Hi everyone,
Today I’m going to give back a little. Pay it forward, so to say.
Right, let’s start.
Each time when I have a new book coming out, I invest a lot in research about what works best from marketing point of view. That’s the reason I worked extra hard to create a marketing campaign that would help-you-help-me spread the word about my latest (and amazing) novel, Lion’s Vineyard.
I hope you’ll find some parts of this post, if not all, helpful but do let me know if it sounds plain stupid, or that it simply doesn’t work because….(your words here).
Another thing I want to mention is this: please do comment below if you feel inclined to, the email address you have to give in order to comment will not be used for anything, including subscribing you to my newsletter (unless you’ve subscribed to it previously).
So here it is…
How to successfully promote your book?
I found the marketing strategy outlined below to have the strongest link between my current fans and my new ones.
And it all starts with you asking your current fans to help you. Can’t be simpler than that.
Of course, you must have good books and great fans standing behind you for this to work, but bottom line is, as with any marketing strategy and campaigns, to have good end product.
I’m talking here about the book as a whole product, including the flowing story line, the editing, the cover, the little typos that annoyingly and persistently pop up everywhere (delete/amend them, please!), as well as correctly spelled posts promoted on your social media sites, etc.
1. Ask your fans to help you
If you are doing this, you should always make it easy for your fans to help you. For example, don’t say: please post this picture on your facebook wall, add this text, and this link, etc., but instead send them a link of a pre-crafted post, and ask them to simply share it.
2. Give something for free
Since I’m promoting my new book, “Lion’s Vineyard”, I’m giving away Chapter one for free. It’s my way of saying, here it is, read it, see if you would like it.
Sometimes this approach could be tricky because if you don’t have the ‘hook’ in chapter one it might put off your readers from buying it. Note – if you really don’t, go back to your book and re- shuffle things up. All successful books have the ‘hook’ in the first few pages, and by the end of chapter one.
Lion’s Vineyard is contemporary romance novel, but not your typical boy-meets-girl story. I go back and forth between the two main characters, giving the readers enough insight (hopefully) in chapter one to make them sufficiently interested to want to find out what happens next.
P.S. Click here to check out Lion’s Vineyard Chapter 1 (PDF)
3. Pre-craft posts on your social media platforms
Facebook – create one post on your Facebook Author page and ask your readers to share it (get the shareable link from facebook).
Alternatively you can share something like this on Facebook:
“Lion’s Vineyard” (open and use the share buttons at the bottom of the page)
Tweets – by using click to tweet https://clicktotweet.com/dashboard you can precraft your tweets so your fans can re-tweet by the click of a button. See example below for my book (and feel free to try them out):
- I’m reading @Alexandra_iff ’s new book “Lion’s Vineyard”! Get the 1st chapter free here: http://tinyurl.com/LionsVineyard (click HERE to post on Twitter now)
- Get a FREE chapter of “Lion’s Vineyard” here: http://tinyurl.com/LionsVineyard via @Alexandra_iff (click HERE to post on Twitter now)
- I’m checking out @Alexandra_Iff ’s new book “Lion’s Vineyard”! You can read the 1st chapter for FREE here: http://tinyurl.com/LionsVineyard (click HERE to post on Twitter now)
Instagram / Pinterest / Google +
Don’t forget to post photos of you writing, and having fun too. Ask your readers to like your photos and share your posts.
Examples:
4. Goodreads
Don’t forget – ask your fans to add your book on their TBR on Goodreads
5. Amazon
Make sure you have the Amazon link of the book here so people can check the book out, your reviews, and get it while there.
Note: Encourage your readers to leave you reviews. Those are very important! Get the ‘leave a review’ link from Amazon so they could go there with a click of a button.
6. Never forget the blogs
Make sure you prepare professional media pack if you want the blogs to share it / post news about your book on their pages.
You should also be able to offer an ARC (advanced reading copy) of your book to them so they can read and review it.
~ ~ ~
I think this is it but keep an eye on this page, I will update it as I have more information on my list.
Hope you Share and/or Like at will.
Mwah!
Alexandra