This is a part of the How to Write a Book series, check out the rest of the parts when you’re done here.
Publishing isn’t the Finish, It’s the Beginning of the Next Adventure
Publishing isn’t the finish line; it’s the beginning of the next adventure.
By the time you get your book off to publication, you’ve been through the emotional roller coaster of writing a book. You were stoked to start, then dismayed when you’re slogging through the middle. You’re excited to finish, but then you wonder how the heck you’re going to edit this entire thing. You’ve edited, now you’re trying to design it, you’ve got that honed in, and now you’re fumbling through the publishing process. It’s a lot, but you’re there!
Now you suffer from the delusions that every writer suffers from. You hit “Publish,” and you watch the sales roll in. You buy a giant vault and swim through your money like Scrooge McDuck. You get invited on talk shows, get paid for book signings, and big-name publishers are offering you millions for the next book deal… Maybe if you’re already a big-time author. And if you’re reading this, then you’re probably not a big-time author (if you are, let me know!)
Here’s the truth: if you don’t tell people about your book, nobody knows it exists.
Writing your book is a huge part of the battle. But selling it really determines its success. And if you’re just starting out, you probably have a marketing budget of around negative twelve bucks, and you’re a writer, not a marketing whiz.
What you really need to do is put your nose to the grindstone and market the heck out of yourself in low-cost ways. Here are some to get you started.
Why Writers Hate Marketing
I’m a writer, and I do some marketing copywriting. I can do it, but sometimes it’s a bit of a drag – it feels disingenuous, forced, and sometimes a bit sleazy. That’s because, like you, I think in words and not in advertisements.
Most of us writers are interested in sharing ideas. Not selling things.
It’s important to keep in mind that you’re not forcing a sale on people. You’re sharing those ideas, and by properly marketing your book, you can help people discover a book that will help them on their life journey.
One of the big mistakes people make when marketing their book is waiting until they have a copy in hand before they start spreading the news. But you don’t have to wait. You can start telling your story, telling people about what you have going on, and some platforms allow you to pre-sell copies of your book.
Then, long after you’ve launched, you want to keep promoting the heck out of your work so you can keep reaching a whole bunch of people.
Using Your Social Media the Right Way
Social media is the most accessible, easiest to use, and lowest cost form of marketing you can find. And it’s largely the most misused tool out there. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube give you direct access to your readers. However, most people are posting the wrong things, in the wrong proportions. They fail to follow the 70-20-10 rule.
It’s a non-salesy marketing strategy that still works (though most platforms are getting really horrid reach these days, so you gotta do what works for you).
70% of Your Posts Should Provide Value
You wrote an entire book on the topic; it’s safe to call you an expert who can provide some immense value. While you don’t want to give away your entire book through your social media posts, you can drop some knowledge and encourage people to do better. These can be:
- Tips and tricks to do better
- Insights into best practices
- Strategies that relate to your book
- Behind-the-scenes wisdom
- Educational micro-lessons
Doing so helps you to build trust, gain followers, and keep people coming back for more. Think about the pages, people, and creators that you follow. They give you something you like and want.
If your book is about leadership, you can include a quick tip on shifting your mindset. If your book is about health and wellness, you can drop some breathwork techniques, recipes, or start a little “Eat This, Not That” series. If your book is all about how to write a book, you can provide a few insights on what to expect during the book-writing process.
20% Should be Personal Connections
Some of your posts should be done just to make a connection with your audience. Candid photos of your everyday life (outside of writing, of course), hobbies and interests, and doing things around town. In other words, using social media the way people generally use social media. However, these can also be filtered into the “promoting my book without explicitly promoting my book” category.
- A short video in which you explain why you wrote the book can help potential readers get on board with your message.
- A checklist image of the struggles during writing (even if it’s just slogging through hour after hour of typing words).
- Photos of your wins (finishing the book!) Your failures (paying money for those crappy AI-generated cover images). And just behind-the-scenes stuff like your family’s Christmas pictures.
