10 Book Marketing Ideas That May Seem Crazy At First

From a book marketing expert

If you’re an author, the last thing you want is to be bored with your marketing. You want to know that you’re working hard and getting results. Here are 10 out of the box marketing ideas that will help you sell more books:

1. Create a video promotion

One of our favorite strategies is to create a video promotion. Record yourself or an actor reading a chapter, and then upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. You can even record yourself talking about your book, describing the characters, or talking about the writing process! Then, share the video on social media. If you want you can also create a book trailer.

2. Create a poster for your book

Posters are great because they’re everywhere—on buses and street signs, in waiting rooms and doctor’s offices, and on the walls of bookstores and libraries. They’re visually arresting and make a lasting impression on anyone who sees them. Books are great too! So we thought that if you could combine these two elements together, you’d really get some attention for your new release. And that’s how we came up with the idea of designing a poster for each of your books and sending them out with your book orders!

3. Make a reading list along with your book

Make a suggested reading list to go along with your book. We recommend including books relevant to your topic so that readers can dive deeper into the content in your book and experience more of your writing style.

4. Make cool stickers

Next, make stickers and post them on social media with quotes from your book to drive readers toward those books. It’s a great way to build anticipation for the release of your book!. You can use canva to create beautiful stickers

5. Share the link of 1st Chapter of your book with followers

Message all of your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Snapchat followers with a link to the first chapter of your book. The number one thing I’ve noticed is that if someone follows you on any social media, or even if they don’t follow, but they just see the link somewhere (like on a friend’s wall), they’re far more likely to read the first chapter of your book than someone who has never heard of you before. Why? Because people are more likely to trust their friends’ recommendations than even the most professional review. It’s human nature. We don’t question whether our friends like something because we trust them and we want to be like them and have what they have.

6. Email your loyal subscribers

Do you have loyal, awesome email subscribers that love books? If so, tell them all about the book. Do this from the heart, and make it personal. Tell your friends that you’re writing a book and why it’s important to you. A personal note is the most powerful way to convince people to take the leap, especially for the first book.

7. Ask for reviews via email

Have an email list that you built organically over time? Are they enthusiasts? Ask them to help you out by reviewing the book on Amazon. Take a few minutes each day to reach out to maybe 25 people. All you need to do is send an email to all of your loyal subscribers and ask them politely to write a review about your book on Amazon (in under 50 words). Here are some free cold email templates that you can copy and paste to send them. These templates are really a time saver.

8. Email book bloggers

Contact some book bloggers, and ask if they’d be willing to do an interview about your book. If you’d like to interview a book blogger about your new book, send an invitation to them, or leave a comment on their blog. Here are some free cold email templates to use for book bloggers.

9. Email podcast shows for interview

There are thousands of podcasts out there. The majority of them are focused on a narrow niche topic and don’t appeal to a broad audience. Make a list of all the podcasts that might be interested in your book—not just the ones you like, but any that might have an audience interested in your genre. Send them an email asking about being on their show for a guest post or an interview or whatever, and include a brief blurb about your book. Here are some free cold email templates to send podcast hosts.

10. Email fellow authors

Share your book with fellow authors who have similar preferences as you and work in the same circles so that they share it with their audiences
The first step is to find authors in the same circles as you. For example, if your book is on marketing, chances are that books by people like Seth Godin, Ramit Sethi, or Tim Ferriss would be a good match (but don’t stop at just those three, keep reading for more ideas).

Once you have a list of ten or so authors you want to target, it’s time to figure out how to contact them. We do this by finding their email addresses (if they’re not readily available) and then hitting them up with a short message that encourages them to share our book with their audience. Here are some free cold email templates to send authors in your circle.

Conclusion

By combining these tried and true marketing tactics with a few innovative ideas of your own, you’ll be able to create a marketing campaign that will help increase sales of your book. Hopefully this article will give you some new ideas and boost the book sales you’ve been striving for.

What is the best marketing/advertising strategy you have seen or done for your book? Let me know in comments