Some of those tactics move copies. Others burn money while making you feel productive, and the advice never says which is which.
I’ve published 113+ books, and every one of them had to find readers after I finished writing it. Selling your own books is a whole job of its own, and I’m not a marketer by trade, so effort that looks busy and moves nothing is a waste of a writer’s time. The course sellers make it sound like a checklist, and I’ve found most of that checklist is a waste of money.
The Cover Sells the Book Before the Words Do
Ask someone who doesn’t know you to read it and tell you whether they would buy.Share on X
Your cover is your primary marketing tool, and I think most authors badly underrate it. In a scroll of Amazon thumbnails, the cover is the only thing that determines whether someone stops or keeps moving. A bad cover kills a good book. A great cover gives a mediocre book a chance.
Invest in a professional cover designer who understands your genre. Genre conventions exist for a reason. Romance readers expect certain visual cues. Business book readers expect different ones. Science fiction readers expect something else entirely. Your cover needs to signal the right genre instantly at thumbnail size.
I learned this the hard way. My early covers were cheap, and the books didn’t sell. When I invested in professional covers that matched genre expectations, the same books started moving.
Why is your Amazon description your sales page?
From Conversations With Influencers
Scott Robertson is a StoryBrand certified guide with thirty-five years in marketing whose rule is to make the customer the hero, not your brand. He’s blunt about why on Conversations With Influencers.
After the cover gets someone to click, the Amazon description determines whether they buy. Most authors treat the description as a summary, and it’s a mistake, because that box is a sales page and they’re wasting it. The description needs to do three things in order: hook the reader in the first line, establish what the book delivers, and create enough urgency or curiosity to trigger the purchase. If the description reads like a book report, it won’t convert.
Spend as much time on your description as you’d spend on a landing page for a product launch. Test different versions. Ask someone who doesn’t know you to read it and tell you whether they’d buy. The description sells the reader who already found the book. Getting found in the first place is a separate job, and it comes down to the keywords and categories your listing targets. I use Publisher Rocket to pull that from real Amazon search data instead of guessing at it.
Why do reviews drive book sales?
When I decided to push Focus on LinkedIn, the book had 15 reviews. BookBub rejected me. Not enough reviews, not high enough in the rankings. I put out a call on LinkedIn offering free copies in exchange for honest reviews. 1,200 people requested copies within 24 hours.
The review campaign described here, and the rest of what worked and what wasted money, is in Focus on LinkedIn.
About 60 to 70 came back with reviews, a solid return. When you send out free ebooks, maybe one in forty writes a review. Getting 60 to 70 out of 1,200 was better than average, and they kept trickling in for weeks.
Reviews are the social proof that tells a stranger your book is worth their time and money, and I’d put them right behind the cover and the description. A book with 5 reviews and a book with 65 reviews are in completely different categories in a buyer’s mind.
Getting those first reviews is one of the hardest parts of book marketing, and it requires asking directly. Most readers who enjoy a book won’t leave a review unless you ask them to.
Is BookBub Worth It for Authors?
After I had the reviews and ran a promotional push that sold 1,000 copies in 24 hours, Focus on LinkedIn hit the top 500 on Amazon and became a bestseller in three categories. I resubmitted to BookBub and was accepted the same day. BookBub is the single most effective promotional platform for book sales that I’ve found. Their email list is massive and their subscribers buy. Getting accepted is difficult, and they’re more selective than most authors expect. But if you can get in, the results are significant.
BookBub said no at 15 reviews and yes once the reviews, a sales push and the rankings were in place.
The lesson is that BookBub acceptance comes after the other work: getting reviews, building momentum, and proving the book has traction. Authors who apply on day one and take the rejection as a verdict on their book are reading it wrong, and the courses that tell them to apply first deserve the blame.
Your Book Is a Lead Magnet
One thing most marketing advice misses is that your book is a marketing tool for everything else you do.
In the back matter of every book I publish, I include links to my other books, my ghostwriting services, and my mailing list. It costs nothing except the time to set it up. If someone reads your book and turns to the back, they find your promotional materials. The book itself becomes a lead magnet that drives people to your services, your other books, and your platform.
