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 put together 140 book marketing ideas you can try today.
Some of these ideas can help directly increase book sales, while others may help expand your platform, which can lead to future sales. Not all of these ideas will be applicable all the time, and we encourage you to consider the impact each might have before deciding where to invest your time. But we hope these ideas will give you plenty of options when developing your own marketing plan.
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.
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This guide covers every stage of book marketing, from researching your target audience all the way through to engaging an established fan base. Use these links to jump to a specific topic so you can browse the ideas most relevant to your upcoming marketing planning!
- Identify a target audience
- Build an author platform
- Design a book’s cover
- Optimize a book for effective promotions
- Prepare your book marketing assets
- Run a preorder campaign
- Get more book reviews
- Launch a book and build buzz
- Run price promotions
- Get more online exposure
- Spread the word on social media
- Host author Q&As
- Build reader communities
- Create box sets and bundles
- Participate in live events
- Other book marketing ideas
Identify a target audience
- Survey your target audience. Ask questions about demographics, psychographics, and online behavior so you can better understand where to market to readers and what messaging they’ll respond to. Survey your existing audience and fans of comparable authors and books.
- Research similar books and authors. Study how other authors are targeting the audience you’re trying to reach by compiling a list of the top books in your genre(s) and analyzing their retailer pages and the authors’ websites. Look for trends in these authors’ marketing approaches and take note of any strategies you want to try.
- Conduct reader interviews. Learn how your readers find new books to read and how they make their purchasing decisions. This will add qualitative color that can help you understand the quantitative survey data you analyze in spreadsheets.
- Write reader personas. Write a short paragraph that describes each core group of readers you’re targeting. Refer back to it whenever you’re creating an ad, designing a cover, writing a tweet, or want a refresh on your audience’s motives.
- Create a list of target keywords. Compile a list of search queries that your target audience is using to search for books. Use tools like Google Trends and Google Ads’ Keyword Planner to see which relevant queries are frequently used.
- Develop your author branding to appeal to your target audience. Effective branding is a huge asset to an author’s audience-building efforts. It helps readers understand what to expect from your books. Here’s an example of how one author split her brand across the three different genres she writes in, and how another author developed her branding at an individual book level.
- Create a plan to reach a targeted audience. Rather than try to market your books to every potential reader out there, focus your marketing efforts on readers who have demonstrated interest in the type of books you’re trying to sell. Look for ways to leverage marketing tools to reach specific target audiences. For example, among BookBub’s 48 categories and millions of power readers, you can target readers by category interest with Featured Deals and even narrower audiences with BookBub Ads.
Build an author platform
- Create an author website. Your site should be a marketing tool that serves as the hub of all your online activity, from blogging to selling books to emailing a newsletter to participating in social media. Use a platform like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix to easily build a site.
- Set up a blog on your site. Provide a “behind-the-scenes look” for readers by blogging once or twice a month. Fans will love the insight into your personality and writing process, and anything you post is fodder for your next email to subscribers.
- Link to your published books. Create a site page linking to your books to make it easy for readers to discover all the titles you’ve written. Include cover images, brief book descriptions, and links to multiple retailers so readers can purchase your books wherever they shop.
- Set up an online store. Direct sales are an increasingly popular way for indie authors to generate more revenue, and there are lots of ways to encourage readers to buy from your store instead of or in addition to major retailers.
- Add a mailing list signup to your site. Include a simple form on your homepage, website footer, and/or blog’s sidebar asking for visitors’ email addresses. Collecting email addresses lets you build relationships with people who want to hear from you.
- Welcome subscribers with exclusive content. When people subscribe to updates from you via your website, send them a welcome email including a link to a permafree ebook, sample chapters, or some sort of freebie as a thank-you for signing up. We’ve also seen authors create exclusive members-only communities for subscribers.
- Build your email list. Now that you’ve started sending emails, how can you grow your mailing list? The most common tactics include sharing a sign-up link in the back matter of your books, letting readers know about your newsletter at events and in Facebook groups, and using giveaway platforms like BookFunnel, BookSweeps, or LitRing.
