You’ve written your book, edited it, had it proofread, either found a publisher (traditional or hybrid) or opted to self-publish, proofed the book as needed, printed, and now the book is ready—it is finished. Or is it? It’s important to take a moment to celebrate the accomplishment of producing a book if you’ve made it this far. Most people don’t make it this far. About 50% of people want to write a book, and of those who start writing, 97% don’t finish writing the book, let alone complete the stages of producing the book. Reaching this stage is an accomplishment. Be proud.
But what is next? The book is out, but is it being read? After the book is out, the next stage of publishing begins, and it is the stage most of us are least comfortable with—sales and marketing.
Sales and marketing can feel dirty, sleezy even. If people want something, they’ll buy it. A product should stand for itself and declare its own value—right? But, if nobody knows your book exists, how will they know to look for it or buy it? It is a conundrum, and one that often hurts the few books that do make it to this stage. In a sea of content, products, ads, and goods, how do you make your book stand out?
Que advertising, events, salespersonship, offers, fulfillment, distribution, word of mouth, social media, eblasts, awards, catalogs, swag, and more.
Social Media:
Social media has become a driving force in sales. If you are someone with a large social media following already, great. The platform gives you the opportunity to share with followers what is going on in your life without paying for advertising. This is a cost-effective way of marketing as you don’t have to invest to get eyes on your content. People are already looking. Social media has become a driving force in publishing. Those with large followings are much more likely to get a traditional publishing deal than those without. It is a built-in market that a publisher can look at and use as a gauge to anticipate sales. If you don’t have a social media following, it’s not the end of the world. You can always start building one. That is the good news. The bad news, if you don’t like social media—and there are many reasons not to—you’re going to have to get comfortable with the idea that if sales is part of your goal you will have to hone this skill.
There are few key methods for building a social media following, but not all may be realistic or applicable for your book or budget:
1. Tell people about what you’re doing. Word of mouth will get those onto your account who know you and care—mom, dad, grandma, your old college roommate, etc. These are the easy ones to pull. You can trust these people will support you even if you don’t have a lot to offer yet in terms of content. Don’t be bashful. You are a writer. Tell people about what you’re doing.
2. Once you’ve cleared through the obvious people who will help, the next step for many is to advertise to connect with people who may fit your audience, but who you don’t know directly. This is a way to expand your circle and audience.
3. In order to tell people about what you’re doing you have to develop content. This is easy for some, and difficult for others. Creating content to post will keep your growing audience engaged.
4. ARCs. ARC stands for “advance reader copies.” This is the equivalent of putting your book out there—usually as a digital eBook to download, read, and review—for free. You can create your own blog to do this, but that will limit your reach to the list of subscribers/readers you already have captured in #1 and #2 above. A better way is to use a third-party site like NetGalley, Reedsy, BookSprout, BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, or BookSirens. These are sites where authors post some or all of their book(s) in advance of publication and readers go and search for content they are interested in to get free copies of books and chances to read before a book is out. They can post reviews, and you can grow a following for the book from readers who use these platforms before a book is out. The reviews can also be used in marketing to share what other readers though about your book. This is especially important for works of fiction to create ARCs with the goal that once the book is out it is starting with some footing and following from people who have already read and enjoyed the work. It can feel counterintuitive to “give” your work away for free, but it is a form of marketing that must be done if you don’t already have a readership or following. It is also an affordable way to grow a wider audience. Some of the sites above will charge subscriptions to post. All of them have varying business models, and these change and adapt, so bear that in mind and research which one feels right to focus on ARCs.
5. Encouraging subscriptions to your website email list and social media through your website, at events, or giveaways is key. There are almost no instances in life where someone will give you attention if you don’t give something to them first. You are the author. You need to think through how much effort you are willing to give in exchange to gain a following. For some, the effort or cost may not be worth it, but if you want your book to sell to more than just your immediate friends and family, you’ll need to grow your audience beyond your initial circle. This process usually does not occur overnight. We all have heard of “viral” social media posts or things that make people famous overnight on social media and gives an instant platform, but those are lottery events. You can’t plan for viral. You can put in the work bit by bit, and though it may feel slow, it will pay off if you are consistent in your engagement, writing, and content. Keep writing, keep sharing, keep telling. Discouragement may not only kill your creativity, but it will kill your readership. Don’t give up.
