Who is your target audience?
Before you even spend a single dime on advertising or even launch a website, you have to know who you’re marketing to. That means creating a “persona” of your ideal reader. A persona includes both demographic and psychographic information.
Demographic information is core traits about your ideal customer. For example, “Jane is a 35-year-old mom from Denver who loves to read contemporary romance books.”
Psychographic information is knowing that Jane reads to escape, loves strong female leads, and follows Bookstagram influencers.
To figure out who your target audience is, ask yourself:
- What needs does your book fulfill? What problem does it solve?
- What kind of voice or tone does your audience respond to?
- What would cause your reader to want to buy a book? What are their reading habits like?
You can review comment sections on Amazon or Goodreads to learn more about what your ideal audience is thinking, or you can ask on forums, Reddit, and social networks.
Market research
You don’t need a marketing degree to be able to do market research. All you need to do is take a trip to your local bookstore or even Amazon and check out the best sellers in your book’s genre. Look at them closely and take notes:
- What do all the covers have in common? Do they use similar fonts or color schemes?
- Are their titles curiosity-driven or rich in keywords to attract searchers?
- What kind of promises do they make in their descriptions?
- What are people praising or complaining about in the reviews?
This information can help you glean some insights on how to position your own book differently or make it even better than those best sellers.
Create your author website
The next step in marketing your self-published book is to create your author website. This will serve as the centralized hub for all your book marketing efforts. Ideally you’ll want to break it up into the following sections:
- Your book’s “landing page” which includes a curiosity-inducing headline enough to get people to want to click and learn more.
- An “About” page that talks about you as an author and goes into more detail on why your wrote this book, what you hope people will get out of it, and any other information you’d like to share
- Your blog, where you can introduce your characters, share tips, take readers behind the scenes, and more
- Clear calls to action encouraging visitors to buy a copy of your book, sign up for your newsletter, or get blog updates.
You’ll be glad to know that at BookBaby, we can create your author website on our Bookshop where you can write more about your book, sell physical copies and eBooks, and share other titles you’ve written.
Set up your email list
Having an email list lets you communicate with your readers directly. By sending out regular newsletters with updates, behind-the-scenes looks, or other details, you can help drive pre-order excitement about your book while preparing for a launch day celebration. Over time, newsletters help connect you to your readers (and vis-versa) while building reader loyalty and familiarity.
At BookBaby, we’re committed to help you create an author newsletter that your subscribers will look forward to receiving! Consider giving away the first chapter for free to give readers a glimpse of what to expect when they order the full book.
Social media and blogging
Engaging with your readers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are excellent ways to help build community around your work. Both your blog and social media are great places to share excerpts, character bios, and otherwise interact with your readers to help build up anticipation for your book. We’ve got plenty of great ideas to help you market your book on social media as well.
Presenting your book with a beautiful cover
Once you’ve created your author website, set up your blog and social media accounts, and have started to post regularly and build up a following, it’s time to turn your attention to your book itself. Contrary to popular belief, people really do judge a book by its cover. Remember the market research you did in step one where you analyzed the top-selling books in your genre? This is another area where you’ll put what you’ve learned to use.
The good news: you don’t have to do it all yourself. At the same time, we understand that many authors feel like they have to design their own cover, since by self-publishing, you’re already doing it all yourself, right? You can absolutely self-publish your book while still working with a graphic design expert to design your cover. Just look at these before and after examples of covers that we designed for self-published authors!
Not only do we offer custom book cover design, but we can also handle the interior formatting for printed books to give them that “fresh from the publisher” look and feel ordinarily reserved for traditionally published books. Interior design and formatting makes sure that all your images, charts, and photos are crystal clear, text is aligned and formatted correctly, and the presentation is absolutely flawless — no less than what your book deserves!
We can also handle the interior formatting of your eBook, which is a completely different process that involves much more than just opening your book’s document and clicking “Export as PDF.” Professional eBook formatting means making sure your book loads and looks great on a variety of e-Reader devices, including Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook, and more. shelves!