- Claim your BookBub Author Profile. Make sure your author bio is up to date so fans and potential readers can learn more about you and your books.
- Get more BookBub followers. The more followers you have, the more people will receive dedicated emails from BookBub notifying them about your new releases and price promotions. And once you get 1K followers, you can also send BookBub Preorder Alerts! Author Juno Rushdan reached her first 6,500 followers by widely promoting her Author Profile, running contests, and recommending books on BookBub.com.
- Recommend books on BookBub. Posting Recommendations is a great way to increase visibility for your author brand and discovery of your books, among other benefits! Your followers can see your Recommendations in their feed on BookBub.com, and we’ll also email them every time a book you’ve recommended has a live deal.
- Add BookBub and Chirp follow buttons to your site. Make sure website visitors can find your BookBub Author Profile and books on Chirp by adding BookBub and Chirp follow buttons or icons to your site.
- Claim your social media profiles. Grab your username on all social media platforms. Even if you don’t have active profiles on each site, at least claim your name on platforms you might choose to focus on (many authors stick to one to three platforms).
- Link to your website and BookBub Author Profile. Once you’ve created a website and claimed your BookBub Author Profile, make sure that people can find these assets by linking to them on your email signature and bio sections on your social media profiles.
Design a book’s cover
- Hire a cover designer. A great cover design can have a major impact on your sales numbers. It’s usually worth hiring a professional to create a polished cover that appeals to readers in your genre.
- Test cover variations with your audience. Have your cover designer create multiple variations and use data to choose your cover design. Test two variations against each other using tools like PickFu or UsabilityHub. One author used BookBub Ads to test a series cover rebrand with new readers, which led to the successful relaunch of the series and an increased read-through rate.
- Unify cover designs in a series. Create consistent branding between books in a series to make purchasing decisions easy for readers. A unified cover and title style often helps readers recognize connected titles and encourages them to purchase subsequent books.
- Re-launch a book with a new cover. Redesigning a book cover can be a great way to invigorate book sales. It gives you the opportunity to “re-launch” the book according to the ever-evolving tastes of genre readers and harmonize your series branding.
- Add a blurb to the cover. If you’ve managed to secure a blurb from a well-known author, consider including it on the book cover design. Try to use a short blurb so it’s easy to read and doesn’t clutter the design.
Optimize a book for effective promotions
- Make book samples end on a cliffhanger. For example, on Amazon, users can download the first 10% of a book for free or read it on-site via the “Read Sample” feature. This gives you the opportunity to score a sale if the reader wants to continue after the sample.
- Cross-promote books in the back matter. Include a list of all your titles in each of your books’ back matter. Update this back matter whenever you launch a new release. If you have the time, create a version of each book for each retailer with retailer-specific links to each book.
- Include an excerpt in the back matter. Authors who include an excerpt see the highest increase in sales of their promoted book. Immediately after the acknowledgements, include the first chapter of the book you’re promoting. Bookend the excerpt with links to purchase that book.
- Link to your mailing list in the back matter. On your “About the Author” page, encourage readers to sign up for your mailing list. If they sign up, you’ll be able to contact them any time you want to promote your backlist titles, new releases, giveaways, or price promotions.
- Optimize your book description. BookBub’s A/B testing shows that descriptions that include quotes from authors, awards, and language that caters to your audience (e.g. “If you love thrillers, don’t miss this action-packed read!”) have higher engagement rates.
- Include target keywords on product pages. Narrow down a list of 5-7 keywords your audience typically searches for, then incorporate these words into the description headline, description copy, and keyword sections on each retailer product page.
- Choose relevant subcategories on retailer sites. This can increase your chances of being on the retailer bestseller charts for a specific category, which could drive higher sales volume. You’ll also avoid disappointing readers who were expecting something different.
- Make your book available in multiple formats. This way, you make your books discoverable to readers no matter how they prefer to read. Use publishing platforms that can distribute your book in print or audio format, as well as ebook.
- Tie different versions of a book together. Different authors and platforms use different systems, but find a way to connect a print edition with the ebook, audiobook, and international editions. This ensures that visitors to the product page can easily purchase the format they prefer.