Just remember that too much personal content can confuse your audience about what you do. I have fallen prey to this more often than not, and I’ve had connections that I’ve known for YEARS say something like, “Oh, I didn’t know you were a writer!” or “I had no idea you taught people how to write their books!”
10% Promotional Content
Only a handful of your posts should be designed to promote yourself, your book, your trainings, or whatever else you happen to be selling. Because too much self-promotion causes people to unfollow you. Which, as we know, is the exact opposite of what you’re after here.
Promotional content also isn’t holding up your book and posting a caption that says something like, “Hey, go buy my latest book!” Perhaps that might work a little bit, but that’s the cheesy salesy BS that nobody really wants to see.
If you offer great value 90% of the time, people don’t mind seeing the 10% of your posts that happen to be about buying your book. So, what does promo stuff look like?
Announcements – Perhaps you’re going to do a book signing, and you want people to attend.
Works in Progress – Talking about the latest book (and subtly referring to the other books available now).
Discovery – If you gave a book away, make a post about it and tell people where they can find their very own copy.
Buy Now – Yeah, sometimes you just want to tell people to go buy your book.
When it comes down to it, social media can be incredibly time-consuming. My recommendation is to build a content calendar (I’ve even printed out calendars and written in each little box). This way, you know what type of content you’re going to post each day. As you go along, write out some ideas underneath your type of post, so you can easily go through and create it. Finally, schedule it all out – most social media accounts let you schedule things, so use that option. When it comes down to it, a couple of hours at the beginning of the month and you can be all set for an entire month’s worth of social posts.
Of course, you’ll need to log in here and there to reply to comments and start conversations. The algorithm overlords love that stuff, and if you do enough of it, they’ll start pushing your posts out to a wider audience. Go viral and you’ll see a few more book sales come trickling on in!
Go do Some Book Signings
Often, people think of book signings as some big ordeal that happens after a big presentation. You know the situation; you go see some star like Tony Robbins give his motivational talk. You’re inspired, you buy the book, and then wait in a long line to get it signed. That happens, but that’s likely not going to happen for your book. You can, however, set these things up on your own.
Book signings are still a great way to sell more copies, because even though most people are constantly online, physical presence still builds loyalty in a way that no amount of TikTok videos ever will. Plus, local bookstores love the publicity, and having an author inside signing books for a couple of hours increases their sales.
Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to make these things happen.
Reach out to local independent book stores. Big names, like Barnes & Noble or Borders, work too, but it can be a bit more of a process to find out who you need to talk to and get permission from.
Your pitch, ideally, will be over the phone or in person. Tell them who you are, that you just wrote a book, and you want to do a book signing. Offer to bring some snacks and drinks to encourage people to linger a bit more.
When you have a confirmed date and time, start promoting the heck out of it. Use your social media, create an event, send out an email blast, and ask the bookstore to tap into their network as well. If you know a few local influencers, ask them to help you promote the signing too.
Here in Billings, we have an ArtWalk every other month. The downtown bookstore usually hosts a local artist, but an author would be a great addition to the store as well. If your community does this too, it’s a good opportunity to capitalize on foot traffic.
A signing only works if people actually show up. Promotions on social media are awesome, but people attend things they are personally invited to. So, here’s what you need to do.
- Create the event
- Invite everyone
- Text your closest friends and family, asking them to support you
- Ask them to message a couple of friends and to share the social media post
- Have freebies for those who bring the most people (maybe a free copy of your book if they invite 5 people along)
- ???
- Profit!
Of course, you’re not limited to just bookstores for this. They make the most sense, but sometimes you run out of options, or maybe you only have a couple of local bookstores. Keep the momentum going by setting up in:
- Tap rooms
- Breweries
- Coffee shops
- Libraries
- Co-working spaces
- At community events
At every one of these events, enlist the help of a social media-savvy friend to take pictures and videos that can be later used to promote the next book signing. Have an email signup list (perhaps offer a bigger giveaway, but they have to enter by giving their email address), and make sure to use that for the next event.
