21 Smart Book Marketing Strategies to Implement Before You Publish Your Book

Book Marketing Starts BEFORE Publishing

Use these Smart Book Marketing Strategies well before your book is completed. You want to start generating interest and buzz early in the development of you book. These book marketing strategies help create momentum and excitement which leads to more sales and new readers.

These 16 Smart Book Marketing Strategies will turbo-charge you book sales

Cross-Promote and Blog

1. Start early and be consistent.
2. Tap into groups of other authors to cross-promote each other's books. You can use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to find groups that have other books that are similar to yours.
3. Start blogging your book...and post your cover on your blog. Regularly post snippets of the content of your book to begin gathering interest. This simple book marketing strategy is highly effective, and helps engage readers and keep them interested.
4. Ask followers to read your book prior to having it published. This creates excitement and encourages great feedback. Ask these readers to tell others, your goal is to encourage your readers to review your book once it's published. You can find people to be your "beta readers" from your email list and from social media. Be realistic here, not everyone you ask to read your book will.

Publish in Multiple Formats and Develop Your Pricing Strategy

1. Be sure to publish your book in as many formats as possible. Whether you start out with a Kindle version or paperback doesn't matter. (I encourage starting with a Kindle version for a number of reasons.) Offering multiple formats will help maximize your sales!
2. Determine your pricing strategy – If you plan to use discounts or offer your book for free for a limited time at launch, then be sure to plan out your promotions. Contact free digital book sites to get those promotions all lined up!

Brainstorm Your Keywords and Use Them Along with Hashtags

1. Brainstorm keywords for your book – You'll want to use these keywords in a number of places. Your book may offer information on a variety of topics, so create a list of those topics, ideas, similar authors, etc. Once your keyword list is created, you'll want to use them on KDP, in your book’s description, on your blog, in ad campaigns, and in book trailer video titles and descriptions and on various author sites.
2. Include the keywords that you just brainstormed in your book description on Amazon. Including these keywords in your book’s description can help your book rank better in search engines like Google. Amazon is also a search engine, so including your keywords in your book description, in a tactful and natural manner, will help you rank better within Amazon’s search results as well.
3. Find hashtags used by readers in your genre/topics – Use Twitter’s search functions and sites like TwiTag.com and Hashtags.org to find hash tags that are used by readers of books like yours. This will help you to find readers to follow as well as give you a good idea of the hashtags you should use when promoting your books on Twitter!

Find Forums, Facebook Groups and Blogs that relate to your book

1. Find Facebook groups and pages that relate to your book – Using the keyword list you generated before, find Facebook pages and Facebook groups that you can be a part of and contribute to. Be helpful, answer questions, follow the promotions policy of the page/group, and be a helpful contributor. You will gain more fans by being helpful than by constantly promoting your book.
2. Find forums dedicated to your genre – Are you a romance writer? Find forums that are dedicated to romance books. These forums will often give you direct access to fans, and they will usually allow authors to contribute by having a signature or a post about their books. Connect and be sure to link to your author website when and where you are allowed to.
3. Find blogs that review books in your genre –There are blogs out there that would love to receive an advance copy of your book to give you a review. Seek out sites that are genre-specific to get a better response rate!
4. Determine when you are going to launch the book – Just publishing when you are done is a mistake. Figure out when the best day of the week will be to launch , the best time of the month, and if there are any holidays to take into consideration. Give yourself enough time to setup your launch promotions.

Book a Blog Tour and Find Your Fans

1. Book a blog tour – Seek out blogs that will allow you to write a guest post or share about your book. Imagine the momentum you can gather when you line up 2-3 blogs per day for 2 weeks after your launch. Use your keyword list to find blogs to reach out to. You'll want to follow their guest post guidelines and be sure to answer any questions in the comment area of the blogs you are featured on!
2. Brainstorm who your fans are – Much like coming up with keywords, you will want to determine who would love to read your book. Does your main character love her cat? Cat lovers will probably like your book. Does your main character have autism? Reaching out to the autism community would be a good idea. Think about these topics and figure out who would love your book.
3. Find forums and blogs where your potential fans hang out – Once you've identified who your future fans are, then yoo'll want to find out where they hang out online. Just like the forums and blogs related to your genre from earlier, each site will have different rules, so be sure to find the rules and be a contributing member of the community. These people want to be your avid fans, you just have to introduce them to you and your books!

You're not obligated to use all of these smart book marketing strategies. You'll be wise to pick and choose those you find easiest to implement and fit your style.

5 Additional Book Marketing Strategies Often Overlooked By New Authors

Now you're about ready to publish your book. These next few book marketing strategies are often overlooked by new authors, however they are common in books by more experienced book writers.

Here is a short list of the types of links and information I encourage all my clients to include in the back matter of their books. Your end goal is to draw your readers to your website and encourage them to connect with you on social media.

1. Insert links to your other books in the back of the book – Your readers will thank you by searching out those links and buying your other books. . You'll also want to edit and revise your other books to include a link to this new book you are about to publish.
2. Include links to your website, Facebook page, your Twitter profile, your LinkedIn account and even your YouTube Channel.
3. If you're a speaker and/or offer courses to clients, you'll want to provide a list of your offerings, and how to get in touch with you.
4. Create a free gift your readers can download from your website by signing up to your mailing list... provide a link to the page with the email sign up form.
5. Include a “Note from the Author” asking for the reader to post a review – A little prompting may get them to leave a review for you...especially if they found it entertaining or useful!

Once published, you'll have a powerful marketing engine setup, and you'll find it will help to keep sales going, and bolster all your future marketing efforts.