Tips That Can Make Your Efforts of Promoting Your Book Online More Effective

For authors working with a traditional publishing house, marketing can be a piece of cake since all the aspects of promoting and marketing the book, be it securing reviews from esteemed critics and placement in bookstores to placing ads, are taken care of by the publishing house. On the other hand, authors who are self-publishers have to rely on ideas and sources found mostly online and advice from other authors in order to spread the word about their book to targeted readers. It requires ample time, connection, and communication to venture into the promotional journey, and with the advent of the internet, most independent authors have sought the help of social media platforms for this task. However, this is not always easy or enough and most new authors find themselves at their wit’s end in this matter.

If you are a self-published author going through the struggle of promoting your book online, trying out certain strategies and refraining from others might help you yield positive results from your efforts.

Strategies to Adopt for an Effective Promotional Venture:

●     Building a Website

Since readers mostly do their research about books online, it is important to have a website dedicated solely to the purpose. It also comes effective in email marketing to let potential readers know about your book. A proper website also helps build credibility and readers can get to know all new updates about your work. Though it will start at zero, the website will garner more traffic with time.

●     Strategic and Selective Social Media Activity

Do not go around commenting about the book on random posts as it will create a bad impression. Instead, run ads and promotions for the book. Try different platforms and check where the audience engages with your work the most. In most cases, it is seen non-fiction and self-help books do better on platforms like LinkedIn while fiction brings more engagement on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Increase your social media presence and try to create more content promoting your books. Also, refrain from creating repetitive content.

●     Collaborate with Influencers

Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective means of promotion today. Collaborating with trusted and popular book-fluencers can compel their followers to check out the book by creating the “Halo Effect”.

●     Capitalize on Reviews

Captilaze the reviews people leave about the book on platforms like Amazon and ask more people to leave their reviews as well. Submit articles about your book to online publications and get in touch with book review websites. By regularly submitting articles, one can eventually catch the attention of readers and get the break they need, and start selling more copies.

●     Participate in Interviews and Book Chats

Engage more with the online book community. Seek interviews with bloggers, journalists, and other authors. Be a part of the online book chats and forums, thereby connecting with potential readers and using these platforms to share the word about your book.

Things to Avoid:

●     Spam

It is a horrible strategy to spam followers with numerous posts about the book and can cause the author to lose followers rapidly as they might get tired of seeing the same self-promotional posts all the time. The aim is to intrigue readers to read the book, not bore them out of it. Instead running ads on the book to be promoted can yield much better results.

●     Boring Content

Do not hold back from thinking a little out of the box. Promoting your book online can be tricky and it is better to experiment with different things until you find the one hits. Try not to copy the styles of other authors as it might create a bad impression about the author and the book.

●     Self-Reviews

DO NOT REVIEW YOUR OWN BOOK! It is a highly unprofessional thing to do and readers do not take to such things positively. Let your work do the talking through the reviews of those who have read the work.

●     Being Discouraged

 Authors trying to promote their books must not be discouraged if their works fail to yield the results they were hoping for. Ads can at times perform poorly and it is therefore the custom to test the demographics and experiment with the type of content to see what is working and what isn’t. It requires a deep understanding of the demographics of the audience engaging with the posts the most

The task of promoting a book is a marathon, not a sprint, and patience is the key. Though it takes time, the result is always sweet.