30 Ways to Market Your Book Once it’s Published

Lessons from a publicist-turned-author/editor

Fear not! You can always find or make more opportunities to be newsworthy.

There are many accessible ways to market your book once it’s published:

• Create custom initiatives for your target audience:
  • Residents of a specific region
  • People with a niche interest
  • Members of a given demographic
  • Kids
  • Friends and family
• Leverage professional tools for book promotion:
  • Press releases
  • Media kits
  • One-sheets
• Bring your audience to you:
  • Book events
  • Newsletters

Create custom initiatives for your target audience

Every successful book is written with a specific audience in mind, even if it’s ultimately enjoyed by a wider demographic. To make sure your marketing efforts come through with a clear, strong voice, avoid casting too wide a net. Always speak to your specific audience. You might define it as something like:

• Fans of Legends and Lattes who prefer some extra spice in their cozy romantasy
• Children aged 4–7 who are learning about the life cycles of plants
• Intermediate to expert sewists who crave more resources for historical menswear reconstructions
• Young working moms who are trying to regain a lost sense of identity

Got yours clear in your mind? Then it’s time to go out and find them. It doesn’t matter that you’re no longer creating pre-publication hype. That was more exciting for your loved ones than it will be for strangers. Now you’re telling people, “I made this for people just like you, and you can get it immediately.”

Residents of a Specific Region

People with a Niche Interest

If your book features a specific hobby, craft, period of history, sport, or other subject that people are passionate about, enthusiasts will want to know about it! You can:

Members of a Given Demographic

If your audience can be described by their age, gender, marital status, career, etc., think like a traditional advertiser and seek out the places where that demographic is already spending their time and money. You can:

• Send a press release pitching yourself as a guest to the radio shows and podcasts they listen to.
• Send review copies (or ask if your publisher will send them) to handpicked magazines and newspapers they read. Choose them based on the relevance of your book to their content, rather than on the existence of a regular book-review column. Formal book reviewers do tend to prefer pre-published books, but the timing of your publication will matter less to a columnist who decides to feature you or your book because of a connection to the subject they cover.
• Brainstorm reasons why you’d make a compelling interview or profile subject for blogs or newsletters they subscribe to, and send pitch emails. If you have a publicist, have the emails go out from their account instead of yours. The reasons could be tied to an anniversary or event, or you could position yourself as an expert or human-interest subject of some kind.
• Pursue placement of your book in lifestyle stores where they shop.
• Monitor the websites of literary festivals and apply when they put out a call for presenters. Note that this opportunity is mostly relevant during the first one or two years of your book’s published life, so check each festival’s requirements.

Kids

Kidlit authors, you’re in a special situation, because your books don’t get marketed directly to your readership. Instead, you need to reach the caregivers, relatives, teachers, and librarians who have the buying power. Most of those people, thankfully, will be interested long after the book’s launch date. You can:

Friends and Family

These are rarely your target audience, so spare yourself the guilt you’ll feel for spamming their social feeds with endless variations of “Buy my book.” Instead, since they probably do want to be supportive and spread the word, you can do any of the following once in a while:

Leverage professional tools for book promotion

From a publisher’s perspective, the best promotion opportunities do happen around a book’s launch date. That’s because all the infrastructure within the publishing industry is built around that model, and it makes sense for companies to put most of their resources into the system that gets distributors, wholesalers, libraries, and retailers primed to expect (and encourage) lots of demand for a book.

But you, as an author, can be newsworthy any time! You can drive demand by marketing directly to the public through a range of media outlets and platforms. You can give interviews, act as a subject-matter expert, or have inspiring stories written about you. I’ve listed some examples below to help you get some ideas flowing. Once you do, you can probably come up with plenty of your own!

• I have a recent book, and I’m a local author.
• I have a book that features that building that’s about to be torn down.
• I’m going to be offering a writing workshop for the public (I’m an author).
• I’m going to be running workshops on spinning, and I have a book about spinning too.
• That major world event that just happened? I wrote about the issues that led to it in my book.
• My book is having a significant anniversary.
• My book is about something this city is celebrating or commemorating this year.
• I’ve just been nominated for/won an award.
• You wrote a news story about bird conservation, so I think you’d be interested in my book on that subject.
• International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up, and I have a pirate book (local radio LOVES this stuff).

But how do you convince people to listen? By using the same professional tools I used as a publicist.