Finally, how many books do you bring? Most of it depends on how much traffic you actually get, but don’t expect to sell more than 15 or 20 copies. Bring 30 to 50 so you have backups, but this is more of a popularity driver than a money maker.
Create a Streaming Book Trailer
Most of the time, we think of previews, or trailers, as little teasers to get us to watch a movie that’s coming soon. They are, after all, a big part of the theater-going experience – before you see your flick, you see what other flicks are out there.
Authors don’t often use this same promo style for their books. Why not, though? People consume video content at higher rates than text. Most platforms encourage video over images or text (and especially links). And you being in the video itself is a great way to build credibility. How many authors have you read whose faces you have no idea what they look like? You can engage your readers more deeply if you get on camera, at least a little bit.
The trick is to make sure this thing isn’t super cheesy or boring. And sometimes that means plunking down a bit of cash. Depending on your goal with the book, you can find a company that specializes in book trailers. They have all the skills to make it look splashy, add sound effects, and really draw in people’s attention.
They can also cost a pretty penny (I don’t know why the pennies are pretty, but they are).
Which is why, when authors do this, they opt for the no-budget DIY method. And this can be a little bit defeating because you get sucked into this hole of trying to create something that looks good, but without skills, budget, or investing the right amount of time, you can end up with something that looks like horse dung.
How do you get this done without looking like rubbish? First, you need to ensure that you’ve got the right setup.
- High-quality lighting is a must.
- Clear audio isn’t a good-to-have; it’s a have-to-have.
- Keep your clips short, 30 to 90 seconds.
- Don’t just stand there and talk.
Without getting too much into this, think about a movie trailer you’ve watched. It’s action-packed, scenes cut often, the narrator explaining what to expect, and clips from the actual show. It’s punchy and gets you excited. If you can’t make a book trailer that gets people excited, it could be a fruitless effort.
So, take some time to condense the message of your book into just a few sentences. Get on camera and read a few of your best heavy-hitting lines from your book. Record from multiple angles and use a bit of b-roll footage. Keep it relatable, so if your book includes stories of climbing mountains, some b-roll of you climbing mountains is relatable. Play around with it, get creative, and if it really, really sucks, find a student who might be able to help (college students are always broke, so payment with a home-cooked meal and a six-pack of beers goes over real nice).
When you have your video ready, use it on social media during your launch countdown. Put it on your website. Include a link in your email signature. If you have even a small budget, pay for a few ads (see what happens; sometimes you get lucky, if nothing else, you build awareness).
Full disclosure, I’m not a video guy other than standing there and talking, so this is very outside of my wheelhouse as well. I know what to do, I just don’t have the skills to do it.
Get Onto Podcasts
Podcasts are crowded. If you’re thinking about starting your own, it’s probably not a great idea unless you already have a large audience that would tune in and cling to every word you have to say. That doesn’t mean, though, that podcasts are dead, dying, or otherwise not worth anything. In fact, using other people’s podcasts is a fantastic way to build your authority and expand your network.
How’s it all work?
It’s easier than ever. I’ll tell you how to get booked on a lot of podcasts, and I’ll share some common scams that are technically legal but a waste of time and money.
There are a few different platforms where you can advertise that you’d like to be a guest on someone else’s podcast. The Facebook group Need a Guest is one of the largest. Podcast hosts are constantly posting who they’re looking for, and guests can post that they’re available.
Scour the internet; there are a bunch of other websites, groups, and platforms that offer something similar. Many of them like to charge, and while that’s an option (sometimes a way to get onto better podcasts), it’s not entirely necessary.
What you really want to watch out for, though, are the hosts that charge an administrative fee to have you on their show. They try to justify it because they have a “huge audience” and “thousands of downloads.” But here’s what’s actually happening.
