We found these ideas and tips by AuthorMedia while researching more ways to help you promote yourself and your book. Read, digest, and put as many as you can into action.
89+ Book Marketing Ideas That Will…
Increase your web presence:
- Create a testimonial page on your website
- Retweak the SEO on your site
- Ask fans to post their reviews on your Facebook page
- Ask fans to post their reviews on Amazon
- Ask fans to post their reviews on Goodreads
- Sign up for Twitter
- Clean up your social footprint
- Create an author Facebook page and use it instead of your profile
- Sign up for Google Authorship
- Offer bloggers advanced reading copies
- Go on an online book tour
- Create a book launch team
- Host Q+A sessions on Google+
- Create Facebook Friday videos
- Register as an author on Amazon
- Register as an author on Goodreads
- Create a book trailer
- Get a new Author Website
- Create a hashtag for your next book
Build your fan base:
- Start a FB campaign to increase your fans
- Start a Google Campaign to increase traffic to your site
- Start a controversial web series
- Link up with other writers for your controversial web series
- Start weekly twitter chats with readers
- Keyword your blog posts
- Create a monthly newsletter
- Create an affiliate program
- Host guest bloggers
- Become a guest blogger
- Create business cards with your web address on them and hand them out
- Put your photo on your business card for stronger branding
- Start commenting on other blogs (early and often)
- Host regular author hangouts on Google+
- Host regular author interviews on Google+
- Record your Google+ hangouts and put them on YouTube
- Get social media coaching
Cultivate Community:
- Create an online community with a forum
- Say thank you to readers with special incentives for being a fan
- Ask your reading community to design merchandise for your store
- Create a fan page for your main character (works well if they are in a series)
- Ask fans to create their own book trailers and post them online
- Offer core fans advanced copy of future books
- Ask fans to post pictures of “character spottings”
- Offer “extra features” on your website
- Use Twitter hashtags
- Poll your readers and listen to what they say
- Answer all your blog comments
- Engage with your fans on FB
- Ask your fans to post pictures of them reading your book
Make some extra money:
- Repackage old blog posts and sell them as an e-book
- Join an affiliate program
- Speak on the core topic of your book
- Become a content writer
- Host paid webinars
- Freelance with niche magazines
- Sell ads on your website
- Sell ads in your newsletter
- Write a new ebook tailored to your fans
- Mentor another writer
- Become an Amazon Affiliate (and use MyBookTable)
- Offer customizable ebooks for readers
- Sell your book on your site, not just Amazon
Build your brand offline:
- Write a Press Release
- Ask to be interviewed by your local paper
- Ask to be interviewed by the paper your book is set in
- Ask to be interviewed by the local radio host
- Ask to be interviewed on the local morning show
- Partner with a band that has the same cause as you
- Go on a physical book tour
- Start thinking local
- Sell themed merchandise (Think “Team Edward” shirts)
- Rent a billboard
- Host a book release party
- Link with an activity that supports your cause and sell your book there
- Create a viral video about a scene from your book
Find a Place To Give a Book Reading:
- Your local coffee shop
- A hospital
- A retirement community
- A rehabilitation center
- A local church
- A locally owned bookstore
- The library (try the five closest to your house)
- The local community college
- A school
- Wherever the main setting of your book is
- Google+
- Videos you upload to Facebook
- Goodreads
Discover where to donate your book (and make new fans):
- Women’s shelters
- VA hospitals
- Homeless shelters
- Children’s hospitals
- Retirement homes
- The five closest libraries to your house
- The library in your hometown
- Summer camp
- Community libraries at coffee shops
- The local community college library
- The libraries in the town where the book was set in
- BookCrossing.com
- Local B&B’s
- Local motels
- Prisons
- Church libraries
- Rehab centers
- Cruise ship libraries
- Doctor’s offices
- Community centers
- Senior Centers
Become an expert:
- Listen to the Novel Marketing Podcast.
- Become a HARO source
- Get active on LinkedIn
- Write Op-Ed pieces on the core message of your story
- Write freelance pieces on the core message of your story and pitch to niche publications
- Give lectures on the core message of your story
- Host webinars with other experts
- Create a series of web-videos interviewing experts on the core message of your story
- Make sure your author About Me page is interesting and relevant
- Create a Meetup group