Outsourcing Your Book Marketing

Outsourcing your book marketing tasks can help you from feeling overwhelmed. Here are a few tasks you can outsource.image for outsourcing book marketing post

Newsletter

Hopefully you’ve already set up a way to capture emails on your website and have a list of people waiting to hear about your book launch. A virtual assistant can put together an email template, add your content, and make sure it gets sent out.

Social Media Content & Activity

Hire a social media professional to design images branded to match your book cover image. The professional can also make sure your social media presence is active on a regular basis. The professional can do this by retweeting and sharing content, scheduling posts, and following appropriate accounts. Be sure you take an active part also in social media, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day.

Website & Blog Posts

Hire a professional to create or polish up your website. A virtual assistant can use book excerpts to create and schedule blog posts for you.

Visual Assets

You want to be sure to have a stock of visual assets to include book cover images, your headshot, an inventory of visual images for social media and any ads you plan to run. Visual assets may include video for a book trailer and book promotion and a virtual assistant to edit and post them to YouTube.

Publicity

You will want to reach out to influencers, media, book reviewers, podcasters, and others about your book. These efforts can be managed by a publicist or marketing agency.

If you need any recommendations on who to outsource book marketing tasks to, I would be happy to see how I can help you or refer you to the right person.

Authors and Book Publishing Industry Experts: Two New Interview Series in 2021

2021 Interview SeriesAuthors and book publishing industry experts, as well as everyone else, would no doubt agree that 2020 has been a challenging year. Yet, as one of my colleagues noted, since everyone has suffered in some way during the pandemic. It’s put things in perspective for us, helping us focus more on helping others.

In 2021 I want to focus on helping you, my readers and clients. One way I’m doing that is by introducing two new concurrent interview series in 2021. In 2020 I interviewed business podcasters so you could see if their podcast might be a good fit for you to be a guest on. You can read those interviews here. In 2021 the two interview series will be one with nonfiction authors and another with book publishing industry experts.

The Two New Interview Series

One series will start with authors I have worked with at some point over the past 15 years. In addition to providing exposure for those authors and their books, those authors will share how they weathered through 2020 during the pandemic and their favorite book marketing tip.

The other series is with experts in the book publishing industry will include editors, ghostwriters, publishing consultants, book coaches, and authors assistants. You will learn more about them and their business and find out if they are a good fit for you if you’re in need of their type of expertise. They will also share their favorite tip for using social media.

It is my hope that by highlighting the work of these authors and experts they might gain new readers and clients. And you will benefit by learning tips they share on book marketing, social media, and weathering through a pandemic.

Here are some of the people whose interviews you’ll be reading: Chrissy Das, Cristen Iris, Faith Wilcox, Jeanne Rodriguez, Anne Janzer, Laurie Buchanan.

If you know of anyone in the book publishing industry who would be a good fit for this series or a nonfiction author who launched a new book during 2020 amid the pandemic, please have them contact me.

Watch for our first 2021 interview here on the blog on January 5, 2021.

Marketing on Social Media . . . by Not Marketing

Guest post by Jenn Gott, indie authorwhat are you baking today

I follow a lot of authors on social media.

This should come as no surprise. Anyone with an interest in reading or writing, especially if you hope to build a career in “the biz,” has undoubtedly followed their fair share of wordsmiths. And sure, some of it is for networking purposes, and some of it is because they post a lot of marketing and publishing content that I find useful.

But by far, the largest group of authors I follow is made up of those that I simply like following.

Maybe they have a cute cat they’re always posting photos of. Maybe they offer relatable, encouraging insights into their writing process. Maybe they support the same political causes I do and I like how they articulate their convictions. Maybe they’re just funny, or have a unique way of expressing the feelings we all experience while trying to get through the day.

But here’s the crucial thing: of all the authors I’ve started following just for fun, I’ve gone on to purchase books from nearly every single one of them.

It’s a weird balance when you start using social media as a writer. You have work you want to promote, but you know that you can’t just post a stream of constant “Buy my book!” tweets. You want to be authentic and connect with readers. Yet at the same time, no one is interested in what you had for breakfast, right?

Like everything in writing, there’s a delicate balance to using social media. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that people are interested in the tiny details of your life — so long as you make it interesting.

Don’t just post a photo of what you’re up to; make a little joke in the caption, or ask a question to get people to interact in the comments. Also remember to mix it up! Living through a pandemic doesn’t always make for the most exciting social content, but whenever you find yourself doing something different or a little adventurous (going for a hike in a new location, or trying out a cool recipe), make an effort to record it.

