How do I promote a self-published book?

The fact that you have never seen an ad for a book should tell you something. Advertising doesn't sell books. If advertizing sold books, you would see lots of advertisements for books, because publishers would do what works. (As the comments indicate, publishers do certain amounts of targeted advertising in some markets. Nothing so far indicates that ads help an unknown self published novel, however.)

What does sell books? I'm no expert, but as far as I can tell, it comes down to word of mouth, hand selling, and bookstore placement.

Word of mouth happens when a few people read you book, love it, and tell their friends, who then tell their friends, etc. etc. You only need a few initial readers to spark a word of mouth expansion, but you also need a really good book. (There are stories of books that languished unnoticed for years before a word of mouth expansion suddenly vaulted them to prominence.)

Hand selling means that someone -- the author or a bookseller -- personally talks up the book to a customer, usually in a book store, but possibly in another venue (I have hand sold my technical books at industry conferences). Hand selling a book yourself is, of course, incredibly expensive and time consuming and is only really going to pay off if the book gains enough momentum to start a word of mouth expansion and to inspire hand selling by book sellers.

Bookstore placement means that your book gets on the rack at the front of the store, gets placed on an end cap, or turned face out on the shelf -- anything to make it more noticeable to a reader who is just browsing with no clear idea in mind of who or what they are looking for. You get bookstore placement by being published by a major publisher with a lot of clout with bookstores who is willing to promote your work through their sales channels. In other words, if you self publish, you don't get bookstore placement (except maybe from your local independent bookstore if you chat up the owner).

There is also reviews in prominent publications, Oprah's book club, and the major literary prizes. But a self-published book is not likely to get within a country mile of any of those. The major publishing houses own the pipelines to those places. You would need to already be a major self-publishing success story to even have a chance of being looked at by any of these.

When it comes to seeding your word of mouth campaign on social media, I don't think the necessarily costs you anything more than time, but my impression is that you are more likely to succeed in pitching your book to your already established social media following than you are to build a following around the book itself, at least until the book itself, or you as an author, already have an established reputation.

In short, if you want to be successful self publishing, I think you have to be prepared to do a lot of hand selling. And, of course, you have to write an exceptionally good book.

posted over 6 years ago

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Mark Baker‭

4351 reputation 12 1104 742 58

Mark has covered your question admirably and I agree with everything he has said. I would offer only a few minor additions.

If you want to write a successful book, you need to look at marketing before everything else. You need to consider how you can market your writing before you decide on what audience you are targeting, what genre(s) you will embrace, and long before even the earliest sketches of who your characters are or what their world looks like. If you define success in terms of reader counts and financial compensation, you need to put marketing first.

But as Mark has explained, marketing doesn't usually work for books. We, as general market readers, don't turn to conventional advertising mediums for advice on what to read next. Most of us don't even consider who is currently on the NYTimes Best Sellers list, except for when it is shoved in our face by a book jacket or bookstore display. Entertainment literature is just one of those products which cannot be supported effectively by conventional advertising.

Except when it can...

I used to run a small writing group and one day an unpublished author brought in her work in progress, a tell-all for the private yachting community. She was a chef who had built a career signing on to various yacht crews, producing wonderful food while cruising to the most beautiful ports in the world. Along the way, she had picked up hundreds of anecdotes and humorous stories which she was assembling into a semi-fictionalized set of linked short stories. The writing was crisp and joyful and the stories never failed to cheer. But more importantly in context of this question, her work in progress was marketable!

The private yachting community is full of people who draw major parts of their self-image and identity from their link to boating. They are a group set apart from all others; a group which is served by multiple magazines, hundreds of websites, forums and boating supply stores. Unlike most general market readers, yacht owners will take reading recommendations from their community media, especially if it promises to be full of people like them, doing the things they love to do.

This rare book came, not only with a built in audience, but with a variety of methods for reaching them... methods which would respond to marketing dollars.

This is what I mean by marketing having to be your first consideration. I encountered hundreds of skillfully crafted and joy-to-read works in progress during my time with that writing group. Excellence in story-craft is not as rare as the proud among us might wish. But as far as I know, none of those artfully worded works ever developed a major following once published. They were great, but they didn't stand out in terms of marketability. The ideas at their cores didn't come with a built in accessible audience. ...so conventional advertising couldn't help them.

Books sell by word of mouth. Finding a method to reach your first thousand mouths is more important than your dashing hero, your vile villain or your beautiful prose. Nothing you can do as an author is more important toward the success of your book, than what you can do as a marketing strategist. You must answer the question, "How am I going to sell this?" before you even start considering what "this" is going to grow up to be.

Some final thoughts...

• Your marketing concept needs to be a vital part of your story. It cannot be inserted in after the fun part of the writing is done.

• A built-in audience is not the only marketing strategy to consider but it is a good one. Set your story among a group that is usually disrespected in modern fiction (Conservative-Christians, Survivalists, Politicians) and treat them with respect and dignity in your prose. Then by applying your marketing dollars to their trade-journals and forums, you may win their readership.

• Be genuine! Even though we write fiction doesn't mean we have to lie all the time.

posted over 6 years ago

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Henry Taylor‭

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