- Link series books by name. If you’ve published a book series, create a master name for the series and add it to the product’s title on retailer sites. This will help retailer sites make automated recommendations within the series, and help readers find more books in the series to read.
- Make books available globally. With growing book sales and millions of readers, international markets can be attractive targets for authors and publishers looking to expand their potential readership. Optimize the cover design for each region and reach out to relevant local bloggers who can help spread the word.
- Go wide. Consider publishing “wide” across multiple retail and library platforms as another way to grow your global readership. Mark Leslie Lefebvre shared these tips on how to succeed in wide publishing.
Prepare your book marketing assets
- Write a killer elevator pitch. Write a concise, snappy elevator pitch that shows what the book is about, what kind of world readers will be immersed in, why readers should care, and what accolades the book and author have received. A strong elevator pitch will make a book more enticing to readers deciding whether to purchase.
- Test copy variations by polling readers. Use polling software like PickFu to test variations of description or marketing copy and see which your audience likes better. Always test and optimize to discover what copy will resonate best with readers.
- A/B test marketing copy. Unlike polling, A/B tests give you quantitative data (i.e., the number of clicks). Use your email service provider to run A/B test emails and see which copy has the highest click-through rate, or use ad platforms like Facebook or BookBub Ads to A/B test your copy.
- Test ad designs. Use BookBub Ads to A/B test which ad copy or ad creatives generate the highest click-through rates (CTRs) to prepare for your next advertising campaign.
- Get blurbs from reputable authors in your genre. Blurbs can catch readers’ attention, especially if they’re familiar with the quoted author or publication. Our tests showed that book descriptions including blurbs got an average of 22.6% higher click-through rates than those without blurbs.
- Create images for teasers and quotes. You can easily turn book quotes into vibrant images using free apps like Canva, Design Wizard, or Book Brush. Publish these teasers to your website and social media accounts in the weeks and months prior to a book’s release.
Run a preorder campaign
- Make books available for preorder. Driving preorder sales can help a book hit various bestseller lists, since many retailers count all preorders as launch day sales. They also help build buzz and momentum for a new book, which can help lead to word-of-mouth sales later.
- Announce a title reveal. Create buzz for an upcoming book by announcing the book’s title. Get creative by posting a video announcing a book’s title, turning the announcement into a game, or publishing a text conversation between characters about the book’s title.
- Share teaser quotes and countdowns on social media. Many authors have found success using days-to-release countdowns to build anticipation for their upcoming books. New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Eden tailored her social media teasers to each platform, sharing longer text excerpts on Facebook and relying more heavily on images and video for Instagram posts.
- Email your mailing list about your preorder. Email is one of the most popular channels for promoting preorders. Your existing readers will want to be the first to hear about your new books!
- Post a cover reveal on a popular blog. Partner with a blog or website that’s popular amongst readers in your genre to host a cover reveal. If you can arrange to have a book available for preorder in time for its cover reveal, linking to a page where readers can preorder their copy can be a great way to jump-start preorder sales.
- Link to a preorder in previous books’ back matter. This lets readers order it as soon as they finish the previous book, without having to remember to buy the new book when it’s available for download. Include an excerpt of the upcoming book in the back matter, even if it’s unedited, to provide a sneak peek.
- Send a BookBub Preorder Alert. A Preorder Alert is a dedicated email to an author’s BookBub followers announcing that one of the author’s books is available for preorder. They’re highly targeted since they’re only sent to an author’s followers, and at only $0.02 per eligible follower, they’re a cost-effective way to promote a preorder! Authors with 1k+ followers can schedule two alerts up to a year in advance.
- Run BookBub Ads for a preorder. BookBub Ads let advertisers market any book at any time to BookBub’s millions of power readers — including preorders, new releases, and full-priced books! Many authors and publishers have promoted preorder books on this platform. For example, author Keira Andrews used BookBub Ads to target her own readers and similar authors with a preorder.
- Offer free swag in exchange for preordering. This gives readers an extra incentive; they may need an additional nudge since they can’t get the instant gratification of reading the book right away. In these promotions, have readers email a copy, screenshot, or picture of their receipt to receive the swag.