Of course, “being interesting” doesn’t mean that you can’t do any kind of promo or marketing for your book. Obviously you’ll need to let your audience know when you’ve got a new book, when you’re running a sale or a giveaway, or even just when you reach an important milestone and want to celebrate it with friends and fans!

The important thing is that if you’ve built up an authentic audience, these bursts of news are going to be read by people who want to know about them. Especially if they’ve seen your progress as you’ve been prepping your book for release, the enthusiasm and support that follows will be a lot stronger and more effective than if you’d simply shouted into a disinterested void. I can’t even tell you how many authors I started following before they’d ever published, and eagerly pre-ordered their debut — so don’t dismiss the idea of building up your audience early.

What’s even better, the sort of audience you cultivate with genuine engagement is much more likely than a disengaged audience to tell other people about your books — and we all know that word of mouth is the best marketing of all!

So truly, if you’re ever feeling short on content to post to social media, just ask yourself: what would you talk about with a friend today? Because, in the end, that’s what you want each of your followers to feel like: a good friend.

Jenn Gott is an indie author and writer with Reedsy, so she basically spends all her time either writing books or helping people learn how to write books. She firmly believes there is no writing skill you cannot learn with practice and the right guidance. You’ll find her on her website and over on the Reedsy blog, where she covers topics ranging from writing craft to how to launch a book for the first time.

3 Quick Book Marketing Tips

  1. Do your research. Find out if there is a market for your book. Define the target audience. When you start your book marketing, it will be much easier to create the right messaging when you have a clearly defined audience.
  2. Build your tribe. Your tribe of fans will follow you to see what’s next and refer their friends. Make it easy for people to join your tribe. Include a sign-up for your mailing list on your website in a prominent place. Add a note at the end of your book asking your readers to join your tribe – whether that’s signing up for your mailing list or following you on social media.
  3. Say yes to every media opportunity. Every opportunity is a step leading to bigger opportunities. Write articles, send out review copies, agree to podcast interviews.

Book Launch Party (Virtual)

Note: This was originally written for in-person book launch parties. Things have changed and I’ve updated with information in italics for a virtual book launch party.

Time to celebrate the launch of your book! It’s fun and exciting to host a party and invite your friends. This is a big accomplishment. Here are some things to consider to make this a successful book launch party.

Venue

Where will the party be? If you can arrange to have it somewhere that is likely to attract more readers, that would be ideal. Consider your local library or local bookstores.

Updated for virtual event: plan a Zoom or Facebook Live party and invite your friends, email list, and share it on social media.

Who is Invited?

The more the merrier! Of course you’re going to invite your family and friends. Don’t forget your business associates. If you’re having the party at a library or bookstore, prepare fliers to be posted at these locations at least a week in advance so the general public can attend. Then post it on social media so a larger audience is aware and invited to come.

Updated for virtual event: now you can invite everyone online!

Refreshments

Refreshments don’t need to be elaborate. But a few treats and drinks will keep people around longer which may mean they are more likely to purchase your book – or additional copies for friends.

Updated for virtual event: invite your attendees to a virtual refreshment. Perhaps post a photo of your favorite drink and invite them to do the same. You could have some fun engagement this way. 

Books and Book Signing

Remember to bring enough books. It’s better to have too many than to run out. How will you sign the book? Decide that in advance. And if you’re going to write the buyer’s name, be sure to ask how to spell it.

Updated for virtual event: having physical books and signing them is not an option here. However, you might have some postcards or bookmarks made up, sign them, and run a contest. Winners get a signed postcard or bookmark sent to them.

Tell a story

Keep it brief. You might share a short story about the process of writing your book or about who you dedicated the book to. Remember to thank those who came to the party. Talk to your guests individually. If possible, try to speak to each person who attended to thank them for coming. They will appreciate your personal interest.

Updated for virtual event: here’s one thing that doesn’t change much. You’ll now be doing it on camera instead of in person.

Thank You

Remember to send thank you notes to anyone who helped with the book launch party and to the venue if you held it at a library or bookstore. Focus on building relationships, rather than selling books, for the most successful book launch. Those relationships may lead to future book sales.

Updated for virtual event: thank everyone during the event who joins you for your virtual book party.

Get more support for your book launch and download our checklist.