You’re probably focused on writing your book, and you should be, but you keep thinking about marketing your book. You wonder: When should I start? And: How do I let others know about my book?
In this blog post I’ll answer those two questions, and I’ll also suggest some places where you can let others know about your book.
Several authors I’ve worked with have ignored marketing their books. They think the books will sell themselves because they’re that good, or they just don’t want to think about all the hard work involved. I always bring up the subject but I’m prepared if they change the topic.
Marketing your book is extremely important and you need a plan. Start thinking about marketing before your book is finished. This means at least six months before publication.
You might think that’s too much time before publishing, but it really isn’t. It will take that long to make a connection with your audience and to share your book with them. There will also be other tasks associated with marketing that you’ll have to take care of.
Your next question may be: What does marketing your book entail?
For the purpose of this blog post, marketing means letting your intended audience, or interested readers, know that you’ve written a book that they will want to read. Make contact with your intended audience. Establish a rapport.
- Do some homework to find out where you can find your audience
- Introduce yourself and make a connection with them
- Think about how you can interest them in your book
It’s never a good idea to jump into talking about your book before you’ve made a connection. Your audience may question your motives. Show them that you have the same interests, that you’re human.
Then you can start talking about your book. You might tell them why you chose to write it. You might talk about the characters, or you may give them a short summary.
You might talk about the challenges you’ve faced writing the book, and you might also talk about what you’ve learned along the way.
If you’ve written a children’s book, you can talk about the problems you’ve had finding an illustrator. You can talk about what you’ve learned from developing a website. (All writers can talk about this one.)
You may also find that in sharing your story, your contacts may tell you that they’re doing the same thing. And you might learn from each other.
So where do you find your audience?
- You can find them online on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or even TikTok
- You can find them in writing groups
- You can find them online or locally in groups dedicated to a specific genre, like fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, or even children’s books
This is just one aspect of marketing your book. My next post will focus on specific ways you can market your book off-line. In the meantime, let me know what you think about this post.
If you have questions, feel free to send those questions to me. I’d be happy to answer them.