- Use crowdfunding to reward readers who preorder. Sending swag packs via mail can get expensive, so crowdfunding can be a great way to offer exclusive content. This could include short stories, author commentary, deleted scenes, or high-resolution posters.
- Collaborate with other authors to promote your preorder. 49% of authors who use preorders partner with other authors, influencers, or book marketing services to expand their reach through newsletter swaps, takeover events, and giveaways.
Get more book reviews
- Provide advanced reader copies to relevant reviewers. Start getting reviews before the book launches. You can use tools like NetGalley, Booksprout, or Edelweiss to find early reviewers, or reach out to relevant bloggers with a pitch on the book. While they can’t review books on retailer sites until release day, they can post the reviews to their websites, social pages, blogs, or Goodreads.
- Enroll in Amazon Vine. Amazon Vine is a program that gives a select group of Amazon reviewers advance access to products in exchange for their honest review. The program is invitation-only: Amazon selects reviewers based on Amazon customers’ trust in their reviews. If eligible, you can enroll in Amazon Vine to submit your book for potential review.
- Run book giveaways. Book giveaways can take various forms, including blog tours or contests on your blog or social media pages. Providing free copies to your most loyal fans in exchange for an honest review can help a new book get traction, plus it rewards readers for their loyalty.
- Ask readers to review a book in the back matter. A high number of reviews makes a book more enticing to potential readers. We found that when a book has at least 150 five-star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, including the number of five-star reviews in the copy increased clicks an average of 14.1%.
- Submit a book for relevant editorial reviews. You can pay for guaranteed reviews from reputable publications like Kirkus Reviews, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, and Discovery by Reedsy. Be sure to check the submission requirements for each service.
Launch a book and build buzz
- Make sure your book gets a BookBub New Release Alert. Add each book to your BookBub Author Profile as soon as the preorder page or product page is live on retailer sites. This will ensure that your BookBub followers receive a New Release Alert when each book launches.
- Submit for a BookBub New Releases for Less promotion. New Releases for Less is an excellent tool for driving wide exposure of new releases priced at $7 or less. Here’s a sample of results from these promotions for different genres and price points.
- Run a BookBub Ads campaign. With BookBub Ads, you can promote a new release to BookBub’s millions of power readers and increase exposure and buzz for your books. USA Today bestselling author Jeana E. Mann budgets BookBub Ads into all of her new release plans to increase sales and exposure.
- Brand your homepage with a new release. Publicize your latest book on your website homepage and social pages by updating the header, banners, or other images to increase awareness among visitors. Consider including blurbs instead of a synopsis to intrigue visitors.
- Link to your newest release. Find a high-visibility place to link to your book. Many authors choose to include links in their personal email signature, social media bios, author bios, and back matter. Update these assets whenever you release a new book.
- Add a free ebook sampler to retailer sites. Upload the sampler as its own ebook with a separate product page and make it clear in the title and description that this is just a sample — the first chapter or first few chapters — to avoid disappointing readers. On the last page, include a link to purchase the full copy.
- Add a PDF sample to your website or BookFunnel page. Once people download it, it’s okay if the PDF is distributed outside of your control since it’s just a sample. In fact, you should hope it gets as many eyeballs on it as possible! On the last page, include a link to purchase the full copy.
- Create and distribute free swag. If you can be creative and unique, swag can be an effective marketing tool, especially if it ties into the story in some way. Remember: Everyone gives away bookmarks and bookplates. Consider your target audience and think about what they would have a real use for that relates to the book. For example, author Tiffany D. Jackson created a real-life version of the earrings worn by her book’s protagonist!
- Sell themed merchandise on your website. Create custom t-shirts, coffee mugs, ereader covers, jewelry, framed art, etc., and have them available for sale on your website or at events. Services like CafePress or Redbubble can help. Your most loyal fans might be excited to become walking advertisements for a day!
- Submit a book as an award contender. Including an author’s awards in BookBub’s blurbs increases clicks an average of 6.7%. Find relevant or genre-specific awards and submit a book for consideration. Here’s a comprehensive list of awards and contests open to indie authors, vetted by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), along with tips on the kinds of contests to avoid.
