Book Marketing Tips for Authors

K. S. Brooks
What’s it gonna take to get you to buy this book?

There has been a lot of complaining recently about authors who “overmarket” their books like used car salesmen yelling full blast in our faces. This, of course, raises the question: what exactly IS acceptable? Technically, only you can answer that – if you care not to alienate or oversell, the key to making that determination is really “treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.”

That said, I do have some tips for newbies and all authors which will make your efforts more tolerable for those receiving them, and more rewarding for you in return.

#1 – Post book excerpts. Choose a day each week as your book excerpt day. This works great for Twitter and even better if you have Twitter set up to post automatically to your Facebook and other profiles. One Tweet, many social platforms. Not sure exactly what type of excerpt to use? I like to mix it up. Some weeks I’ll just tweet all prepositions or adverbs. Sure, anyone can tweet a sentence. What’s the point in doing that?

#2 – Post book review announcements. Got a new review on one of your books? Tell the world. Don’t be shy. “Check out the new review for Night Undone!” Now, theoretically, you should include the link to the review. But let’s take that a little further and assume they’ll like the review, so just skip right over and instead provide a buy link to your book. Because honestly, are you going to spout off about a BAD review? Well no, you’re not.

#3 – Post book review excerpts. I really enjoy doing this. You can make so many neat sentences with words. Have you noticed that? Take this review from Bad Book for example: “Brooks, Hise and Mader complement each other to a tee and bring to the table their individual brand of humour, satire, and whimsicality and seamlessly braid their talents into a masterpiece.” Now, that’s all well and good, but it is too long for Twitter. So I changed it to “Brooks’s individual talent is a masterpiece.” I just moved the ‘s’ after talent to behind my name, took an ‘is’ from ‘Hise’ and BAM! a usable quote.

#4 – Write blog guest posts. Authors don’t realize how important this is. Writing a guest post gives you additional exposure you wouldn’t get on your own venue, plus you can show your talent as an author. A bit of your personality should come through in your guest post – because if people get to know you – they will be more likely to purchase your book. Sites like Indies Unlimited offer a high-traffic opportunity to strut your stuff. Now get writing on that guest post so I can substitute it for mine next week. I’m feeling a little tired from all this writing, frankly.

#5 – Issue press releases. New book just come out? Press release. Win an award? Press release. Piece of toast with Stephen King’s likeness on it? Press release. Make sure you get a photo of that bad boy. Donating the proceeds of your book for Celiac Awareness month? Press release. There are plenty of ways for you to distribute a press release and none of them are effrontive. (You can learn more about that in my post on press releases here.)

Well, get to studying on these five methods, there will be a test later. Once you’ve got these mastered, I’ll be back with more. I know you want more. It’s okay, you don’t have to say it out loud. It’ll be our secret.

Author: K.S. Brooks

K.S. Brooks is an award-winning novelist, photographer, and photo-journalist, author of over 30 titles, and executive director and administrator of Indies Unlimited. Brooks is currently a photo-journalist and chief copy editor for two NE Washington newspapers.  She teaches self-publishing and writing topics for the Community Colleges of Spokane, and served on the Indie Author Day advisory board. For more about K.S. Brooks, visit her website and her Amazon author page.

20 thoughts on “Book Marketing Tips for Authors”

  1. There's a sense of humour in there I'm beginning to adore, but which I can't quite describe. It's like biting into your favourite peanut butter on toast only to find bits of hot chilli in the bread.

    Really nice post Kat!

    1. LOL Thank you, Chris! I've been told it's called "snark". I just thought it was because I'm a New Yorker with attitude (of course, that's inherent therefore redundantly phrased). I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by.

    2. Chris,

      That's probably the best description I've ever heard (of this site in general). And the most accurate I should add.

      Thanks for the tips Kat!

  2. Okay … I'll be waiting for the deeper dive into these five methods … because I'm not sure where to 'post' this info … so far, I've gotten no response to my voice mail announcements.

  3. You are my new heroine…move over WonderWoman, KS Brooks has easily replaced you.

    There is some sound advice here especially with regards to Press Releases (yes, I checked up on your old post and bookmarked it)

    I, for one, shall now be eagerly swotting up for the big test.

    1. Aw Carol! You're awesome. And too kind. The press releases REALLY do work. Much to my chagrin, I was at a library fundraiser Saturday night (instead of watching hockey in my hermit writer's cave). A man came up to my table and said "I saw an article in the newspaper about you, then went to your website. I liked what I read about your spy series. Which one of these books should I buy?" Well DAMN! So many people think press releases are a waste of time, but trust me, they're not.

  5. I know you've probably covered this multiple times, but here goes anyway. I think your suggestions are awesome, gave me some great ideas. I tend to sit in front of twitter or facebook staring at the screen not knowing what to post. Sheesh! You'd think I was writing an address to the nation!

    Okay, here's the question. My twitter and facebook, friends, followers are pretty much other writers, and that's a good thing, most of the time. Lots of tips, suggestions, and good blogs to read.

    How do I connect with more readers. People who would look at what I've done with your suggestions and say, "That sounds like a book I'd like to read".

    1. Hey there, RE – we have covered a bit of the Twitter end of it – both with what to tweet: https://indiesunlimited.com/2012/02/14/oh-for-…
      and how: https://indiesunlimited.com/2012/03/27/tuesday…
      The first one does talk a little about how tweeting what interests you will draw people with the same interests to you. If you write horror, you could always go to Stephen King's or Dean Koontz's twitter pages and see who is following them. Then follow their followers. There's no guarantee any of those people will follow you back, but at least you'll be in the right neighborhood. Retweeting their stuff will get their attention eventually.

      This past Saturday, Jim Devitt wrote a post about building relationships. That is truly what we're all trying to do with social networking. Here's the link https://indiesunlimited.com/2012/05/12/develop…

      There's no straight or simple answer to any of this. I hope I've helped at least a little.
      🙂

  6. Funny, I just unfriended an author on Goodreads for sending me this daily message one too many times: "I hate to keep asking, but I really need your vote for *** on this list. Once you vote, you won't hear from me with any more requests."

    Am I weird in that I wouldn't want a vote someone gave me just because I pestered them, and not because they actually thought my book was worth voting for?

    1. I agree. I wouldn't ask that of someone I didn't really know who had NOT read my book. Maybe I'm too literal, but I consider a request of that sort almost an endorsement. And I don't feel right about endorsing something I haven't read or used.

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