Top 9 Tips for Selling and Marketing Your Own Book - Zero-Budget Breakthrough Techniques

Whether you're working with a traditional publisher or you're going the self-publishing route, one thing's the same: You need to market your book.

Most published authors, especially of the first-time variety, won't have access to a full suite of marketing. Chances are, you're working with a smaller publisher that has an even smaller marketing budget, and won't be able to afford to promote your book like you hope in a dream. No morning show interviews, no full-page ads in big literary magazines, and certainly no TV commercials to announce the arrival of your book.

Alas. You may get a mention on the publisher's website. Your book may get passed around to book reviewers. But don't hold your breath.

It's up to you to truly market your book as it deserves. This burden is especially great when you're a new author without a proven track record. You must do everything you can to get the word out.

But what do you do?

Keep reading. In this post, we're discussing the most important steps you can take to promote the heck out of your first book. Just when you thought you were a writer— plot twist! You're actually a marketer. Let's get started.

1. START BY CREATING YOUR BRAND

Creating a brand is an important step for all writers, but it becomes even more essential when you're getting ready to release a book. Potential readers who are interested in reading your work will want to learn more about you. What is your background? What else have you done? What books do you read?

You need to forge a relationship with your audience, and the best way to do that (when you're promoting yourself alone) is to carefully cultivate a brand persona. Control what people see and know about you.

2. CREATE A WEBSITE

As a now-published author, you need a website. Need— as in, it's not optional. Your website is where you establish your brand persona. It's always where you invite people to learn more about you. Ultimately, your website is your home online and where people will go when they want to follow you and find out more about you.

An author's website should contain the following information:

Your bio
Your photo
Excerpts from your book
A link to buy your book
A way to contact you
Links to find you on social media
A downloadable media kit (includes your photo, a short bio, a blurb about your book, and a few reviews)

Your website doesn't need to be lengthy or elaborate to get the job done. For now, it can be a one-page information sheet for all things related to you, the author.

3. CHOOSE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE FOR MARKETING

How will you promote your book? Going beyond what your book is about, think about its natural audience. Who would want to read your book? Where do they go to find suggestions for new books? Online, in-store? If online, would they look at book reviewer suggestions? Would they peruse the newest releases? Would they be persuaded by ads in their favorite communities? With which communities are they affiliated?

4. Use Your Mailing List

If you don’t have a mailing list, start one, and start offering something to get people to sign up. I recommend offering a short story in the universe of your book.

Make that story exclusive, though. People can only get it if they sign up on your list.

And once they are on your list, send them emails about you, your work, the vacation you’re taking, etc. Ask them questions about themselves, too. Get them engaged. Don’t just spam them with “buy my book” all the time. Treat your mailing list like distant friends that you’re keeping informed about your life and work.

You can use Mailchimp to build a free list and upgrade to paid services later.

5. Make friends with other authors.

When your book releases, ask them to share the news with their readers and in return, you can do the same for them. Author cross-promotion is a great way to increase exposure, sales, and gain new fans to your reader base.

6. Become visible.

Be active on social media, posting every day, several times a day. You can even set this on autopilot, scheduling posts with platforms such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

7. Get graphics.

Design stunning graphics/images with teasers or excerpts from your book and share them with your readers. You can get amazing graphics done for you for $5 at Fiverr.

8. Leverage scalable advertising channels.

Conventional advertising mediums such as TV, radio, and newspaper ads can be extremely costly and hard to measure effectiveness, but online advertising can be cheaper and more targeted. Popular options are Google Pay Per Click ads and Facebook ads. Also, don’t forget to list your business in free online directories like Google Business for Google Maps and Yelp.

9. Help yourself by helping others.

All your marketing should be of some use to your audience. There are many ways that you can make your marketing efforts a welcome intrusion rather than an annoyance to your audience. Try these:

Provide useful information. Information marketing has proven to be highly effective in increasing sales. By educating your audience on problems that they care about, you are also not only growing your customer base but also positioning yourself as the solution. To do this, host a Meetup group, an event, a class, or even an online webinar.

Offer to speak at events.

Provide assistance. Answer questions posted on forums and websites like Quora and direct your audience to your website for more information. There are online directories that list a whole variety of forums such as Find A Forum.Net.

Entertain your audience.

Make them laugh or cry. Think of the funny and touching ads that you see and how quickly they are shared.

Marketing your business on a limited budget is completely possible. You just need to get creative and think out of the box.