Think of it as two levels: lead magnets drive people to the book, and the book drives them to everything else. The book sits at the center of the funnel, and it still surprises me how many authors leave those back pages empty.
What Book Marketing Does Not Work?
Anyone who comes in guaranteeing a bestseller gets a goodbye.
I’ve spent money and time on strategies that produced nothing, and these are the ones I’d skip. Most of them survive because somebody profits from selling them to hopeful authors. Overpriced publisher marketing packages. For more on marketing that builds trust, see Richard’s interview with Jeff Hassemer. Companies that charge $5,000 to “publish and market your book” don’t market your book. They take your money and run some automated promotions that produce negligible results. The marketing is your responsibility whether you like it or not.
The first time I went looking for a marketing company, the one I talked to wanted five figures a month and promised to get me on stage at big events. I said nope, not doing that. I could feel the smoke the whole time, and I wasn’t comfortable. I don’t like smoke blowing up my ass.
Blog tours. Unless your book is in a genre with an active blog community like romance, blog tours produce almost no measurable return. The effort of organizing them vastly exceeds the results.
Paid book listing sites with no audience. There are dozens of websites that charge authors to list their books. Most of them have no meaningful traffic. Before paying for any listing, ask for their subscriber numbers and typical click-through rates. If they can’t provide those numbers, they don’t have them.
Facebook ads without a strategy. Facebook ads can work, but only with careful targeting, tested ad copy, and a willingness to spend money on optimization before seeing returns. Running a generic ad pointing at your Amazon page is the fastest way to waste your ad budget.
Ad agencies that run ads to sell the book are worse, because you’ll lose money. If you hire help, look for a firm that asks about your business. You want a business marketing firm, and most book marketing firms are kind of scammish. Ask how they measure success, and listen for one word: leads. Ask who needs to read the book for your business to grow, and if they say everyone, walk. Anyone who comes in guaranteeing a bestseller gets a goodbye.
My take
Cover and description come first, because those two do the selling before a reader sees a page. Most book marketing firms are kind of scammish. Hire a business marketing firm that asks about your business and measures leads. If they say everyone needs to read your book, walk. Anybody who comes in guaranteeing a bestseller gets a goodbye from me.
The Work That Matters
Book marketing comes down to four things that move the needle: a professional cover that matches genre expectations, an Amazon description that sells, enough reviews to establish credibility, and a promotional push timed to build momentum. Everything else is secondary. Social media presence, email lists, author platforms and speaking engagements all help, but only on top of the four fundamentals. Too many authors pour money into the extras while their cover looks homemade and their description reads like a book report, and I blame the people selling them the extras first. If you hire a firm to help, hand them your plan before you sign and ask what they’d improve. A good answer tells you they’re good, and if they say it’ll cost more just to give you a bid, you know.
| Tactic | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Professional genre cover | Works | The cover decides whether a browser stops scrolling. |
| Amazon description | Works | It is a sales page: hook, deliverable, then urgency or curiosity. |
| Reviews | Works | Social proof; ask readers directly, since most will not review unprompted. |
| BookBub | Works, after momentum | Acceptance comes after reviews and sales traction, not on day one. |
| Back matter links | Works | Turns the book into a lead magnet for your services and other books. |
| Publisher marketing packages | Skip | Automated promotions with negligible results. |
| Blog tours | Usually skip | Little measurable return outside genres like romance. |
| Paid listing sites | Skip unless proven | Most have no meaningful traffic; ask for subscriber numbers first. |
| Facebook ads without a strategy | Skip | A generic ad to your Amazon page wastes the budget. |
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your book project.
Most book marketing advice comes from people who never marketed a book. Sell Your Books is my answer, with the launches that worked and the ones that failed spectacularly.
Frequently Asked Questions
A client of mine loved his finished book and was still disappointed by it, because three goals were pulling it apart. That’s in The Accountant Who Loved His Book and Was Still Disappointed.