Advertising:
Advertising will be a must if you want to grow your readership and open your book to a wider market beyond your circle. There are people in the world who may want to read your book, but they probably don’t know you or your work—unless you tell them. If they are not in your inner circle (friends and family), and they are not in your social media circle (acquaintances, old friends, ARCs, etc.), you will have to go after the reader. The way to do this is advertising. It is taking an offensive approach to marketing. Unfortunately, many hold negative connotations with advertising, and it is often viewed as an “offensive” approach. This can hold authors back from getting into advertising because it doesn’t feel genuine. Just because something isn’t organic and word of mouth doesn’t mean it is not genuine or valid. Advertising will be as genuine as you are. If your desire is to share your work and you want to share it with as many as possible, you’ll need to change your view on advertising from offensive to proactive. You are getting ahead, being forward minded, and building something in a positive manner.
There are so many opportunities to advertise now through Meta, Google Ads, Tik-Tok, Pinterest, and more. Most of these now allow for easy account set up and walkthroughs. Many will even incentivize you to set up an account offering free ad credits. These companies make money off advertising. Many of these social media companies offer their services for free to users, and what pays the bills is advertisements. Once a user is active, they can market and show you ads based on the data you give to these platforms. If your interests on Instagram are fantasy and romance novels, and Sarah J. Maas, this is tracked and it becomes easier for an advertiser to target you with similar content. Step one to successful advertising is to know your audience.
Step two is to determine what type of advertising you will run and use. The two basic models are PPM (Pay Per iMpression) or PPC (Pay Per Click). PPM is more affordable. It targets the audience you specify with the ads you create to get them to see your content/ad. PPC works on a bidding system in which you bid on keywords your audience is interested in that relate to your book. This is more targeted than impressions, with the goal being that your ads are getting in front of people that are actively searching and thinking about content that relates to your work. PPM is good for getting views. PPC is good for getting clicks and driving sales as those seeing your ads are more likely to be people looking for this content rather than people seeing your content by chance. PPM is good if you are a new author building a following and want to get the word out that you are writing a book. It may lead to sales, but if the goal is traffic and views, this is a more affordable option for that type of result.
This is a quick overview of advertising. There are entire courses out there on advertising, and people who dedicate their lives and vocations to this work. If you are working with a traditional publisher, they are probably taking on a lot of this work for you. If you are working with a hybrid publisher, or self-publishing, advertising is something you are going to want to consider up front if want to sell books to more than just your family and close friends. Consider your goals.
This is not an affiliate post. I don’t get sponsored for this. Personally, advertising was an overwhelming aspect of the publishing process for me and a blind spot. I worked through the AMMO (Author Marketing Mastery Optimization) course to learn more because it was well reviewed—and I got a lot of ads for the course (which worked). The course when I paid for it was about USD 2,000±. Along with that, there are subscriptions and programs you will have to pay for that will probably run you an additional USD 1,000–2,000 minimum (like buying books for a class, but in this case programs to optimize your website for direct sales). If you are serious as a self-publishing author, I would recommend it. People now pay tens of thousands and go into massive debt for a college education. Learning a valuable skill in self-publishing and entrepreneurship may not be worth USD 3–4,000 to you, but if you are serious about your work as an author and your goal is to build the infrastructure and learn to sell and market your books, learning to sell, advertise, and optimize are important skills. There are other courses like it. Like I said, this is not an affiliate post. I don’t get kickbacks from this. I had a blind spot in publishing, and I’ve worked in publishing for over a decade, and this course helped me familiarize and work through a portion of publishing that I was not aware of. It is much more in depth than this post, and if you are someone who has a goal of making money off writing and don’t know where to go or are intimidated by sales and marketing, this course is a good start. It helped me get the infrastructure in place for Anderson House Publishing’s Shopify store to run smoothly and gave me a baseline understanding of advertising and click testing to optimize the advertising experience.