Metadata optimization
Beyond your cover design, interior formatting, and eBook formatting, it’s also important to optimize your book’s metadata. Metadata is what internal book search engines, like those on Amazon.com and other platforms, use to catalog and categorize your book within their systems. It’s also what makes it possible for readers and users to find your book.and retail store shelves!
Your book’s metadata includes:
- The title and subtitle
- Specific keywords
- Categories/genres for your book
- Author name
- ISBN
- Publisher
- Publication date and more
Metadata is essentially a way to “tell your book’s story” to other computers as they try to find the right category and fit for where your story belongs. Choosing the wrong keywords or skipping the metadata process entirely means your book could never be found. That’s why you won’t want to treat metadata as an afterthought.
Building the hype with pre-launch strategies
Once your book cover is designed and the interior is formatted perfectly, it’s time to focus on building the pre-launch hype. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to do this, and you can choose any or all of them in order to make a powerful impact with potential readers. Here are a few of our favorite methods:
Advance reader copies (ARCs)
ARCs or advance reader copies, are a great way to get your book into the hands of key influencers, bloggers, and reviewers who specialize in your genre. These are copies of your book that are given out before its official launch date. The reasoning behind advance reader copies is so that your book gets reviews. The more reviews your book gets, the higher it rises in Amazon’s search engine, and the more sales it can potentially get.
Keep in mind that traditionally, ARCs don’t have a finalized cover or a final proofread. They may have the phrase “advance reader copy: not intended for resale” on the cover. Major publishers still produce these ARCs and send them out to big, well-known book review brands like Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly.
At the same time, just because the book hasn’t been proofread doesn’t mean you can (or should) send out a sloppy or hastily edited book. Proofreading is the final step in the editing process and the last thing you want is for a messy book to end up in the hands of a key reviewer or blogger!
You can also use legitimate paid reviews to generate more exposure for your book. Amazon recognizes sites including Blue Ink, Kirkus, Indie Reader, and Reader’s Favorite as legitimate sites with legitimate reviews, so rather than paying for “cheap book reviews” on a gig site, you’re working with independent paid sites to get professional reviews done right.
Guest blogging and interviews
Guest blogging on relevant blogs and participating in interviews helps spread the word about your book to new audiences while cementing your authority and credibility as an author in your preferred genre. Reaching out to popular blogs in your niche area and offering to contribute guest posts is a great way to gain traction for your book even before it’s released. Link to those guest posts and interviews on your own blog and be sure to share them with social media as well.
Countdown to launch
For potential readers who enjoy your genre, there’s nothing more exciting than a new book launch. You can take advantage of this excitement by way of a countdown campaign through both social media and email.
We’ve created a complete guide on how to do a virtual book launch on Instagram, including creating branded templates, creating mini video teasers, sharing quotes from within your book, and much more. As an independent author, you have all the freedom and control in the world to announce your book and get the word out.
You can also take advantage of paid Instagram (and Facebook) ad management through BookBaby’s own Ads for Authors program. You decide how long you want your ads to run and your weekly budget, and our team of professional graphic artists will create a superb set of ads to match the genre and aesthetic of your book.
Plus, you’ll be able to view the progress of your ad campaign in real time through your ad manager. See how many times your ad was shown, how many people clicked on it and more. We provide a free quote service that can get you up and running in just a couple of days with our team of social media marketing specialists.
It’s launch day. Now what?
It’s finally here: launch day. The day you release your book to the world. All of your blood, sweat, and tears are now converted to words on a page. It’s normal to feel a little (okay, maybe more than just a little) nervous!
Fortunately, we at BookBaby have you covered. Our free marketing plan for a book launch walks you through exactly how to structure and schedule everything from emails to social media posts and more to make sure your announcement is heard loud and clear by your ideal readers.
