Exploring Book Marketing Strategies
20th March 2023
In this article, we will look at what book marketing is and its types, your thoughts about it, how it works in relation to your personality type, and finally, how important it is to learn one or two things about it. If you want to have a map on book marketing instead of details, then this short article is your guide. Let’s read the article below.
What Is Book Marketing?
This is a process in which a book is made known to as many people as possible. It includes all types of promotion and visibility. You can use all the media tools available to you such as digital marketing and many others. Some people focus on this as their sole career even if they don’t write and publish a book of their own.
Book Marketing is the marketing and selling of books.
Source: https://write0.com/blog/2020/01/26/what-is-book-marketing
Authors need book marketers, don’t we? We do! I might need you, if you can do it well for both of us. It’s a lucrative business, I tell you. You can earn a living out of it, if you know how to do it well.
Related: =>>> Self-Publishing Ultimate Guide <<<=
Anyway, that’s the best definition I have for now. However, there are many other good definitions out there. You can use email, social media, a blog post like this one, and many other digital medium to sell copies of your book. Yet, it depends on many other factors to make a living out of your book(s).
This is because people are so specific nowadays on what they want. Even a color tone on your book cover can either expel or attract readers. It all depends on who your readers are. Some people predict what’s inside a book by looking at the cover. They might be right, but are they always right? Let’s leave that math to those readers.
Types of Book Marketing
One thing is certain whether you have chosen self-publishing or traditional publishing or both: marketing. Publicity is part of marketing, but it’s not marketing by itself. It’s a type of marketing that works hand in hand with other types. And this means you can use either digital or print media.
Even what is called word of mouth is another type of book marketing because it helps you promote the book. If your readers love or hate your book, they’ll talk about it, at least for some time after reading it. Even bad reviews may attract readers to taste the waters by themselves, depending on who those readers are in nature.
What are some of those marketing types?
We have already mentioned some of them in the previous sections, such as digital marketing and word of mouth. Social media is a great digital marketing medium, but you have to choose a social network that works best for you. This is because you need to be on the platform yourself. You need to be engaged there. You have to socialize there and like or react to what others are posting.
We have even mentioned email marketing, but how exactly do you do that? You might need to read this article on email marketing tools I used and reviewed some time back. This is to give you an idea what tools to choose based on other factors such as your budget.
Bookshops and books stores or book clubs are great publicity tools to make use of, but beware! They come with costs. If you can afford any of them and it can bring you back the money with some profit, that’s business. Do it. Go for it. Sell your book and yourself to bookstores and bookshops. These are best print media outlets.
Book Marketing and You
Now, what are your own thoughts about this marketing topic? Do you think you can market your own books? What about books by other authors? Do you think only your publisher must market your book(s) for you? Where are you exactly between the lines?
All those questions above are for you to reflect on this important topic, whether you are a writer, an author, reader, or none of the above. This is because knowledge is a potential power for anyone. I believe you already know something about this topic even long before you came this way.
If you are a writer, you need this article. If you are already an author or one or more books, you need this article even more. Your belief is important. This is because whatever you consciously do comes from your mind. You have to think about it before you even decide to do it.
Even if your publisher is big and well-known all over the world, you still need to market your book in your own ways. Is this statement out of ignorance? I don’t fully know the answer as I write this. But it seems someone somewhere is thinking the other way. Someone thinks their traditional publisher must do all the marketing work.
It’s true that your publisher does all the marketing work for your book. However, don’t forget the fact that they don’t do it for you. They do it for themselves. That again might be a statement out of jealousy, or out of some form of ignorance on my end. I know. But I still have good point to make. You will have all the freedom indie authors have if you decide to market your book, yourself. Learn how to do it, today!
Book Marketing and Personality Types
Your personality is your identity. Is there anything truer than this? I don’t think there is. Your personality type is what makes you the only you on the face of the earth. It makes you unique and special even though other thinkers think you can change it.
Your personality type in this context determines your marketing types and choices. This is because self-publishers share a certain personality type: freedom. They love it when they publish their works at their own pace, time, and place. They can either go exclusive on Amazon or go wide. That’s their choice.
But are you free enough to decide where you want to market your book(s)? It’s all your choice based on your personality type. You don’t become; you are who you are, already. That’s the truth. That’s the fact about you. You can’t change this nature even if you want to do so. Don’t fight with yourself because it doesn’t make sense.
I believe one day, I’ll be marketing, promoting, and selling million copies of my books, and I will make a living with my writing. That can be a desire, a mere desire, or a burning desire. That will make a difference. A burning desire is the igniting match for any kind of success known to civilization, and I know I have it.
But what do I need that I don’t have now in order to achieve that wish? Is it money for marketing? Do I lack digital tools or people behind them? Remember that digital tools don’t work by themselves because someone with knowledge must make them do the job. That person can be you or someone else. It doesn’t matter who it is, it matters what he or she does with the tools at hand.
The Importance of Book Marketing
If nobody knows about a new product, nobody will buy it either. Is that true? If it is true as I know it is, I think the same thing goes about anything in life. If no one knows a certain beautiful young lady exists, no one will date her. It’s that way in nature.
Males find and chase after their females, and that’s the pride whenever they get what they want. They know they made it. She knows they made it. She’s proud of such a male, a male who doesn’t give up easily. That’s the importance of marketing. Marketers disturb our peace, each and every day.
They use all tools and all means to let us know a new version of the old product is here for us to buy with a bigger price than the old one. This is why new smartphones are released each and every year. This is not because they are any better than the one of last year, but because new things sound good to us.
We love to spend money on new things, at least not my type of personality, but I think you got the point here. It’s very important to publish and then promote your books to the world. That’s all I want to say. But this is easier said than done, right? No and yes. It all depends on some factors.
Summary
You have read a lot about this topic. What do you think about it? Did you learn anything new? What was it that you have just learned? What is it that you knew before reading this article? Do you think you can share this knowledge with family members and friends?
All those questions above are meant to help you reflect on the article as a whole. I know that you know a lot besides what I have shared here, and I need that knowledge. Other readers would love to hear from you as well, if you can only spare a minute to summarize your points in the comment section below.
In this article, we have looked at what book marketing means in our modern world, its many types and options to choose from, what you think about it, your personality type and how that relates to marketing, and finally, how important it is to learn a few things about marketing a book. This is all for now, unless you think I have missed it all.
Please take a minute to share your comments below. I will be happy to read your comments and reply. Thank you for reading the whole article. It’s 1.6k words. A lot of words, aren’t they?
Hastags: #digitalmarketing #lifecoaching #selfpublishing #technology
Further Readings
- 14 Essential Book Marketing Ideas for Every Author—selfpublishing.com
- What Is Book Marketing?—write0.com
- Book Marketing Services—reedsy.com