Dead internet theory tells us the internet is over 50% bots and bot-generated content. In the early days of social media, followers were where it’s at. If you ran a page that had tens of thousands of followers, that was so choice. Those intent on bilking people out of their money, though, figured this out quickly. They built programs that created fake accounts and made it so you could easily bulk up your follower count. You could go from 150 followers to 15,000 overnight… all fake accounts that don’t do anything except add numbers to make your page look more impressive.
And a lot of people still do this. They have impressive follower counts and a lot of podcast downloads, but most of those numbers are artificially inflated. There’s no value there – except to them.
Because now they can say, “Hey, budding new author, I’ll interview you on my podcast, share that interview with my 100,000 followers, and you’ll expand your reach incredibly! It’s only $1,000.” Sounds like a great opportunity. If even 5% of the audience bought your book, that would be over $10,000 in sales. Except that’s not going to happen.
You might get a few sales from the handful of real listeners. But for the most part, you’ll be out a grand.
Some of these people are legit, but most are not. Do your due diligence before you hand over any money. Check their pages and look for meaningful interactions. Followers don’t mean anything anymore, but engagement does. If a page has 100,000 followers, but every post has a dozen likes and three comments, it’s easy to see that they have bought bot followers.
This was going to be a short section, but it’s important to know this info; I don’t want you getting swindled.
Give Your Book Away
One of the best ways to get people interested in you is to give your book away for free.
Hold up, that doesn’t make any money, now does it?
Nope, but it sparks interest. And if you are a good enough writer, you’ll gain followers who will then purchase your next book (or buy your course, or hire you to consult, or whatever your end goal is). But you need to be strategic about this.
Give books to people who love to promote your work. Or any work, really. I have a connection here in Billings who will read a book and then give an honest YouTube review. Her network isn’t huge, but it’s genuine. So, you can get people interested because someone else gave you a glowing review.
Give your book to schools, libraries, and coffee shops. There are a lot of coffee shops that provide reading material for their patrons. Drop off a copy (make sure your social media profiles are listed in there so people can follow you), and over time, people will get to know you.
Give your books to prospects. If you’re using your book as a business card on steroids, give it to the people you want to land as clients. Maybe you want to consult with a business because you know you can increase value for them – mail a copy of your book to the CEO. Be creative with this, don’t do as the guy that I bumped into at the Montana Fair 20ish years ago.
This guy, I think he was the author, was handing out free copies of his book at the fair. It was a mostly-fiction novel about doing a bunch of acid and spending time in Alaska (rumor has it the guy actually did a bunch of acid and spent time in Alaska before writing the book). I happened to walk past his table, and he offered me a free book, so I was like, “Why not?”
I slogged through that book, hoping every new page would turn into a better book. Hoping the story would pick up. Hoping it wasn’t a waste of time. It was a waste of time.
Looking back, now that I’ve worked as a writer and in the publishing industry, I realize that he couldn’t sell his book. The book wasn’t any good, people weren’t buying it, and he had a whole bunch of copies that he didn’t know what to do with. So, he gave them away, hoping to gain a handful of followers who would ultimately buy his next book… which would probably end up being rubbish like the first one.
The bottom line: Be strategic about giving away your book so you don’t end up being known as the author who just gives away books.
Marketing is Your Megaphone
Marketing isn’t something to be scared of. It’s just telling people that you have a book out there.
And it can be tedious, difficult, expensive, and frustrating. Especially if you’re not trained in marketing. Writers wanna write – we don’t want to do all that crappy promo stuff. If you’re able, it’s worthwhile to invest in a marketing company. If you’re not able, well, that’s what this entire post is about.
Of course, if you haven’t started writing your book, you need to learn how to write a book first. The first step is to sign up for the Author’s Mastery Academy where I’ll guide you step-by-step on how to get that manuscript done. It’s easy to sign up, click the big button below.
No time? Well, then let a professional ghostwriter take over for you. Schedule some time on my calendar and we’ll get this thing figured out so you can be a published author.