Events:
This could be a book expo/tradeshow or a personal/private event to sell books. Expos have taken a hit since COVID, which essentially killed off BookExpo America (BEA). This was the largest book show in the United States before it closed in 2020 after being first postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are other great tradeshows still. In Los Angeles, the LA Times Festival of Books is still running yearly and is now the largest book tradeshow in the US. Frankfurt Book Fair, London Book Fair, and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair are also popular international options, however, these are tailored toward larger publishers and authors with more of a global brand. These tradeshows can be helpful to either get a booth at, or just to go to walk and network. Some are free to attend, while others have a ticket cost. Along with this, you’ll need to take food, lodging, and travel into account, as well as set-up and teardown for the show if you plan to run a booth, and the cost of the booth space itself. Because of the upfront costs and diminished appeal since COVID, tradeshows skew a bit more toward the professional publishers and sellers. If you are an amateur or just starting out, attending the shows to network and see what’s on offer is a more cost-effective strategy than jumping right in initially.
Personal events are great way to sell books locally if you can garner a decent audience. Sales from events offer high profit typically, however, you must also take into account that at most events, only about 15–20% of attendees will actually purchase a book on average. If you invite and host 100 people, this may equate to 15–30 sales conservatively. Depending on the retail cost of the book, that may be a decent event for you, but you’ll also need to take into account snacks, drinks, and location to determine if the return is worth the expense. Events are a way to personally connect with your readership, and an important part of an initial launch.
Awards and the Indie Community:
There is an entire community of independent readers and publishers, referred to as the Indie community. Many of these organizations offer awards programs and support to indie authors/writers. The Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Independent Publishing Book Awards (IPPY), and the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association are three of the most well-known Indie support and awards communities. These associations all typically charge an entry fee for submitting for awards. Some offer cash prizes, but usually the award is the prize. Many have asked the question if awards actually help with sales and are a viable form of marketing. The answer can range from cynical to hopeful. On one side of the spectrum, these associations often charge for submission to awards categories. Many may view this as predatory, and there are awards programs out there that are predatory in nature. A predator, in and of itself is not a bad thing. A predator is a creature that preys on another of perceived weakness. But what if you are a confident author and successful and you are a shark in your own right? Maybe you are a predator and have that killer instinct and an award can help speak to your readership the viability of your work in the eyes of others. If you have an established readership and audience, awards can signify and validate their support of you and your work. It can be used to encourage an existing audience and grow it if advertised once winning. If you don’t tell anyone you’ve won though, does it really matter? Probably not. If you don’t have an established audience, or don’t have any plans or program in place to share and advertise your accolades, it is likely that you will not see any return on winning an award and will thereby be more likely to view these programs as predatory. On the opposite side, maybe you’re excited to feel the validation of your work by others, and the confidence gained is what you need to keep writing. Even if financially there is no return, the emotional return may be worth it to you. Understand your goals when considering entering awards programs.
Many Indie associations also have communities in place of likeminded Indie authors and publishers. Submitting to these awards and being a part is a way to participate in this community and grow with it and your network of readership. This will only happen if you are proactive in your approach though. Don’t just throw money at a marketing program because it is offered. Ask yourself if the offering to be included in a catalog, book expo, or awards program is worth the financial investment to you. Engage with members of the community. Share in their awards and progress and share your own. The people that are part of these communities are book lovers. They are a valuable audience if you engage. You can be a part of something and not be engaged though. If that is you, the investment to join these associations, apply for awards, and be a part may not be worth the cost to you. You will get out what you put in. If that sounds like work, it’s because it is. Winning an award alone will not mean your book is going to start flying off shelves and you will get more sales. Validating your readerships faith in you with awards and building your readership with likeminded individuals can help you grow your audience and reach, which in turn can help generate more sales. How much work do you want to put into marketing your work? What are your goals? Is it worth the cost? Always return to these questions when you are considering the cost of marketing and advertising.
