20 Economical Book Marketing Techniques

Summary: Learn how to get your book publicity campaign moving despite the current economic recession by trying these practically economical methods of book marketing.

Whether you are an upstart author or a self published author, an efficient book marketing plan in these times of economic recession need not be expensive if you just know your target market, find the most economical means to inform this market of your works, and establish a lasting, trustworthy relationship with your new-found markets.

Study carefully your expected demographic market’s spending behavior and changing lifestyle habits, given these trying times, and then find effective ways and methods that they may be convinced and persuaded in buying your book. Also, compare the effectiveness of your book marketing plan with the competition of the same genre, and consider relevant marketing factors such as the pricing of the book, the common qualities of the bestselling authors, the present market demand for the genre, and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition.

Try choosing or combining any of these effective book marketing techniques so that you will not only save on your book marketing investment but will become an efficient “author-preneur” as well:

1.  Conduct book signing campaigns at local/statewide bookstores, book fairs, and literary conventions, which lets you market for free or for a very minimal registration fee.

2.  Strategically schedule the announcement of your new book or continuing publicity with a relevant national news event, a new blockbuster movie, or a trade fair.

3.  Write articles on topics of current interest and correlate it with the beneficial features and advice found in your book, then submit at free PR websites.

4.  Participate in various online authors’ or genre-specific blog sites. This is one tried-and-tested avenue for the so-called “viral marketing” to flourish because in manifesting your thoughts and perspectives to thousands of online bloggers, you make them appreciate your knowledge and expertise on a particular subject matter of interest, which is related to the book you are writing. In this manner, you are actually and indirectly promoting your book with your interesting ideas shared online.

5.  Publish actual portions or excerpts of your book together with a concise feature article that can be distributed in high visitor web portals and article data bases on the Internet.

6.  Deal with a reliable print-on-demand publisher that offers complete and extensive distribution services.

7.  Consider more promising, diversified literary text formatting options for your works like having a full text version of your book stored in .pdf format, having an e-book version of your writing, and having downloadable versions of your book to Internet-capable handheld computer owners.

8.  Participate often in writers’ conventions, writing guild conferences and symposia and the like. You could gain crucial, practical inputs from seasoned authors who will give you effective marketing advice that may not be found elsewhere.

9.  Have yourself available as a public forum/special events speaker in the field or area of your expertise. You may not actually sell books, but may issue author cards for the program participants who may be your future book buyers.

10.  Consider listing your book on online classified ads websites.

11.  Send e-mails to your friends and reader fans of scanned excerpts of your book with a matching explanatory note.

12.  Place an ad in social networking sites that allow the marketing of your books/latest work for free or for a discounted fee.

13.  Be a proactive author like giving complimentary copies of your book to celebrities and well-known resource persons, sending opinion articles for newspapers, and getting actively involved in community projects and charitable events.

14.  Contact genre experts, independent book critics, and well known book review companies for favorable endorsement comments,

15.  Send PR’s to newspapers in your city or state for the purpose of being featured and getting book reviews.

16.  Find local or state area radio stations and television stations that actually feature programs about writers, literature, or books then try to find out if you can send a PR of your book or better still, get a radio or television interview.

17.  Make your own creative video presentation of your book and upload it to video-sharing websites.

18.  Be your own book broadcaster. Make a podcast-able audio presentation of your book. This marketing option is ideal for authors of language and speech books, business and economics books, and even of the fiction genre.

19.  Find author marketing websites that offer free ad listings of your book. This is the Internet version of the conventional bulletin board display.

20.  Find book marketing services providers that offer bundled marketing programs at a discounted rate. Compare prices according to your book marketing needs, the kind of services that you prefer, the quality of the services offered, and the limits of your marketing budget.