- Run a virtual book launch event. Going virtual not only saves on travel expenses, but provides greater accessibility, allowing more people to tune in than ever before and leading to great opportunities for fan engagement.
Run price promotions
- Temporarily discount backlist books to drive sales. Choose as low a price as possible to drive the highest volume of sales. 85% of bargain readers have purchased a book from an author unknown to them because of an ebook price promotion.
- Set up a Countdown Deal. Kindle Countdown Deals are time-sensitive discounts you can run via Amazon to drum up extra excitement for a price promotion, like author Nick Sullivan did to launch a later series book.
- Promote a full-priced book in a discounted book’s back matter. Authors see a 2.2x higher increase in sales of other books in their series if links are included in the back matter of the discounted book.
- Discount the first book in a series. Hook new readers into a series by pricing low. 70% of bargain readers buy full-priced ebooks, so getting them hooked on a series via a discount often leads to full-priced sales later.
- Promote an ebook discount with BookBub. BookBub lets you send an ebook deal to targeted lists of millions of power readers. Partners reported a 196x average increase in earnings from a book during a Featured Deal.
- Promote audiobook discounts on Chirp. The selection process for a Chirp deal is similar to that of a BookBub Featured Deal. Each Chirp feature reaches hundreds of thousands of audiobook listeners in our daily deals email in addition to merchandising placement on chirpbooks.com, and partners who set up additional discounts on related books during the promotion see an average of 50% more revenue.
- Create a permafree gateway book. For example, the first book in a series can be permafree as a gateway to the rest of the series. BookBub readers are 11x more likely to click on a book that’s offered for free than a discounted book.
- Run price promotions in foreign countries. Discounting a book in foreign markets can be a great way to drive ebook downloads and revenue in those regions. Also, when you submit a book for a BookBub Featured Deal, you can easily elect to run the promotion in our international editions.
- Run a price promo when you launch a new book. If you’re promoting a new release, running a price promotion for a backlist book can help drive sales for the new book. 89% of BookBub partners who discounted an older book to market a new release sold more of their new book after the promotion. Or try discounting the new book once it’s built up a solid platform!
- Self-publish a prequel to a traditionally published book. Authors may not have control over pricing for their traditionally published titles, but they can self-publish prequels or connected standalones and use discounts on those books to promote their traditionally published books. Brenda Novak used this strategy to launch her book Face Off, the third in its series, to bestsellerdom.
Get more online exposure
- Email your mailing list about a book launch. Reach out to fans who have opted in to receive communication from you. You can also let them know about an imminent release. Use an exclusive look at the first chapter to get them excited.
- Later, email the recipients who clicked. The people who opened or clicked on the book launch email are the most engaged people on your list. They will be most likely to make the purchase or even write a review of the book. Reach out and ask if they’ve read it yet. Let them know you value their opinion and would sincerely appreciate an honest review.
- Later, email those who didn’t click. Don’t forget the people who didn’t engage with the book launch email — they cared enough to specifically sign up for your email list, but for whatever reason didn’t open the first email. Send them the first few chapters of the book for free and see if you can hook them the second time around.
- Promote a book on relevant blogs. Compile a list of book bloggers and reviewers who regularly review books, interview authors, or feature guest posts from authors in your genre. Coordinate with them to promote giveaways or publish reviews or author interviews.
- Sign up as a HARO source. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) connects journalists with relevant experts, and you are the expert in your niche! By signing up, you’ll receive an email three times per day that includes media opportunities in which you could be quoted. Reply quickly for the best chance of getting selected for a quote in an article, and ask for a link back to your site.
- Partner with other authors to run themed promotions. For example, if your publishing imprint or group of friends has three fantasy books featuring fae, coordinate price promotions, themed blog posts, and social media parties. Packaging these books promotionally helps each book gain exposure across the other authors’ platforms.
- Support other authors. From recommending books to providing industry advice to hosting book clubs featuring others’ titles, author-to-author support comes in many forms. Here are some inspiring ways we’ve seen authors uplift their peers on social media.
