Publishing a book is a masterful achievement, but even the most exciting novel may flounder if it doesn’t reach the right audience. Managing every aspect of marketing can feel insurmountable, given the many channels to consider.
You’re not alone in this endeavor, whether you’re a self-published author with a modest budget or a small press looking to make it big. These simple tips can help you get your book in the right hands through professional guidance.
Don’t Answer Cold Emails
First, a caveat: authors are often spammed with thousands of cold emails from marketers who promise to help them reach the top of the best-seller lists. These slick emails, often generated using AI, are framed as if the marketer has read your book and is excited to help you grow. In reality, they simply scraped book listings to find new authors.
A legitimate book marketer doesn’t have the time to perform this mass outreach; they’re too busy helping other authors thrive. When seeking a marketing professional, you should be the one reaching out, not the other way around.
Identify Your Ideal Audience
There are around three million books published a year in the United States, representing a huge explosion in publishing. However, the actual readership has not budged in decades. This means each book is competing with even more competitors for the same readership as in the early 2000s.
As such, you’ll need to precisely pinpoint who your book speaks to so that your marketing team doesn’t waste time on platforms that won’t work. A simple genre explanation like “thriller” or “fantasy” isn’t enough, because these are huge fields that cater to a massive array of tastes.
Consider these key facets of your book first.
Prose Style: Do you write in a popcorn thriller style or is your prose dense and weighty?
Age Ranges: Certain themes don’t sit well with younger audiences, who prefer a fast pace and good vs. evil. Likewise, an older audience is going to roll their eyes at overly dramatic fight scenes or romantic conflicts driven by miscommunication.
Tropes: Even if you write more literary works, tropes still slip in, and these can become powerful selling points if positioned right.
Comparable Titles: When looking for comp titles, don’t think just about the plots or character types, but also about the themes and the prose style.
Having this in hand can help you pin down which marketer will best serve you.
Consider a Book Marketer Clearinghouse
Book marketer platforms take the guesswork out of finding the right professional to help you. These clearinghouses have seasoned veterans who are highly familiar with your genre and will get to know your book inside and out.
You can sort by genre, experience, and reviews to identify the perfect fit, then request a quote for their specific service. By coming in prepared with your audience analysis and comparable titles, they’ll be well-positioned to get started.
Set a Budget
Book marketing expenses can quickly spiral out of control if you’re not careful. The urge to get as many eyes as possible on your books may lead you to overextend yourself without receiving any return on investment.
As such, be upfront about how much you can afford. Ask what ongoing costs you can expect and how frequently you’ll be billed.
Many platforms let you request a quote and walk you through what you can expect to pay throughout your contract. In some cases, you can decide to do one big marketing push and then ease off, or have a more slow-and-steady approach that costs only a little bit each month.
Ask What Genres They Have Experience In
The most obvious genre difference is between fiction and nonfiction. A marketer who is familiar with writing guides for teens may not have the skills necessary to boost a YA book, even though these appeal to the same age demographic.
However, certain marketing approaches work best for different types of books. For example, romantasy is very popular on TikTok, while historical nonfiction may do better through word-of-mouth referrals, an email list, or advertisements on forums.
Ask them about their previous clients and what results they have been able to achieve. You can check out the reviews for these books or read them to see if they share an audience with you, which can help you decide if this marketer understands your genre.
Decide What Services You Need
Many authors take a hybrid approach to marketing: they may manage parts of the process themselves, such as curating a website, while leaving others to professionals. On the other hand, some authors prefer full service so they can focus on writing their next masterpiece.
Marketers will build a custom plan with you based on what you’d like done, whether that’s identifying the right sales channels, setting up ads, writing copy, or helping you build your email list. They may recommend certain channels, like a specific social media platform or choosing wide distribution through multiple publishing platforms.
Your story deserves to be heard, and a great book marketer can help you make that happen. Your pre-planning and careful research ensure a healthy, productive collaboration that builds a thriving audience.
