As a writer, time is precious and the thought of marketing sends chills down our spine. We are all busy: life has a way of sucking away time away until there is little left. Many authors try to do as much marketing at one time as possible. This only creates frustration and near – exhaustion. So, unfortunately book marketing is left to die a quick death on the sidelines.
But if I were to offer a few author marketing ideas that only take a few minutes of your time a day, would you do them?
I thought so. ;)
Author Marketing Tips
- AUTHOR BRANDING at the LIBRARY: Contact your local library and offer to do a talk. While you do not get paid for this service, they may let you sell your book for a % commission back to the library.
Be sure to have a sign up sheet to collect those important readers email addresses. Or better, provide bookmarks with your website and email sign up form.
- TRAFFIC GENERATION with CONTESTS: You’ve probably heard this idea a dozen times and figure why should you do it if “everyone” is doing it? First, contests are great promotional tools. The key is to add a unique twist: Design your contest around the topic of your book. For Example, if your book is about gardening, then the theme could be garden/eating related. Offer a daily entry and with each entry offer a free recipe. (even if your book is a murder mystery in a garden shop, this would still apply.)
You could also consider a scavenger hunt where the vegetables and fruit are hidden all over your site – or better – on other author’s sites.
The key is to drive traffic and potential readers to your site.
- AUTHOR PLATFORM: maintaining your website or Blog: Your site is your 24/7 marketing tool. Even if you sleep, your site never does.
Make sure it is up to day.
- PROMOTE your site through SEARCH ENGINES: You built your site, but did you submit it to the search engines? Sure your site will eventually get picked up, but why not give it a little “push”.
You can submit your site for free on search engines, or even us AddMe and do it all from one site – free.
- PROMOTION: Write and publish an article to an EZINE: You are a writer, so write. People will always be looking for great content for their sites. Consider submitting your articles to EzineArticles. Or if you are a subscriber to an email newsletter you like, then consider asking about their submission guidelines.
You could also submit your articles by registering at the following yahoo group: Publish In Yours (PublishInYours-subscribe@yahoogroups.com).
- PROMOTION / BRANDING: Call local bookstores for signings This will be a lot of work to get ready for, but is a great opportunity to meet your community and brand your name.
And a great way to sell books.
- BRANDING / MARKETING by saying Thank You: Did you have a book signing, or newspaper write-up or a Library talk? Send personal or e-mail thank yous.
No matter the reason, whether it’s to the reporter who did a feature on you or the book store manager who hosted your book signing, saying “thank you” is a great marketing tool!
A great source for fun any occasion animated cards and notes is JacquieLawson.comn
- MARKETING / BRANDING through Memberships: Be a member of all pertinent organizations in your genre: mystery, cooking, whatever your field of writing you should be part of that writing group in your area.
It not only will enable you to promote your book and yourself at meetings, most groups are always looking for speakers.
