to a few authors in my network, and here were the responses.
Click on a photo to go directly to the author’s Facebook page.
The best thing I did to promote my first self-published book was to seek endorsements from people with authority or expertise in the area I was writing on: https://alexklaushofer.com/author-books-nonfiction/author-secret-life-god/
The second best thing I did was to republish sections on specific subjects as shorter ebook. Whereas the other tip very much relied on my experience of traditional publishing, this was a new idea that occurred to me only after I’d self-published a book. Although my work isn’t very commercial, the midterm pubs have definitely scooped up some readers who wouldn’t have bought the whole book.
Website: Alex Klaushofer
Jo Ullah
The best thing to promote my book was ARC readers. When I won Kindle Scout my book was released before publication date to readers who had voted for it. Some of those then wrote reviews which were put up with my novel on Amazon with the pre-order info. These reviews made my book hit the ground running.
Website: Jo Ullah
Clare Flynn
It’s always hard to pick one thing but I’m going to say the best thing I’ve done to promote my books is writing the next book. As well as offering a larger body of work, each book can lead readers to the next one, courtesy of back matter. This is true even when you don’t write a series. But it’s not enough to just slap out lots of books – you need to lavish care and attention on each one. Eventually readers will start to recognise what makes your books different and special and you will start to create fans. Then when they write to you, always write back – treat them as valued friends. Last month one new reader worked her way through my entire eight novels reviewing each one in succession. That kind of following is pure gold!
Website: Clare Flynn
Kyle Waller
I’d say the best thing for me in terms of promoting my book is sheerly networking and partnering with fellow individuals who share like-minded goals. For me, this is particularly easy with my ambition to erase the stigma surrounding mental illness (as those who also wish to do so are abnormally more so passionate than most people about their goals). Many of the pieces are still being formed, but in time, the exposure from upcoming documentaries and people who’re interested in erasing the stigma who also have extensive marketing experience will prove to be an invaluable asset.
Facebook: Kyle Waller
Mike Sahno
Best thing I’ve done to promote my books: customized blog tour. I reached out to bloggers and reviewers in both the U.S. and U.K. to create a blog tour. It kicked off on my book launch date. The resulting increase in conversions led to my largest spike in e-book sales.
Website: Mike Sahno
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeSahno
Alison Morton
I think the best approach to marketing is threefold: persistence, not pestering, being open-minded and flexible and making a plan. You are not going to please everybody with your wonderful book, so while promoting it, pull back when you are not getting anywhere and move on to the next step in your plan.
Roma Nova site
Alison Morton’s Writing Blog
Facebook author page
Twitter: @alison_morton
Goodreads
Alison’s Amazon page
Carol Cooper
The best thing I ever did to promote my novels was to build up local interest. This worked best for my second novel, which I named Hampstead Fever, after the part of London in which I live, and where the book is set. Local press covered the launch in Hampstead, and that created demand in local bookshops including Waterstones. From there, I was able to interest other bookstores further afield, including the flagship Waterstones in Piccadilly, London. It snowballed, and I was able to get a sought-after front-of-store promotion in WH Smiths travel bookstores.
Blog
Facebook page Carol Cooper’s London Novels
Twitter
Website
James Lawless
I think a physical book launch helped most but it takes a lot of effort. I launched my novel Finding Penelope in a bookshop and the bookshop stocked it thus enhancing sales and publicity.
Dixie Maria Carlton
You have to tell stories… in order to get the kind of customers you MOST want to do business with, you need to connect with them, in a way they can fully relate to. This is where sharing the stories of who you are, what you do, and the reason for your why is so important. Ad to that the examples of success experienced by your other customers through case studies and testimonials. Those experiences are the intangible but highest value parts of your brand.
Jean Gill
Five days after release for pre-order, Life After Men, co-written with Karen Charlton, has a #1 tag as an amazon Hot New Release so the question is, what worked best? We drew up a publishing and launch calendar, clarifying who would do what and when. All promotion and publicity worked backwards from the date we would have a final cover, so booking our wonderful cover designer, Jessica Bell, in advance, was crucial. Assuming everything is in place re quality, the one factor I’d highlight is metadata. It really is worth spending time on categories, keywords and book descriptions, with understanding of how readers search. I emailed amazon.com and amazon.co uk separately with my ten chosen categories and that works much better than the measly two big categories you’re offered in the KDP publishing dashboard! If, like us, you’re publishing ‘wide’, the same principle applies to the different interfaces of each distribution site. Boring but important!
Helen Prochazka
The best thing I have done so far is to build relationships with booksellers, the educator’s community and anyone who buys the book directly from me. I am fortunate that several dozen booksellers around Australia stock The Mathematics Book and if they have any special requests such as a signed copy, I do it. The power of them handselling the book (One bookstore in my home town has sold more than 500 copies of what is a rather unusual book to be their No 1 non-fiction bestseller for almost 3 months. Even Bill Bryson didn’t knock it off!)
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What an treasure trove of insights! There’s an amazing variety of approaches here, all of them worth serious consideration. Thank you, Richard, for bringing all these views together.
Like Jo Ullah, I am a relative newbie and found this Roundup very helpful. All the authors shared at least one point that I will try to use. I particularly liked Alison Morton’s threefold approach and ‘persistence not pestering’ is very good advice!
All good tips and summed as ‘make sure your book hits the ground running’!
Really interesting to see how different authors responded to the same question!
I agree, I’m new at this and need all the ideas and advice I can get. Every one had something new to bring to the table.