The Ideal Book Marketing Services Guideline for Authors

Since the world has entered into its digital era, everything has become more competitive than it ever was. Nowadays, writing a good book is not enough, authors must create their brands and promote their books with utmost effectiveness to be able to sell well. The easy way out is to secure a reputed publishing house as they will market the content as well as publish it. But if you are an independent author, your best chance would be to do it yourself or select from the reputed book marketing services out there.

There are a lot of strategies for book marketing available out there. On one hand, it gives you a lot of options to pick and choose, but at the same time, it creates confusion as well. In this case, a complete guideline of how you can market your book will help you gain visible results. So here is the ultimate book marketing timeline.

1.    Pre-writing

You would be surprised to know that promotion and marketing start even before you complete writing the book. So it is always a good idea to set a plan about all the strategies and efforts that will be necessary to market the book properly. So start by asking yourself the most important question, who is going to be your target audience? The next important thing to understand before setting the marketing plan would be to know what the goals are with your book. If you are writing a book to be famous or earn good, then find out how many books to sell is your target. It is also important to understand how much money you can spend on marketing, aka the most important thing. After you get all the answers to these questions, your next step is to create a complete timeline that includes the writing, publishing, and marketing phases.

 2.    As you start writing  

Writing a book requires a lot of time and patience. However, trust your judgment and start prepping for marketing as it is equally important too.

●     While you begin writing, focus on building your author brand too. This will make you and your book more marketable and your unique author brand displayed across social media platforms and websites will help you sell the material. Your author brand can include a logo, your name, or the series name with specific font styles, colors, or even wording. This brand will represent you and your craft so be creative!

●     Another thing you can do in this phase is to build your book's metadata. This can include the author's bio and your book's description. Make sure you understand the importance and entirety of BISAC codes as well.

●     Creating an author website is another job for you to do in this phase. Having an author website is important as it helps you build your brand and gives you a sense of identity in the digital realm. Preferably go for a 5-page author website that includes a Homepage, an About the Book page, a page for Blogs, an About the Author page, and a Contact the Author page. You can add pages as time goes on and you have more books out.

●     You also need to start building an email list. You can start by asking for email addresses in return for contests, giveaways, etc. On your website, and social media platforms, place a signup button as well.

●     Start formulating your social media strategy at this stage. You can do that by choosing one or two platforms that you think you can handle the best. Because it is always preferable to master one of two of these platforms than be average everywhere. Go with the trends and create memes, tweets, articles, posts, and any and every content that can be related to your book.

 3.    Writing stage

When you take a break from writing to focus on your writing, you will end up having more appreciation for the content. So make sure to indulge in these activities -

●     Start a blog at the side. You can choose your book’s subject matter as the subject of your blog as well. You can take any message from your book as the subject of your blog too. Look to craft a blog or article once every month. 

●     Another step is to research book reviewers. One marketing strategy that never fails is publishing good reviews to attract readers. If the reviewer is known then it creates a special kind of trust that gives you an increase in sales.

●     You also need to create a media kit that will include book details, the professional author photo, your background information, and any book publicity that you have done for your recent project.

●     Research and make out a list of book awards that you might want to submit to. If you end up winning one, it is extra publicity! However, make sure you adhere to the rules and regulations.  

●     If you are okay with socializing face-to-face, on a live radio interview, or in front of a camera, then consider local events that will help you immensely in your book marketing journey. So if you are okay with public appearances and public speaking, make a list of radio shows, local book fairs, events, and podcasts. You can also contact your local bookstore to arrange an event.

4.    Editing Phase

When your book is being edited, there are still things for you to do! The first thing you need to do in this stage is to finalize the date of your publication along with your release date along which pre-release strategy you are going with. Then decide how you will release your book. You can either share the link of online retailers where the book is available or you can use shareable purchase links.

Then it all comes down to the release date and push from any good marketing service will make it more visible in the digital world.