When your book is published, it’s one of thousands of new books that year struggling to get noticed. Publishers only actively market the biggest titles, so it’s up to you to promote your book.
In 1950, in the United States, there were about 11,000 books published, and of these, about 1,200 were fiction. (Source: McSweeney’s.) Twenty-five years later, nearly 40,000 books were published, and 2,400 of these were fiction. In that period, publishing saw the rise of the paperback, a doubling of the number of children’s books published (just slightly less than fiction, at around 2,100), and a near tripling of books classified as “poetry, drama,” reaching 1,100.
During that period, if you published a hardcover novel or non-fiction book with a traditional publisher, a marketing team or publicist would generally work with the author to promote the book. Even if it didn’t sell as well as the publisher expected, they were likely to want to work with the author, hoping that their next book would sell better, and that their previous books – the backlist – would continue to sell. Most publishers signed authors in the hopes of establishing their career, not just to sell one book.
Current estimates suggest that there are around 100,000 adult novels published in the US each year. These include hardcover, trade paperback, and paperback originals, but exclude self-published books, of which there are well more than one million a year. With this many books published, and marketing departments focusing generally just on the biggest titles by well-known authors or celebrities, it’s up to you to sell your book.
Understand your target audience
While writing a book is all about creativity and imagination, when it comes to marketing your book, you need to think differently. Marketing terms like USP (unique selling proposition) and target demographic are far from your mind when you’ve slaved over blank pages, but when you’re book’s publication nears, you should start learning these.
Your unique selling proposition is what makes your book stand out from the thousands of others published the same month as yours. You may have a protagonist who is different from what is commonly seen in fiction. You may have a new take on a common genre or trope, or you may have written a mash-up of two genres. Or you might be leveraging your work experience in fiction, such as if you’re a former CIA analyst writing a spy novel. You should determine your USP and use it in all your promotional material: your website, social media profiles, and email newsletters.
Your target demographic is who you want to sell the book to. Not everyone will be interested in your book. If you write romantasy, readers of thrillers won’t be your target. If you write literary fiction, you don’t want to try to sell to readers of genre fiction. Understanding who your target audience is helps you to focus your marketing and not waste time trying to sell to everyone.
Build your author platform
An is the sum of all the places where you control your own marketing. This includes your website, blog, mailing list, and pages on Goodreads and Amazon or other sites where you can present yourself and your book. Social media is essential, and it’s a good way to build word of mouth. There’s a wide range of social media services such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and others. If you plan to use these services, but you don’t use them regularly, spend some time getting familiar with them.
Generate leads before the book is published
The term “generate leads” is used in sales. It means to attract potential customers, to pique their interest. You don’t close the deal – especially if you’re doing this before the book is published, which is important (see below) – but present your USP to your target audience to build buzz. At this point, you won’t have any reviews to quote, but you may have some author endorsements or blurbs that you can share.
As your publication date approaches, you should start a media outreach program. Contact book bloggers, podcasters, and book clubs to get some attention. Do interviews, even with the smallest bloggers or BookTok influencers. While none of these actions individually will sell a lot of books, they add up; the more people hear about your book, the more likely they are to want to check it out. And if you’ve never done this type of thing, it helps you build up experience as an interviewee.
While the biggest sellers of books are Amazon and big chains, it’s helpful to promote your book with independent booksellers, especially if you have any near where you live. These smaller bookstores can spur interest, since they are more likely to recommend books to regular customers, and always appreciate authors who highlight them.
The importance of pre-orders
Doing the above marketing before your book is published is essential because it can get people to pre-order the book. Pre-orders tell publishers that readers are interested in your book, which could get them to focus more marketing efforts on your title. Pre-orders tell retailers that there’s buzz around the book and can influence its placement and positioning.
When the book finally goes on sale, all the pre-orders count as sales on that day. This can make your book launch at a high position in sales charts, which, in turn, gives it exposure to people who follow best-seller lists.
It’s understandable that, with so many books released, publishers can’t spend much on promoting each book. The more books published, the tighter the marketing budget for each book. In most cases, new authors won’t see any but the most cursory marketing effort for their books, and it’s up to you to sell yourself. This will take time away from writing, but if you work regularly on marketing, both before your book is published and during its life cycle, it can help you in the long run as you try to establish a career as a writer.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener.