Here at BookBub, we love helping authors and publishers sell more books. Our Partners Blog is home to the actionable tips and insights our partners need to navigate industry trends, inspire their book marketing, and make the most out of BookBub’s marketing tools. This year we published dozens of articles, including many by wonderful guest contributors, on a variety of topics to help our readers achieve their promotional goals.
You can always find all of our best book marketing articles here, but we wanted to make sure you don’t miss any of the most popular content from this year. This list of our top 10 articles from 2023 not only serves as a helpful “year in review” of what’s been working well for authors and publishers, but includes ideas you can carry into the new year!
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1. Goals for the New Year: Ideas and Advice from 52 Authors
To kick off the new year with some inspiration, we asked our blog subscribers to share their writing and business plans for 2023, as well as advice for other authors. We received a wide range of responses, but one thing these authors all agreed on: Goals are important! No matter which goals you pursue or how you measure them, setting an intention for the year can help provide direction, motivation, and focus. We hope some of this timeless advice serves you well for years to come!
2. 5 Strategies I Use to Launch New Books in Kindle Unlimited
When USA Today bestselling author Nicholas Harvey first began using BookBub New Releases for Less to promote his new books, he was disappointed. But after crunching the numbers, he was convinced to give the tool another shot, and Nicholas now has two series and several successful New Releases for Less promotions under his belt. In this post, Nicholas explains why he continued using BookBub tools and shares the other tools he has found indispensable to his new release plans.
3. 10 Tips for Growing a Wide Global Audience of Readers
It’s one thing to decide to self-publish “wide” across retail and library platforms, versus being exclusive to a single retailer. It’s quite another to adopt a mindset that can help you grow a reader base that spans widely across regions, retailers, and formats. Pushing the right buttons to launch your book onto these platforms is only one step of the process! In this post, author and speaker Mark Leslie Lefebvre shares 10 tips to help you grow your global readership, including strategies that work for each platform and pitfalls to avoid.
4. Trend Watch Spring 2023: What’s Popular with BookBub Readers
Our Trend Watch articles gather a list of top trends BookBub readers have been interested in across categories to give our partners a sense of what titles might be a good fit for an upcoming Featured Deal, New Release for Less, or Ads campaign! In this post, we share what tropes and trends were working well in early 2023, including examples of books we’ve run that fit our readers’ tastes and preferences. These do change over time, so be sure to subscribe to the Partners Blog for future trend updates!
5. The State of Author Newsletters: Data from 500+ Authors [Infographic]
Email is a powerful marketing tool for authors to stay in touch with their readers. To learn more about how authors leverage email newsletters, we asked our partners to share their experiences. Over 500 authors responded to a survey with insights into the purpose of their newsletter, how they manage it, what they do to grow their email list, and more. If you’re not sure whether to start an author newsletter, we hope this post helps you decide if this marketing channel makes sense for you. If you’re already running a newsletter, get inspired by how other authors use theirs!
6. How Successful Authors Use Social Media: 29 Content Ideas
Social media can be a useful platform for authors, helping them connect with readers, fellow writers, and the publishing community. But deciding what content to post next can be a struggle. What works on social media for writers besides posting links to their own books? In this post updated with new examples, you’ll find 29 ideas from dozens of successful authors. We hope this inspires you when you’re brainstorming content to publish on social media. (Publishers and agents, we encourage you to share this with your authors to help them build more engaging profiles!)
7. How to Write a Book Description: Tips from BookBub Editors
You’ve done it — you’ve written the book, you’ve commissioned a beautiful cover, and you’re ready to start finding readers and selling copies. But wait! There’s that pesky little detail in the process of publishing your book: providing a book description. Figuring out how to frame your story and catch the eye of a future reader — or, say, a BookBub editor — can be a daunting challenge. So, in this post, BookBub Editor Lauren Aldrich shares her best tips on how to write a compelling description for your book so it has a great chance of drawing in readers.
8. Direct Sales Strategies We Love from 36 Authors
Direct sales are an increasingly popular way for indie authors to generate more revenue, collect reader data, and safeguard against the unpredictability of selling on major retailers. Even those with books enrolled in Amazon KDP Select can expand into selling print and audiobooks from their own websites. And it can be lucrative: Research shows that selling direct to readers can generate earnings of up to 96 percent of the value of the book! To help you brainstorm ways to entice readers to buy from your own store, we gathered our favorite examples from authors with established direct sales platforms.
9. 140 Book Marketing Ideas to Help Authors Increase Sales
Whether you’re an author, a marketer at a publishing house, a publicist, or anyone else looking to sell books, there’s a wide array of book marketing tactics you can use to amplify a book’s exposure and reach more readers. To spark inspiration and get those creative juices flowing, we updated our popular list of book marketing ideas with even more tactics you can try today! Publishers, this is a great resource to share with your authors. If you’re collaborating with them on marketing efforts, this can help them brainstorm ways to promote their own books alongside your promotional pushes.
10. How I Sell 20 Books Per Day with BookBub Ads
After creating 1,144 BookBub Ad campaigns over the last six years, author C. L. Murray has learned that surgically precise targeting and a low-priced first book are the two most important factors in his ads’ success. And he’s learned when to scale his campaigns up and down to see consistent daily sales. In this post, C. L. shares how he uses BookBub Ads to drive steady sales as he continues to publish his series.
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