- Show your readers appreciation. From sharing fan art to running giveaways to sharing discounts, there are also many ways to thank your fans for supporting your work.
- Create a relevant video series. Create mini documentaries on a book — or get more creative. For example, for a rom-com book featuring a hairdresser protagonist, create a cute series of hair tutorials featuring hairstyles from the book. For a middle grade mystery featuring a magician, create a magic trick tutorial series. Publish the videos on YouTube, TikTok, or your other social channels.
- Live stream an event. Beyond recording videos, live streaming is a great way to engage with your fans in real time. You can use YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram Live to stream events like writing workshops, book signings, book clubs, or Q&As.
- Run a digital advertising campaign. BookBub Ads, Amazon ads, Facebook ads, and other social media platforms let you target ads to a fine-tuned audience based on preferences users have expressed on those platforms. This lets you advertise the book to people interested in similar books or genres.
- Time book promotions with current events. If you can strategically promote a book during specific seasons, an annual event, or when something pops up in the media, take advantage of that opportunity and be a part of the conversation.
- Write and syndicate a press release. Create an informational press release announcing a new book. Link to both the new release product page and your own website for SEO purposes. Use a free press release distribution service to syndicate the press release to news websites and blogs.
- Reach out to the press. Email relevant media sites a pitch for a book and offer a free copy. Be sure to use a catchy subject line and opening sentence. Follow up by sending a press release and personalized letter with the book.
- Find relevant guest blogging opportunities. Reach out to blogs focused on your genre with recent posts, lively comments, and an active social media presence. If they’d like to accept a post from you, create valuable and original content, and carefully edit each post to make sure you’re delivering polished content.
- Participate in relevant interviews. Agree to participate in blog or podcast interviews that would effectively reach your target audience. Interviews can be a great way to share your perspectives without needing to write much original content. Take advantage of these opportunities to increase awareness of your author brand and your books.
- Publish short stories or essays to a serial fiction website. This is a great way to get exposure to new audiences and test what resonates with your readers. On some serial fiction sites, you can even monetize your work! Some sites are heavily focused on specific genres, like Radish (romance) and Royal Road (fantasy and science fiction). Wattpad and Kindle Vella are options that are open to stories in all genres, or you can use membership services like Substack or Patreon to write whatever you like!
Spread the word on social media
- Brand your social media header photos. The cover photo space on platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X offer a great branding opportunity for authors. Update your cover photo with branding for your latest release, preorder, or price promotion to make sure everyone who comes to the page knows about it.
- Make your blog posts easy to share. Make it easy for fans to share your book news and other blog posts by optimizing each post for social sharing. Use tools like ShareThis to add social sharing buttons alongside each post, and ClickToTweet to create clickable tweets.
- Make each social media post visual. Posts that include images and video get more engagement on social media. Instead of text-only updates, try posting an image of your book’s cover with a teaser quote, or record your message in a video. Tools and image libraries like Canva, Shutterstock, and iStock can help.
- Run a participation contest. Have fans share your post, comment on a post, or like a post for a chance to win a free signed copy of a book or another fun prize, and cross-promote the contest on your other social media channels.
- Run a fan art contest. Get fans to upload fan art of a character or scene from a book on your blog or Facebook page — or have them share it using a hashtag on Instagram or Twitter/X. Choose a winner to receive a prize (and then get permission to use that fan art in your marketing).
- Ask questions and encourage participation. The more your fans and followers engage with your updates, the more exposure you’ll get — their friends will see their comments in their news feeds. So make sure to involve fans in a two-way conversation.
- Pre-schedule social media content. Doing social media marketing doesn’t mean spending all day online. Use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your day’s or week’s social media content in advance. This will free up your time for writing and other marketing efforts.
- Pin important updates on your feed. Most social media platforms let you pin important announcements about new releases, sales, or contests to the top of your profile. You only need to post the content once, then you can simply pin it for higher visibility!
- Host a release party on Facebook, Discord, or another virtual platform. Run a contest on launch day giving people many opportunities to win prizes, such as a free copy of a book, gift cards, posters, and more.