In our free guide, you’ll learn unique strategies to connect with your readers, how to make sure your launch is done right from start to finish, and how to leverage important reader touchpoints like your Amazon Author page to connect with readers beyond what’s possible with email or social media.
Your Amazon author page
Speaking of your Amazon Author page, this often-overlooked page can become a crucial part of your book launch, especially when combined with a targeted Amazon PPC (pay per click) campaign. Running paid campaigns on Amazon is an excellent way to increase the visibility of your book and get even more exposure, especially during a critical launch window!
To help you, we’ve created an entire self-publishing FAQ on how to use Amazon Author Central to the fullest. You definitely won’t want to sleep on this critical part of your book launch and overall promotional campaign! Plus, unlike creating a full-blown website or blog, creating your Amazon Author page is easy and only takes a few minutes!
Media outreach with press releases
In addition to a book launch that allows you to partner with key influencers, bloggers, and reviewers, what if you could add to that with even more exposure for your book? A press release can be the perfect complement to your other self-publishing marketing efforts.
However, developing a press release is about more than just using a few press release templates and pressing the submit button to launch it into the wild media yonder. Like many other things, the media has its own set of timeframes that they work within, which means you’ll want to follow their schedule “blocks” in order to line up your release window with the moment they get your press release and want to interview you or ask some questions.
As a self-published author, you can still maximize your chances of attracting the media’s attention with your press release and getting it potentially seen by millions of readers.
After the launch, what’s next?
You’ve launched your book; it’s getting a great reception and stellar reviews. You’ve got a few interviews lined up with local media and a couple of influencers and Bookstagrammers in your niche. You’re starting to see your efforts pay off. What happens after the launch fervor has started to die down a little?
Although it may seem like the right time to turn off the ads and fade away from the public view, the truth is that in order to continue to cement your status as a self-published author and build your credibility in literary circles that specialize in your genre, you’ll want to keep going. That means keeping a budget going for ongoing ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn.
Positioning your ads to continue to run on these sites not only helps you attract more readers but can also re-engage those users who saw and maybe even clicked on your ads but didn’t ultimately purchase. Check out our book advertising services to learn more.
There are other book promotional ideas let you flex your creative muscles a bit. For example, themed contests that relate to your book genre are always a hit with followers and influencers. If you wrote a fantasy novel, for instance, you could invite readers to design a magical creature that could live in your world. The best submission gets a signed copy of your book or gets featured in your bonus content. If you’re writing a series, you could let fans suggest the names of a weapon or spell or even location that could appear in your sequel.
If you’re promoting a romance novel, you could ask fans to write a love letter as one of your characters (or to one of them), with the best letter getting featured on your blog. More of a mystery or thriller writer? Post a riddle or short mystery clue once a day for a week. The first person to solve it wins a gift bundle.
Getting started with marketing your self-published book
Marketing a self-published book might seem overwhelming at first glance, but by following the right plan and taking it one step at a time, you’ll find that it has never been easier. Each of the steps in this guide is designed to take you through the self-publishing marketing journey step by step.
First, by identifying your ideal reader and building a strong author platform, you’ll be able to make sure you’re marketing to the right people. Then, by building pre-launch hype and taking advantage of post-launch name recognition and media exposure, you’ll solidly start to build up your reputation as an author and become more and more well known. Keep in mind that success won’t happen overnight and that each of the steps in this guide builds on the one before.
Fortunately, our team of publishing, marketing, and graphic design experts are here to help you every step of the way. From cover design and interior formatting to eBook conversion and book marketing, our professionals are always available to help you make the most of your book.
Remember, you’re sharing your story with the world, and that’s something valuable that no one but you can create. With the right plan backing you, you don’t need a huge marketing budget or the blessing of a traditional publishing deal to make magic happen.
Take your first (or next) step now and reach out to us for any questions you may have about the self-publishing or marketing process.
Let’s work together to get your book into the hands of readers who are eagerly waiting for something new to dive into!