Online Storefront:
When you self-publish, there are self-publishers that will market something as an all-in-one package. Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark are the main two. Amazon is known for selling books and the biggest retailer in the world, while Ingram is one of the largest and most well-regarded book distributors in the world. Both have self-publishing programs that are quite cost effective. They make their money through accessibility and a cut of the royalties for each book sold. Using print on demand (POD), there is no upfront risk in producing and storing stock. At no cost to these companies, they can receive and store your approved book files and print copies to order. You take a royalty cut and they keep some just for facilitating the order and printing a copy. It is an easy and cost-effective model for most self-publishers, which is why for many these are popular choices. But these are self-publishing companies that don’t care if your book sells. They are happy to add your product to their storefronts and never sell a copy. If they do get an order, the cost is covered and they make money just for facilitating the order. If it doesn’t sell, no money is lost on their end. They have no incentive to sell or market your book. The only person who is going to sell books is 1) someone who is financially invested in the book (i.e., a traditional publisher), or 2) you. If you want someone else to be interested in marketing and selling your book, you’re going to have to pay them for services. Maybe that fits your goals and budget, or maybe not. Only you can make that decision for your work.
If you are invested in yourself and your work, direct sales through your own website may be the better route for you. Shopify, Wix, WordPress, and other website builders are easy to use platforms for developing your own website where you can take and manage direct sales. When you sell books directly on your own site you get two important things: 1) you can build an audience as the email address and data of purchasers is tracked on your website. You can build a subscription email list to follow up and give offers to your subscribers. These readers are “your” readers. If you use Amazon or Ingram you don’t get this data. Those customers are Amazon and Ingram’s customers, not yours, even though they are buying your books. 2) You don’t have to share a cut of your proceeds with a third-party agency. Your sales are your sales. The downside is that building and running your own website for direct sales is a lot of work. Is that something you are up to? Return to your goals. If you are up for the challenge and plan on making a career out of writing and publishing, a personal website to handle direct sales is a step you’ll want to consider at some point. There are lots of walkthroughs out there to help build your site, and it has never been easier to create a personal website to handle sales. It is work though. You will have to build the infrastructure to run your store and fulfill orders. For some, this is exciting, and for others it is not what they want to do and distracts from other passions. Know yourself and your goals.
Once again, this is not a sponsored post, and there are lots of programs out there to help teach and lead you as you establish and build your own online store. AMMO is a great program for this, which, on top of teaching the click testing strategies to test and run ads effectively, has a whole other branch to optimizing and setting up an online store using Shopify. If you feel drawn to this option, but don’t know where to begin, it is a good place to start. The first step to growth is acknowledging what your strengths—what you know—and weakness are—what you don’t know. You can also watch Shopify, Wix, and other website builders for free on YouTube, but that will be more self-driven. The information is all out there, but you have to put in the work to go after it and know what to look for.
Email Marketing:
The goal of a successful author career financially is building a readership and audience. Earning the trust of new customers is expensive and hard work. Once you start building your social media readership it is equally important to build a subscribed email list. This gives you another way to directly communicate with readers/customers and to provide offers. Usually, those who subscribe to your email list will either be customers or those interested in your work who may one day be customers. These are people who have a higher-than-average return on investment and are more likely to become customers or be repeat customers. They are your faithful followers, and email marketing directly to these people with updates, offers, or exclusive snippets can invite them into the process and help build a foundational readership. It is easier to hold onto existing customers than to find new ones. The cost of marketing to a new customer is far greater than taking good care of the ones you already have. Direct email marketing is a great way to outreach and build and sustain that readership. As your lists grow, so does your potential for connection and sales.