- Post behind-the-scenes looks on Instagram. Take artsy photos of your workspace, a character sketch you drew, index cards laid out for plotting, your cat lying on your notes, or something to show your personality and a peek into your mindspace when writing your next book.
- Create Pinterest boards of inspiration. Stats show that 85% of Pinterest members use the site to get inspiration for purchases. To get them thinking about purchasing your book, create Pinterest boards showing off your workspace wish list, art that inspired you when writing certain scenes, or fan art for your books.
- Run a trivia contest in your newsletter or on social media. Have participants email you the answer, where each correct answer is worth points. Send winners a free book or a creative prize. Readers love a fun challenge!
- Promote your book on Reddit. Reddit is a great platform for authors to reach specific audiences dedicated to particular topics (known as “subreddits”), as long as you play by the rules for self-promotion. Some subreddits allow it, while others don’t. Find subreddits that align with your book’s genre, subject matter, or target audience; read the rules carefully; and interact with the community before introducing them to your book.
Host author Q&As
- Stream a Facebook or Instagram Live video Q&A. When you begin a live stream on Facebook or Instagram, people who’ve liked your page receive a notification that you’re streaming live. Afterward, the video is available for anyone to watch on your page, and they’ll see the comments come in as though they’re watching live!
- Host a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA). Many authors host AMAs on Reddit, where they answer reader questions throughout a set time period. Submit an AMA to the IAmA group or peruse Reddit for genre-specific subreddits, such as YA Writers and Fantasy Writers, to find opportunities to host an AMA.
- Host a Q&A on YouTube. Have fans send questions directly via Reddit or email, and answer them later via a live or pre-recorded video on your YouTube channel. This twist on the traditional Q&A is an innovative way to keep readers engaged.
- Host a Q&A on TikTok. One way authors engage the thriving #BookTok community is by starting discussions around their books and publishing journeys. Post a video explaining your Q&A topic and have readers comment with their questions. You can answer them directly in the comments or create a new video with your responses.
Build reader communities
- Build an author street team. A street team is a group of fans that volunteers to promote an author. The goal of a street team is to incite word-of-mouth buzz for a book, and they’re motivated by their love of the author’s work. Some authors use Facebook groups to organize their street teams and recruit new members.
- Create an author fan club. Fan clubs are groups where readers can congregate without the expectation of helping with promotional activities. Fans can interact with the author, discuss books, and have other fun conversations with like-minded readers.
- Host a read-along group. Create a virtual book club where participants read a designated number of chapters of a book per week and discuss them in the group. Having the author participate in the group is a great incentive for fans to join the conversation.
- Launch a Facebook or Discord group. It’s a free and creative way for authors to engage with or expand their fan base. For example, The Jewels of Historical Romance has a Facebook group of over 2K members that 12 romance authors created to cross-promote each other’s books, and author duo Kit Rocha offers their Patreon members direct access to chat with them through their Discord server.
- Post short videos to connect with your fans. Use YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram Reels to create short videos answering fan questions, interviewing other authors, listing book recommendations, or reading from an upcoming new release. Experiment with a few simple videos to see if you’re comfortable with being on camera before focusing on production quality.
Create box sets and bundles
- Bundle a complete series. You may be worried that bundling all of the books in a single series would cannibalize sales of the individual books, but many authors have found that the volume of sales from readers excited by a deal on the full series can drive more revenue overall.
- Bundle the first few books in a series. Include the first two or three books of a series in a box set to promote a full-price book later in the series. This can be a great way to hook readers and make them invested in the characters so they’re willing to pay full price to know how the tale ends. Promote the next book in the series in the box set’s back matter.
- Create a box set for standalones. Bundling standalones can increase loyal readership or drive sales of a new release. Strategically package standalones including similar themes by subgenre, location, point in time, similar protagonists, holiday setting, or something else.
- Include exclusive content in a box set. Adding a novella or short story to a box set could provide an extra incentive for readers to purchase (instead of buying the books separately). Existing readers might also purchase the box set for the bonus content they haven’t seen before.
