5 Easy Online Book Marketing Tips That Not Everyone Will Tell You

You’ve got your book ready, but you want the best for yourself and your book. You want it to sell. Naturally, everyone will not necessarily know your book, and people might not even anticipate your book if you haven’t marketed it well.

If you’re a new author, you might be tempted to make use of some paid book marketing services. Although they will get your book published, marketed, and promoted professionally on a large scale, but there are some things that you might need to do yourself that will give your book sales a much-needed boost.

All authors make mistakes in marketing their books because marketing isn’t their forte. However, your books are your business cards, even if you’re not an author.

Here are some marketing tips to help you find success as a writer:

1. Advertising on Amazon

Advertising and promoting your book on Amazon is easy. It’s not just for books, but it is worth it for all kinds of businesses that sell their products on the platform. In order to create brand awareness and traffic, using the Amazon Advertising provided by Amazon itself.

On average, the quick to execute pay-per-click ads by Amazon Advertising cost $0.81 per click, but it depends on the budget and competition as well. The format can be flexible based on how you want your marketing plan, and you can also get real-time insights about your book's performance.

Amazon is the largest book retailer in the world. When you’re done with your book, you should most definitely look toward getting your book sold on Amazon. To best market your book, the most optimized use of Amazon is a no-brainer.

2. Efficient use of social media

It has been said that writers can get started by building an audience while writing their first draft and getting people in their circles on social media excited about it. That way, you’ll have started marketing your book even before it’s finished, and the people who’ll be most connected to you and most interested in your niche will be your first and most reachable potential customers.

Social media advertising is cheap too. Once you have made a page for yourself, you can promote your book in sponsored posts as an author. Facebook can charge as little as $1 per day for paid advertising to a targeted audience.

For example, poets post some of their verses in beautifully designed posts with images. Such posts give people incentives to buy their poetry books to see what’s more in store for them. Many have been quite successful too.

Social media is also a great place to ask for reviews and feedback too. You can even connect to beta readers easily.

However, investing time on social media is time-consuming, and your sales can be pretty conditional. Social media marketing requires a commitment to a schedule. While you might see people engage on your posts, the number of likes, comments, and shares doesn’t necessarily translate to sales.

3. Get e-books out first

Many people have been reading on their handheld devices, whether they’re phones, laptops, Kindle devices, or Kobo readers. Especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been reading books on digital platforms quite a lot.

It’s not to say that hard copy books are becoming obsolete. In fact, there is no better feeling than holding a book in your hand and reading it all the way to the end. But e-books have become a priority for many.

Sharing and marketing e-books are easier. This has been very beneficial for self-published authors too.

- Exclusive club

Having your books (or some excerpts of your book) sent out to some of your most loyal readers can help you gain traction. Create exclusive content for people who would love to support you and your work regularly.

You could have a mailing list of subscribers. Even better, if you are active on social media platforms, you could publicize a Patreon account where people would directly support you for exclusive online benefits for your most loyal fans. In return, you can charge them as little as $1 per month.

4. Get into BookBub deals

Bookbub is a service that helps readers discover and find new books. This might be a tip for experienced writers with a large catalogue but some new writers can make use of this too.

Bookbub can help you promote your book to a broad audience. Once you get into a deal, you can run discount campaigns to drive more sales. What some authors do is that they tend to give away their books on Bookbub for free for a limited time so that they can gain as many readers as quickly as possible.

5. Don’t underestimate the power of Pinterest

Pinterest may be another social media platform, but people have used it as a collection of posts (or pins) where people, at times, come to shop. There are quite a lot of visual elements that come with the pins and can be the perfect place to advertise your book.

Your author profile on Pinterest could include your books, your quotes, your excerpts, and everything that you have been inspired by. If you have your own website, Pinterest can complement your blog and website quite nicely.

If you give people exactly what they want through your Pinterest posts, Pinterest can create many potential customers.