A lot of the advice you’ll find about book marketing is frustratingly vague. You’ll find a lot of blog posts touting “Top Ten Book Promotion Strategies” with advice like:
- Be Active on Social Media
- Blog Regularly
- Build an Email List of Readers
While these things may help build a readership, they won’t sell books in the short term…or even the long term. A lot of social media is tweeting into the wind, and blogging can sometimes gain a following of five loyal followers, three of whom live in your house. The same goes for email lists: you can only run an email once touting your book, and who’s on your list? Friends. Friends don’t buy books, you’ll be amazed. They expect free copies.
So it can be frustrating to find these tips bandied about time and again with limited advice about how to sell books today.
Most real ideas cost money, but if you’re a serious author and self-publisher, that takes actual investment. There’s no such thing as a traditional publisher that doesn’t spend some capital on marketing, and the same is true for self-publishers. No real marketing = No real sales.
Book Tours
Book tour sites have a great reach. Not only can you get instant content posted on established blogs (rather than your own site that may not have a lot of traffic), these sites can lead to a few sales or free downloads, and sometimes a few reviews. There’s no guarantee, but the bloggers who run sites that are part of a book tour are generally active on Goodreads and Amazon. See SPR’s list of the best book tour sites.
Newsletter Sites
This can take a small investment of $40 or so, but you may see a few sales immediately from these sorts of promos. You can possibly make your money back (a $40 promo for a $2.99 book would need 20 sales, though $.99 books generally have the best purchase rate). It’s best to combine different newsletter sites together, so the cost would more likely be in the hundreds. See SPR’s list of newsletter promotion sites.
Free Newsletter Sites
There are free options available as well, which you should combine with paid newsletter promotions. See SPR’s list of the best free book promotion sites.
SPR’s Kindle Email Promotion Packages
Yes, tooting our own horn, but we can get you 50-100 Kindle sales in 3-5 days with our Kindle sales promos, or gain Amazon reviews and best seller rank with up to 200 sales for a package, which can be combined with an additional Kindle sales package. These promos are pricier than some other promo sites, but you know what you’re getting with the promo, as there’s a targeted goal we reach, compared to other promotion services.
The four promotions above should be combined for a proper book launch. You’re more likely to get a dedicated base of fans from people actually buying and reading your book than from blogging and tweeting. An author no doubt has to be constantly active to keep the momentum going, because remember, each signed-up email address only amounts to one sale ever per book, and you will need to keep growing your base with professional promotional techniques.
For more info, take a look at all of SPR’s book promotion and marketing articles.
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You said a big truth: no marketing, no sales and this srule is worth for books, also. As an Italian book promoter, I sell about 200 books per year, through book promotion services performed through my book site. I know it is not enough for self published authors, but if they learn to master several affordable book marketing campaigns on several book sites, they can sell more copies and simoultaneusly build their literary reputation. Editorial book reviews, press releases, book descriptions spread on book sites and literary magazines are the best way to promote and sell books.