• the date, and clarification of whether the information is public as of that date or a later one (e.g., “For Immediate Release”)
• your book’s cover image
• an opening hook that tells the reader why they care (e.g., you’re a local author, your book connects to an upcoming day of significance, etc.)
• a brief summary of the book that they can copy verbatim
• a brief bio of you that they can copy verbatim (customize the details to the occasion; e.g., if you’re pitching yourself as a local author, emphasize your connections to the community.)
• a note about your availability for interviews
• contact details for you and/or your publicist

For a more in-depth breakdown, check out this post.

A Media Kit

Journalists have to pull stories together at breakneck speed, so the easier you make their job, the better chance you have of being featured. A media kit is a folder containing essential resources about you for journalists to use. For a basic media kit, assemble:

To make sharing your media kit easy, you can:

• Save it as a zip folder to attach to emails.
• Host it on a service like Dropbox or Google Drive and provide an access link (Make sure not to move the files later).
• Create a download link for it on your website.

Note that journalists probably won’t click a link to download a file in a cold email. However, once you’ve established contact, you can offer them your kit.

One-Sheets

A one-sheet is something you’ll find handy to have in your bag at networking events or to attach to pitch emails where a press release isn’t suitable. As the name suggests, this is a single sheet of paper (or a virtual version of one), kind of like a book’s resume. Its purpose is to convey all the most important information about your book in a clear, easy-to-read way, including:

• a brief, punchy tag line/hook
• the title
• the cover image
• your name and any other creator names, if relevant
• the genre (including age and grade ranges for children’s literature)
• the list price
• the ISBN(s) and format(s)
• the publication date
• the page count
• the publisher (or, if you’re self-published, how it’s being distributed)
• the trim size
• BISAC codes
• a short description of the book
• a short author bio
• brief review quotes or endorsements, if available
• contact information
• if you’re making a one-sheet for a particular occasion, any extra details that convey why your book is relevant

If you’re traditionally published, most of this information will likely be included in your publisher’s listing for the book in their catalogue or on their website, so check with your publicity contact about it. They might even have an existing one-sheet you can use.

You can also create a one-sheet for yourself as an author that includes a brief bio and details about your expertise, books, accolades, and any services you offer.

Bring your audience to you

Chances to make a personal connection with an author will never get old. That’s why many authors make a lot more of their living through events, workshops, and spin-off content than through royalties.

Book Events

• children’s programming for a kids’ book
• a workshop
• a ladies’ night with wine, activities, and chick lit
• an exhibit related to a historical book
• a collaboration with an artist, dancer, or other creatives
• a summer outdoor event for a book that launched in the winter

Non-launch events can actually be more reliable in terms of attendance, because the participants are attracted by tangible benefits instead of simply coming out to support you. You can also require registration if attendees are paying or if you’re providing materials.

Even if your numbers are low, treat the event as a way to create urgency/newsworthiness ahead of time and generate photos and stories to share afterward, and you’ll never feel the effort was wasted.

When planning a book event, take the opportunity to:

• Make a positive connection with your host, if you have one.
• Send press releases out to local media.
• Post about the event on social media.
• Directly email people to invite them to the event.
• If you have the budget, get some branding on the social media pages of a local bakery by working with them to create custom treats, such as cookies decorated with your book’s cover.
• Give away bookmarks or postcards that promote your book.
• Have someone take lots of photographs and video clips that you can post online afterward and use for years to come.
• Reach out to thank those involved afterward, cementing your connection with them.

A Newsletter

Newsletters aren’t a promotion option that many authors gravitate to first, but if you can maintain one, they’re an extraordinarily effective marketing tool. They give you direct access to your audience that is not filtered through anyone else’s website or subject to the whims of any social media algorithm. The trick is to commit to regularly inviting new people to join your mailing list, and to keeping up a consistent schedule. Your newsletter could feature:

• new book announcements
• news about events, workshops, and festivals you’re running or participating in
• tips on a subject related to the content of your book(s)
• stories about your life as an author
• inspiration for readers to write their own books or do their own related projects
• book recommendations from what you’ve been reading and enjoying

Marketing doesn’t have to be scary or awkward (although if it is scary for you, check out my post “How Not to Hate Marketing Your Book“. I came to publicity as a shy, young introvert, but mastering my first press release let me reach out easily to reviewers, journalists, and program managers of all kinds. With all these professional tools at your disposal, you’ll find your own confidence soaring, too. Give it a try!

Happy Marketing!

Erin