Book Marketing Ideas - Free and Paid

Book promotions and marketing are as essential to an author as writing a book. Well-planned marketing strategies help increase your readership and boost the sales of your books.

If you want to know more about how to promote your book effectively, you’re at the right place. In this article, we give the most popular and effective book promotion and marketing ideas—both paid and free—so that you can choose what suits your promotion plan the best.

Book marketing ideas - Favbookshelf — *Book Marketing Ideas – Free and Paid – Favbookshelf*

FREE BOOK MARKETING IDEAS

This is a given—the most convenient, effective and most used book marketing strategy that can be fun too. Social media can influence what a consumer buys. This benefits authors and writers by using social media platforms as promotional platforms for their books.

You can create your accounts across various social media platforms and use them to talk about your work. You can create Instagram reels with captivating quotes from your book, post pictures of readers reading your book, make a short book trailer on YouTube, create a Pinterest board and pin images of your book aesthetic along with quotes and brief descriptions and link your book to the pins to lead readers to purchase your book, create a Facebook page and promote there, or ask various question on Twitter or create a forum for that purpose and interact with your readers.

As an author, you can use your social media presence as an effective tool for marketing your book. But you should be aware of what kind of book it is that you’re promoting and your target audience. For example, promoting a Fantasy Romance book on LinkedIn might look very out of place. Books on business and marketing would be appropriate for that platform.

#2 Author profile on Amazon and Goodreads

Create and update your profiles on Amazon and GoodReads. Write a short description of your work in GoodReads—specifically the latest book you’re promoting—and include quotes from your book and any significant reviews of your book(s). This will improve your reach to readers and make it easier for them to leave reviews for your book.

Creating an Amazon profile is highly suggested to and followed by all writers. You add quotes and descriptions to your profile, like in GoodReads, and opt for Amazon KDP and affiliate program, which we’ll explore later in this article.

#3 Host giveaways

Giveaways are popular among many products, and books are no exception. You can actively host giveaways on your social media accounts which will interest more readers to participate and increase your social media traffic and followers.

You can gift your book to certain bloggers and influencers who cater to your target audience and also provide discount coupons for their audience/followers. If they like your book, they might agree to the collaboration and even give their review of the book and promote it on their page. This can directly increase your reach among their followers and improve your readability.

#5 Free pdf and samples

You can provide a free pdf of up to a few pages of your book, which will pique the reader’s interest and may lead them to buy the book to read more. There are other kinds of free book promotions you can try, too—you can provide your book for free for a limited time, or you can give completely free access to your book, which is mostly used for e-books in the case of the first book in a series (called first in series permafree). People love free stuff!

#6 Discounts and freebies

As I said earlier, people love free stuff. You can gift freebies or free merchandise related to your book, like bookmarks, T-shirts, hoodies, notebooks, and many more, but make them unique. And you can also sell your book at a discounted price for a limited time, encouraging readers to purchase it before the said time.

#7 Create an author website

Now that we’ve gone through so many ways and platforms, wouldn’t it be best to put everything together on just one platform for easy access? So, you can create an author website for this purpose.

You can include information about yourself, your work and the book that you’re promoting and link all your social media accounts to your website. Include your newsletter and links to purchase your book, add special discounts while purchasing from your website, and collect e-mail IDs (with the promise of protecting their privacy, of course) which will help you gain new subscribers and use it to promote your book by adding them to your mailing list. Make sure to add your book to your signature too.

PAID BOOK MARKETING IDEAS

#1 Amazing book cover

This might sound silly but hear me out! Book covers are a great deal when it comes to attracting readers. A fantastic book cover intrigues the readers and can drive them to read it. So, invest your money and interest in making your book cover as attractive as possible.

#2 Affiliate programs

This is one of the most common practices to promote a product. PPC (pay-per-click) effectively increases your reach to a larger audience of your target.

You can opt for Facebook, Instagram, or BookBub ads, join an affiliate program with websites or bloggers, like Amazon AMS advertising, or increase traffic with Google AdWords.

#3 Paid book reviews

Paying professionals and bloggers to write reviews for your book can also improve your readability. You can reach out to professionals who match your target audience and pay them to review your book. This way, you know exactly what you want for your book and can include their reviews in your profile to increase credibility.

#4 Host events

Actively host book signing and reading events to promote your book and paint your appearance to the public. Many new readers will know you through these events and be interested in reading your books. Further, your fans who attend such events can connect with you even more and wait for your future works. Combined with a decent social media presence, this can help you build a solid fanbase.

#5 Podcasts

Host your own podcast or go as a guest on a popular podcast that suits your book niche and talk about your work. This can help new and dedicated readers get interested in your book and increase your readership.

#6 Book promotional websites

Many websites have heavy reader traffic and provide various book promotion and marketing services. According to your planned budget, book niche, and what you want from your promotion, choose a website that suits you best and opt for their services.

BookBub is by far the most sought-after website for book marketing; however, note that it is expensive but is still worth your money. You can check other websites, like Favbookshelf (of course😉) and decide on your preference.

#7 Connect with similar authors

Reach out and network with authors who have similar writing styles, core genres and target audiences and get advertised in their newsletter and social media profiles and do the same for them. This allows you a deeper insight into the industry and helps you build a strong relationship with authors of your niche who may go through similar situations as you. Most of all, it increases your readership by attracting the fans of those authors, as they read similar books as yours and would want more. Hence, they’d turn to you.

Concluding, book marketing and promotion are very much needed for authors, regardless of their fame and time in the industry. Choose wisely a suitable book marketing plan by jotting down what you want from your promotions. I hope this article helped you get a few ideas to market your book. Happy writing and reading!

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Disclosure: All our recommendations are honest; most importantly, some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something we recommend.

What are the best book marketing ideas according to you? Do you prefer free or paid book marketing, and which above mentioned ideas did you like? Leave a comment below. We would love to know!

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