Free Book Marketing Tactics

by Hank Quense, @hanque99

Are you a first-time author trying to market your just published book?  Book marketing is like getting trapped in swampland without a map.  You really need a guide.  This article will provide some guidance.  It covers a series of rather basic marketing tasks to get you started.  One great thing about these tactics?  They are all free.  They only require your time and energy.

    Amazon Author Page

Once your book is available for sale or pre-order on Amazon, you can start an Author Page.  You’ll find Author Central at: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ gp/home.

After you log in with your password, you can add your bio and other information to the page. One of the great features of the Author Page is you can add a wealth of information about the book that you couldn’t do when you uploaded it to Kindle.

Web page or blog site

As a new author, you have to face the fact your book is published in the 21st century. Readers search for and find books by using the internet. The implication of the last statement is that you and your book need a website.

The simplest way to establish a web presence is to use a program like WordPress or Blogger or Weebly.

So what do you do with a website once you have it up and running? You use it to pimp your book. There should be a dedicated page for the book and it should be easy to find. Don’t make a visitor search for the book page.

Initially that page should have a picture of the cover, your book blurb, and buy links. You can also put your short synopsis on it.

Use your blog to write blog posts. The blog posts can be about anything: your grandkids, writing anecdotes, vacation plans and pictures. The important thing is to issue blog posts periodically so that people will build up an interest in the blog and revisit it.

    Goodreads book page

Goodreads is a place for readers and authors to interact. You can find it by using this link: https://www.goodreads.com.

The great thing about the readers on this site is that many of them write book reviews. Once you have your account set up, start using it by joining the author program. This will enable you to establish an author page with a bio, book listings and other information. You’ll find the author program here: https:// www.goodreads.com/author/program

Social Media accounts

You need to open and use a few social media accounts.  At the least, these should include a Facebook page, a Twitter account, another one on LinkedIn and perhaps Instagram or other sites.

Book Blurbs

Many new authors consider a book blurb to be a short synopsis. This is a mistake. Book blurbs and a short synopsis are two different animals and they have different purposes. The purpose of the book blurb is to grab the attention of a potential reader. Once you have her attention by means of a great pitch line as the opening sentence, you need to follow that up with a few more sentences that tell her what’s different about your book and what’s in it for her.

For more on book blurb construction, you can read my article:

https://medium.com/@hanque99/book-blurbs-a-marketing-opportunity-46d6586ee44b

Sig files

Email signatures (usually called sig files) are a free way to publicize your book every time you send out an email. Think about how many times a day that happens!

Sig files are those links you see beneath the name of the person who sent you the email. Here is what yours could look like:

Your name

Title of your book

Location of your website

The last two lines would be linked to a webpage, the first to a book buying page like Amazon, the second to your blog page. Sig files are easy to implement and only take a few minutes.

How you do that will depend on the mail program you use. They are all different.

Goodreads Reviews

One great feature about Goodreads is that there are millions of readers on it, and those readers love to get free books to read and review. There are a number of groups that actively seek authors looking for reviews.

One such group is called Advanced Copies for Review & Book Giveaways. Here is a link to it: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/58575-advanced-copies-for-review-book-giveaways. A second group is: Authors and Reviewers: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/103713-authors-reviewer.  There are more such groups on Goodreads, but these are the two that I have used to get book reviews

Booksprout Reviews

This is a free review site. https://booksprout.co.

Once you have an account, you can upload your book and request reviews. You can do this before or after the book is launched. The site will allow up to twenty readers to request a copy. That doesn’t mean to imply your book will get that many requests. You may only receive a handful of requests and not all of the them will post a review. Still, you’ll probably get a few reviews. A neat feature of this site is that the reviews won’t just show up on Amazon. They will also appear on Goodreads and other book sellers such as Barnes & Noble.

The above material is based on the content in my new book, Book Marketing Fundamentals. The book is available in ebook and paperback editions and can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iStores, Kobo and other web book sellers.

For more valuable information on fiction writing, publishing and marketing, visit the Writers & Authors Resource Center: http://hankquense.org/wp/writers-and-authors-resource-center/

Hank Quense writes satirical fantasy and sci-fi. Early in his writing career,
he was strongly influenced by two authors: Douglas Adams and his
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Happily, Hank
has never quite recovered from those experiences.

He lives with his wife in northern New Jersey, a mere 20 miles from
Manhattan, the center of the galaxy (according to those who live in
Manhattan). They have two daughters and five grandchildren all of whom
live nearby.

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