Marketing & Promotion

If you are an indie author on Amazon, in Amazon’s Kindle Select Program, you can use five free days to promote your ebook in exchange for three months of exclusivity. Many traditional publishers are increasingly doing free promos as well, and the competition is growing with thousands of free ebooks available every day. So how do you stand out?

There's growing unrest surrounding the proliferation of free and cheap books, particularly ebooks. The reasons for sharp discounts and giveaways are legion (and some reasons are better than others), but regardless of the reason, I see greater shaming of those who are seen to "devalue" literature in our culture.

I regularly round up and comment on book marketing advice that have writers buzzing. Here's what sparked discussion in 2017.

The more your book is optimized for search at Amazon, the more often it’s going to come up in searches, and—consequently—the more you’ll sell. Part of making your book more discoverable is understanding how to set your categories and keywords on Amazon, which is accessible to any indie author.

While it's not easy to launch a book without any kind of online presence, many first-time authors are in exactly that position. Here's a 4-step game plan.

The gist of all marketing advice for authors essentially boils down to: try everything and see what works. Here's what didn't work for me.

I have an uneasy relationship with sales because I came to writing through academic means, and academics still live with an idea of meritocracy as the way people get recognition for what they do.

When I hear professional publicists offer advice to authors, one theme that comes up again and again is: start where you are.

Social media is widely considered necessary by authors and publishers for book marketing. But is it as important as an optimized author website?

Do you know what time it is in Mumbai, India? Knowing time differences in the countries where you sell books is key to social media engagement, and ultimately sales.

While Amazon sponsored ads haven’t been a marketing miracle, I also haven’t lost that much money—and copies of my YA novel have sold at a steady pace.

Reader analytics measures the strength of reader engagement with a book. This data helps publishers more effectively market and promote books to readers.

A self-published author breaks down her expenses and resulting sales after promoting on social media and email, paying for reviews, advertising, and more.

When I work on a project—with clients, but particularly with my own writing—I start by acknowledging a blunt but important truth: Nobody cares about what I have made.

The two biggest mistakes in book publicity pitches: they are too long in length, and not pointed or provocative enough.

Marketing FOMO is more debilitating than distracting—and if you suffer from marketing FOMO, your marketing tasks will never be done.

Authors need help with digital book marketing—the kind of help that traditional publishers rarely provide. Co-ops and collectives can help fill that gap.

When you’re wooing the media, what you’re really trying to do is to intrigue them. To whet their appetites. Sometimes the best way to do that flows from remembering that less is often more.

As writers, we don’t always know how much of ourselves to share with the public. But it behooves us to create and curate an author persona—the public face for our work.

Every author, regardless of when or what they’ve published, has an Author Central page. But many authors have not claimed theirs—which is a big mistake.

Is it better to have a long or short book description on Amazon? What should go in the first line? How do you research appropriate categories and keywords? Learn principles and tools to master the power of descriptions and reach your target market.

When I ask most clients what their goals are in hiring me, I usually get some version of “to get more followers and sell more books.” I encourage them to think both bigger and more deeply about social media.

In my latest column for Publishers Weekly, I discuss the potential of online education for book marketing, particularly prior to publication.

Sarah Miniaci at Smith Publicity and Kristina Radke at NetGalley review the marketing and publicity strategies that can help increase your book's discoverability, word-of-mouth, and reviews, using NetGalley and Goodreads in particular.

BEA is a quality industry event, and it is a legitimate marketing and promotion opportunity. But for the majority of indie authors, it does not make sense to invest what are likely your limited resources in BEA.

There are advantages to selling ebooks only through Amazon, and makes most sense for authors who are just starting out or who are relatively unknown.

Every year, I share hundreds (even thousands) of articles and reports on book marketing. Here, I look back on the best of what I found in 2016.

Amazon offers two ways for authors to advertise ebooks at their site. Learn how to smartly set up and manage product display and sponsored product ads.

How a self-publishing poet achieved visibility for her book—and landed a book deal with traditional publisher Andrews McMeel.

When embarking on a process that is new or unfamiliar, often you don't know what you don't know. A checklist helps you recognize what you don't know, so that many months later, you're not beating yourself up for complete ignorance. Without further ado, here are some of my most favored checklists, from sources I trust.

The No. 1 disappointment of published authors is the lack of marketing support from their publisher. Here's how to prepare for what will—and won't—happen.

If you want to sell books and have people read them, you have to meet other people and tell them about it. Learn the best networking strategies for people who hate networking.

Reddit is an online community where you can get your book in front of hundreds of thousands of readers for free. That is, if you have the right strategy.

A short-term marketing campaign is a series of strategies designed to reach a goal in a defined period of time, and include projects such as book launches. A short-term campaign has four definite phases: planning, pre-launch, launch, and follow-through.

Book cover designer Joshua Jadon offers nine tips for creating a visually intriguing book cover.

Author Martha Conway discusses optimizing Facebook ad settings to ensure a realistic click-through rate, and her overall results with Facebook ads.

Just about every writer would love to have more readers—more readers of their books, their blog, their articles, or whatever creative work they’re producing. But few writers have given much thought to having a call to action that's associated with their work.

If you want to be successful at selling today, you need to quit pushing your needs (please buy my book) and messages at potential readers and concentrate on figuring out how to pull them in by putting their needs above yours. Give them something valuable.

Social media and marketing expert Andrea Dunlop lists five questions you should ask yourself when starting to plan your book launch.

Kirsten Oliphant explains how to reach out to others who can help you build your author platform and how to generate a great pitch for collaboration.

Author Robert Wilder explains the concept of pods (spheres of influence) and how to use them to help promote your book.

Author and social media expert Frances Caballo discusses the CARE acronym and how to use it to guide your interactions with readers on social media.

Author Daniel Parsons offers five tips for improving your Twitter interactions as a creative professional.

Author and social media expert Kirsten Oliphant explains how to manage your platform-building activities on social media sites.

Author and speaker Dorit Sasson offers tips on how to build author platform through local speaking engagements.

Writing coach Angela Ackerman discusses how influencers can help you market your book, how to identify potential influencers, and how to reach them.

Kirsten Oliphant discusses various ways to grow your email subscriber list.

Join me for a live training to learn to write sales copy that’s as impressive as your story; you'll improve book descriptions, ad copy and reader emails.

Every author dreams of having a successful book reading in a roomful of admiring fans. Yet too few actually spend enough time planning what they will say.

Podcast producer Devon Fredericksen offers four tips for authors creating podcasts.