- Discount a box set. Running a limited-time sale on box sets can dramatically increase sales, revenue, and visibility. Also, Featured Deals for box sets consistently generate high engagement and conversions from BookBub readers, even when they’re featured at prices higher than $0.99. On average, we’ve seen 20% higher click-through rates and 29% higher purchase rates on box sets than single books!
- Publish a multi-author anthology. Partner with other authors to create an anthology of novellas or short stories. If you promote the collection to your audiences, you can each increase your exposure by reaching the other authors’ audiences.
- Sell your box set on your own website. Create box sets (or discounts on box sets) that aren’t available on retailers to bring fans to your store.
- Bundle your audiobooks. You can repeat any of these bundling strategies for your audiobooks! For example, discount a limited-time deal on each book in a series, or combine several titles into a single audiobook.
Participate in live events
- Hold book signings at bookstores and conferences. Signings can help drive word-of-mouth exposure and reviews. Don’t feel obligated to give away your books for free. Many authors sell books at their signings — purchase a checkout tool like Square to process credit card transactions.
- Give a talk at a relevant conference. Flex your public speaking skills. As a published author, you can talk about a variety of topics, including the subject of your book, your writing process, your publication journey, and the experience you’ve had promoting your books and connecting with readers.
- Participate in panels you’re invited to. If flying solo on stage sounds too intimidating, participating in a panel might be a more comfortable option for you. Speaking on panels at book conferences is a sure way to gain exposure to fans of the other authors on the panel, whether they’re readers at consumer conferences or fellow authors at writing conferences.
- Print business cards to hand out at events. Always carry around something to hand out to potential readers who want to buy your book later. You can create postcard-sized handouts or business cards people can stick in their wallets, with a URL to visit your website and purchase your books.
- Run a contest to draw people to your event. Build buzz and excitement for your signing, session, or panel by offering a free book or giveaway. Announce this giveaway on your social profiles using the event-specific hashtag. Once other attendees see people flocking to you, they’ll want to see what all the fuss is about.
- Partner with relevant local organizations. For a middle grade book, coordinate with local PTAs to organize a school reading during a bake sale or book fair. For a thriller about race car drivers, run a promotion with the nearest track. For a sci-fi book, sponsor a themed party or host a signing at a sci-fi convention or local Comic Con.
Other book marketing ideas
- Concentrate marketing efforts in a single week. Bestseller lists are based on the number of units sold in a single week. Target one list to optimize for its cycle. Focus your campaigns, including price promotions, social media contests, and email marketing within one week to boost your chances of hitting the list.
- Pitch a book as a holiday gift. Depending on the type of book you’re promoting, the giftable nature of a physical book may help boost print book sales, especially around the holidays. Consider timing your price promotions and ad campaigns around a holiday or special, relevant events to boost sales and visibility.
- Donate books to relevant organizations. If you’re promoting a middle grade book, consider donating a few copies to a summer camp, children’s hospital, or school libraries. If you’re promoting books that appeal to an older demographic, donate to retirement homes, hospitals, and community centers. This can help spark future word-of-mouth sales.
- Create learning resources for teachers, librarians, or parents. This is not only a creative way to get a book into students’ hands, but extremely helpful to educators struggling with time constraints. Author J. Elle, who created an entire curriculum to go along with her YA novel, recommends considering this strategy whether or not a book is in a children’s or young adult age market category. A curriculum can delve into any book’s writing mechanics or literary devices and help spark important discussions.
- Regularly refresh your metadata. Choose 3-5 keywords that best reflect the content of a book based on current trends and how readers are now searching for that content. Swap these keywords into your metadata (such as in the keyword fields and description).
- Measure the ROI of your campaigns. Analyze your return on investment for each campaign so you know what worked and what didn’t. Crunching numbers might not be as fun as writing your next masterpiece, but wasting money on campaigns that don’t work isn’t fun either.
- Continue publishing new books. Nothing sells backlist like frontlist! Continually publishing new books will help you garner a wider audience that will be interested in your other books.
This post was originally published in March, 2020. It has been updated with new ideas and examples.
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