My Book Is Published Online. Now What?

You’ve written a manuscript, finished the book editing, and decided on online book publishing. First of all, congratulations! Do your victory dance, toast your achievement, and tell everyone you know. After all, when you’ve published a book, bragging is a legitimate form of marketing.

Now what? How can you sell your book online and grow your audience? You’ll need some practical sales advice and a little book-promotion know-how.

Selling Your Book Online

If you’re self-publishing your book, you can sell your books directly on your website, but you probably want to sell through online marketplaces. Sites like Amazon increase your exposure substantially.

Plus, you’ll sell more books with the right formatting, printing, marketing copy, and pricing.

Converting Your Text to an Ebook

You’re a professional author now and need a suitably professional book design. People do judge books by their covers, so invest in a strong book cover design. Between the covers, make sure your text is clean, clear, and easy to read from the book title page to the end.

There’s no better book layout guide than Palmetto Publishing. Our formatting services provide all the book layout help you need, and Palmetto’s ebook conversion produces an EPUB file that readers can enjoy on most e-readers and platforms.

Printing Your Books On-Demand

Some bookworms prefer to hold physical pages in their hands. You don’t have to provide the option, but you will lose those potential readers if you don’t.

In addition to book interior formatting for print and ebook, you need to find book printing services that work for you. We recommend on-demand printing which we set up for all of our authors with a book fit for POD services. This saves you from the risk and inconvenience of maintaining an inventory.

Nailing Your Launch and Marketing Copy

Unfortunately, great book writers aren’t necessarily great book promoters. The art of writing book descriptions, back-cover text, and author bios requires different skills than writing manuscripts.

Packaging your book involves more than choosing a cover design. Palmetto book marketing options include several packages designed to help with different areas of book promotion. We can handle marketing copy, author websites, and press releases.

Setting the Right Price

You get to decide how much to charge readers for your work. But what’s the right book price for you?

Take your costs into consideration as well as your desired royalties. Then look at similar books online to get a sense of what’s typical for your genre. We can make a professional recommendation based on your genre and market, but you have the final say! You might consider promotional pricing, too. Discounting a book can help you attract initial readers and reviews that help convince future browsers to buy.

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Marketing Your Book

Successful book marketing involves more than appealing back-cover text and a well-written press release. If you want to grow your audience, you have to find and regularly engage those readers. Help them find you, too. In today’s digital world, there’s neither point nor profit in being a reclusive artiste.

The good news is that low-cost marketing strategies for author scan be extremely effective. Here are a few marketing basics.

Create an Author Website

Your website is your home base for online book publishing activity. It’s your store, your business card, and your literary salon.

Essential elements for an author’s website include:

• Mobile optimization
• Up-to-date security and compliance
• A way to buy your books
• An author bio and picture
• Links to social media accounts

Go further. Add an author blog that invites readers to check back for important news and fun extras. It’ll give you a way to regularly update the site, which boosts its search engine optimization (SEO), and a platform you control.

You should also use your website to collect email addresses. Allow people to sign up for the chance to hear about new releases or receive a regular author newsletter.

Not particularly net-savvy? Hire Palmetto’s design team to put together the website of your dreams.

Fill in Platform Profiles

Claim and optimize your profiles on retail and review sites. Then expand your digital footprint by linking it to your website and social accounts.

With a good author page on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, you create a central hub in-platform that lists and links to your books. You can also add an author bio and other posts to engage your readers. They’ll love your book, so make it easy for them to explore your backlist or to hear about your next project.

Be Social

Some professionals can avoid social media. Authors can’t.

Social media is an invaluable tool when it comes to connecting with established readers and finding new ones. The trick is making that tool work for you.

You don’t need to be on every platform. In fact, it’s better to establish a consistent presence — and large base — on a couple of social media sites than to try to do everything. Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Start by choosing one of the best social media sites for writers. Follow similar authors and see how they use the platform. What seems to work for them? Then try adapting the strategy for yourself.

Always remember that social media is social. Engage your colleagues as well as your fans, and don’t just post self-promotions without listening to what other people are saying.

Get Reviews

There’s no substitute for the testimonials of satisfied readers. Prospective book-buyers want to know that other people found their experience with your text rewarding.

You need both quality and quantity when it comes to endorsements. If you only have a few positive reviews, it’s easy for others to dismiss them — even if they shouldn’t.

It takes work to build your library of Amazon reviews. Ask friends and family who’ve read your work to get the ball rolling. Contact top reviewers. Add a reminder to the end of your book, thanking readers for taking the time to rate it.

You also want book blogger reviews. Bloggers have influence and reach that the average reviewer can’t match. Do your research, and then contact bloggers that you think would be interested in your work.

Finding Your Online Book Publishing Partner

Book promotion takes work. Doing it well takes practice.

Why not take a shortcut? Palmetto Publishing offers a suite of book marketing services to fit every project and budget helping you make the best impression on the most people with the least effort.

We’re proud to partner with our authors at every stage of the online book publishing process. Contact us with any questions or to get your journey started.