13 Proven Ways to Promote Your Novel

While, it’s true, there are many components to a successful book promotion, some things are universal across all disciplines. Whether you’re traditionally published, through Simon & Schuster, or indie published through Sally Jones Publishing, the work of selling your opus is basically the same.

As with any product—and I come to the subject with over 25 years international advertising and marketing experience—the product must be a quality one. Just as it’s impossible to sell an inferior toothpaste more than once before people realize it’s no good, you will not sell a second book in your series if the first one is a stinker. (And readers will probably be annoyed they spent the time and money on your first one!)

So pay attention to the first, golden, rule in book promotion: Create a quality book.

That said, here is a brief list of tried and true, proven ways to promote your books:

Create a timeline with target dates for when things must get done--and sometimes redone. Do this six months before you expect to publish your book online. A timeline shows you when you should be doing which tasks in order to launch your book to have its biggest impact. If this is your first book, this is important because your book is the fresh first face you are presenting of yourself as an author and first impressions are important. If this is your tenth book, promotion to-do’s are still important because the new book will affect the sales of all prior books which, of course are still for sale.

Find out who your audience is. Find out where their websites and blogs are (either the ones they write or the ones they read). If it’s a nonfiction book, go to conferences on the subject matter and meet the people you hope will buy your (future) book.

Get endorsements. Make a list of famous people or people known within the industry that your book belongs. Ask them to read your book and say something nice about it. Send them the book with a SASE. You will be surprised what you’ll get back. Even if Will Smith knows little to nothing about your subject matter, just having his name on your book with count for something. Check out contactanycelebrity.com to reach these people.

Create a newsletter or blog. These should have information as opposed to just musings. Make a list of everyone you know. Ask them and every new person you meet if you can include them in your email database. Collect contact information on readers who have bought your book (such as a sign up sheet for people who purchase your books the next time you’re at a conference selling your books.) You can keep people as life-long readers by targeting them specifically. Post to your blog regularly and acknowledge comments, tweet quality messages and links, and respond to all Facebook messages and wall posts. Remember: a neglected platform can be worse than no platform at all if your readers feel snubbed as a result of it.

Write guest blogs on the subject of your book for everyone who will let you. Granted, this is easier for nonfiction, but it can be done for any book with a theme or topic. Be sure to link your guest blog to your own website. Speaking of which…

Your website. Your readers will want to know about you. They’ll want to see your other books, hear your thought process about how and why you wrote the book they loved and when the next one’s coming out. You can go to Go-Daddy to find your domain name and you can have them host your website too. Make sure you add email accounts at the same time so your fans aren’t emailing your home email address (unless you want that?) You can create your own author website pretty easily with easy-to-follow prompts on WordPress or you can hire a professional to design one for you. You’ll need to be able to sell your books on the website and have your titles hyperlinked to Amazon, B&N, Smashwords or Apple.

Solicit book reviews. Reach out to reviewers and be prepared to send out free review copies of your book. Ask your friends to review your books and post the reviews on Amazon and B&N. Make it easy on them--write the reviews yourself and email to them so they just have to modify (not everyone’s a writer!) Readers pay attention to reviews (and star ratings) and you need to believe in your book enough to get them to sample it. Indie book review sites are all over the web and you should begin creating a relationship with these readers, too. You need positive blurbs for your book, for your book flyer, and to offhandedly mention in your next Twitter post!

Social Media. You need to have a presence on several social media sites. Open LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts if you don’t have them already. Spend time on kindleboards.com and mobilereads.com and don’t forget the Writer's Cafe at KindleBoards. It can be very helpful to win over the book clubs, and if you do, you'll need to be thinking about developing a discussion guide for the back of your book. That's the sort of pre-thinking that can really up your sales in a big way.

Traditional Media. If you know anyone at all in the media, go there first. As with many things in life, personal connections reap bigger rewards than spamming or ending up in the slush pile. If you have helpful contacts, now is the time to use them! Create a media package including a news release on the book and yourself, a book flyer, a jpeg of the book cover, and yourself, all the info necessary for people to access the book (where and how much) and send the package to local newspapers, community newsletters, radio stations and local TV. Radio stations are always doing interviews with local writers and artists and there’s an argument to be made that when you go on a radio show and talk to the host, it feels like an endorsement to the listener. Use it!

Writers Clubs. Ask your local writing clubs and organizations if you can speak to them about your experiences in publishing. You’ll be doing them a big favor by explaining the missteps you made so their club members might avoid them, and the great tips you discovered, so they can benefit by them. Most writer’s organizations have multiple writers groups and they’re always looking for people to speak so you should have no trouble getting on the docket. Remember to bring your book’s flyer with you. And several copies of your book. You may well sell them after you speak.

Public speaking. Most writers are shy. Most writers like to spend hours huddled over a hot keyboard and shun gatherings and resist book signings. Because there is some question as to the future of big box bookstores and book signings, in general, they are not generally considered a useful way to get the word out about your book--especially if you are looking for readers online. When you speak, you are performing. When you stand up in front of an audience, they WANT to like you. They WANT to believe you have the power to make their lives just the tiniest bit better. And you know what? You do.

Hire an online marketing firm, like BookBuzzr. Lots of authors do and are very happy with their results. Again, your sales will only be as good as your book.

Book trailers. These are video sales tools, just like movie trailers, and are good for creating interest in books. Do it yourself or find a tech-savvy teenager or friend and pay him or her a nominal fee.