Book Marketing: 5 Ideas to Market Your Book

book marketing illustration

Writing a book is a great accomplishment. No matter what your end goal is for your book effective book marketing will promote your book so that you can impact more lives and increase your reach.

Palmetto Publishing wants to present 5 book marketing ideas you can leverage to increase readership and book sales.

5 Book Marketing Ideas

The terms book marketing and book promotion get easily confused but essentially refer to the same concept.

Book promotion has an overall plan with multimedia plans, audience engagements, and author websites in mind. Book marketing fits under the big picture and defines the specific strategies and tactics that fall under a book marketing plan, budget, and campaign.

1. Multimedia Content

Multimedia marketing combines different forms of media to reach your audience and build brand recognition. Think of traditional media approaches such as press releases, radio, newspaper ads, and direct mail, along with email, mobile, and social media.

2. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are a useful tool, but if you’re on a budget, we recommend sticking to two types of Facebook ads: 

  • Traffic Ads for your Book Launch Promotion allow you to make a big splash for your initial launch, build and an email list, and even boost sales from time to time when used sparingly.  
  • Event Ads are when you create a Facebook Event and invite people to have a live event for your book launch (or even if it’s more virtual).

3. Influencer Content

An influencer can be invaluable in building awareness and credibility. Depending on the influencer, they may be willing to show support in different ways. Be sure to provide them with ways they specifically can help like, sharing a message and link to buy the book on their social media channels, including the campaign hashtag.

In your initial outreach, do these three things: 

  • Briefly introduce yourself and your book.
  • Provide a clear connection between them or their success and your book.
  • Include a clear ask for their support of the book with critical points for them to use in a blog or social media posts, etc.

4. Pitch to Blogs and YouTube Channels

Another book marketing idea is to ask bloggers to promote you. You will likely have to offer a free copy of your book, but the exposure to their base and potential positive reviews will help broaden your audience and drive book sales.

Also, consider YouTube, the second biggest search engine in the world. On there, Booktube is the unofficial name and vlogging community dedicated to a collection of YouTube channels that discuss all things bookish. 

For book marketing specifically, it’s an excellent way to give books and their authors some more credibility as, each day, thousands of online creators share videos about books they love.

5. Use a Service like Bookbub.com

BookBub is a free service that helps readers discover books through deals, handpicked recommendations, and author updates. BookBub doesn’t sell books but instead introduces readers to books that are available on retailers like Amazon’s Kindle store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook store, Apple Books, and others.

It’s great for authors because it means that your book is recommended to a target audience that is more likely to buy your book. 

The Importance of Book Marketing

These 5 ideas take a lot of work, so you might be wondering if it’s worth the effort. Consider these reasons why book marketing is essential for every author: 

  1. Expand your readership.
  2. Get more book reviews.
  3. More book sales.
  4. It’s a great way to network with other authors.
  5. It helps you maintain a community interested in your work.

Book Marketing Services

At Palmetto Publishing, we individual services and a Marketing Package which includes what we have ascertained is a good starter pack for a new author. Here is an overview of our services designed to take the pressure off of you with maximum outreach potential per service.

  • Marketing Copy

Our copyeditors will create an attention-grabbing book description, back cover text, and professional author biography.

  • Press Release and Distribution

Our marketing professionals will compose a press release for you to send to various media outlets and for your use in all marketing and publicity efforts. ​

We have 780,000+ media contacts that we can choose from to reach your audience!

  • Author Website

Our design team will create a custom website for you and your published works. Your site will include an Author Biography section, a sales page for your book(s), a contact page, an editable blog, and ANYTHING else you want!

Newswire

Coverage from a newswire is a paid media, it blasts thousands of newsrooms and guarantees coverage. With a

newswire distribution service, you can further grow your online presence and increase brand awareness beyond your

owned media channels.

And More!

Your publishing consultant at Palmetto is available to prescribe the best marketing package for you utilizing the above marketing services along with our additional services including printed marketing materials, an advertisement in Publisher’s Weekly magazine, and printed copies of your books for events.