When it comes to selling books, authors have two choices: hire someone to help or apply a do-it-yourself approach. As Boni Wagner-Stafford outlines in this post, there are several reasons why doing our own book marketing is worth the extra effort.

Those who want to write a book believe that writing the book is the hardest part. Those who have written a book soon discover that marketing the book is actually the bigger challenge.

There are a host of reasons for this, including that many writers prefer the intimate, one-on-one relationship with their keyboard over shouting anything about themselves or their book to anyone… However, your success is entirely in your hands and forethought and pre-planning your book marketing strategy will go a long way to achieving your goals.

What’s a Book Marketing Strategy?

Your book marketing strategy addresses:

• why you’ve written your book
• why the marketing strategy exists, and
• what you’re going to do to market your book.

It provides the answer to the question, “What should I be doing today to market my book?”

Hire Help or DIY Your Book Marketing Strategy?

Before you run out and hire someone else to craft a book marketing strategy for you, here are four big reasons to do this yourself.

1. Knowledge

The research, rationale, and foundational knowledge you build through creating your book marketing strategy yourself is empowering. You’ll build an intimate knowledge of your target reader, where they buy books and what format they consume.

You’ll learn much more about the market into which you are launching your book and specifically how you’ll reach your audience. You’ll understand the broader environment into which you are launching your book, including the socio-economic factors at play with your audience. You’ll understand your methods, messages, and the mechanics of getting the word out about your book.

You’ll know precisely which promotional products you want to produce and where you’re going to use them. You’ll know which events you want to speak at and attend.

This will not happen to the same degree if you hire someone else to do the work.

2. Confidence

You’ll have an easier time speaking to others about your book and engaging with potential readers and influencers.

You already know your own content: creating your own book marketing strategy will build confidence about how to speak to your readers and influencers, how to engage in conversations about peripheral topics, and how to naturally insert the topic of your book into those conversations.

3. Clarity

You’ll know exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. You’ll have created for yourself a marketing roadmap that you can follow from the beginning. No more driving in the dark without headlights.

And this is a map you’ll keep on referencing, over and over. It will steer your marketing approach, your content, your timing, your social media. You’ll be better equipped to deal with the challenge of volume: there is so much that it is possible to do. You’ll cut through the clutter by aligning what you will actually do with the objectives you want to achieve with your marketing.

It’s the best way to choose the marketing activities that are right for you and your book.

4. Cost

These strategies are big, long, and detailed, and hiring someone to produce a really good one can be pricey. Save your money on the front end so you can invest some of it on other marketing activities that you have researched — and because you have done the research you can make that investment knowing it will get you closer to your goals, whether those goals include selling 2,000 copies, reaching one million readers, or achieving bestseller status in one or more categories.

One Caveat

By creating your own book marketing strategy, you’ll see, understand, and connect the dots in the big picture first. You’ll end up with a plan of action that aligns with your purpose for writing the book.

What a book marketing strategy will not do — no matter who creates it and how innovative, good, or thorough it is — is make up for an inferior product. Your manuscript must be the best it can possibly be, which means professionally edited and proofread. (Your neighbor or best friend who loves to read does not count.) Your book cover must be professionally designed, meaning unless you are a designer you do not want a do-it-yourself cover.

Before you invest your precious time in building a marketing strategy, be sure you’ve invested the right amount of time and money into these foundational elements of your book.

[You can find more ideas for book marketing here.]

Have you given some thought to what your marketing strategy will look like for your next book launch? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Boni Wagner-Stafford is author of One Million Readers: The Definitive Guide to a Nonfiction Book Marketing Strategy that Saves Time, Money, and Sells More Books. She’s a writer, ghostwriter, and editor specializing in nonfiction and she manages communications and media relations for the Alliance of Independent Authors. She is also co-founder of Ingenium Books, where she coaches nonfiction authors writing in the genres of business, self-help, personal development, memoir, and journalistic nonfiction.

Boni, who has lived in more than fifty towns and cities in Canada, Mexico, and France, is currently residing in La Paz, Mexico.

Have you asked a question out loud to one of your devices in the last week? Did you ask Siri the weather on your Apple Watch? Did you ask Google Assistant to provide you directions? Did you ask Alexa for a flash news briefing or to play some music? These voice requests are becoming more and more common with some predicting that voice may be over 30% of search from 2020. 

Think about that from a book marketing perspective. If someone is in their car and wants to listen to an audiobook, will yours come up in voice search? If you want traffic to an article, can it be found by voice? Like ensuring your book can be found through typing a Google search, it's becoming increasingly important to be found in voice search. In this article, Zara Altair gives some tips.

Authors use categories and keywords to help readers find their books. Digital retailers like Amazon use these keywords to help readers find books that relate to their interest. In the online world. search engines used to work similarly using keywords to match information to a searcher’s request.

In the larger world of online search, search engines like Google and Bing are shifting how they discover and present information to people who search for something like your book online. The search engines are shifting from keywords to phrases and topics. The search engines base their results on what matches the natural language of the person searching.

As people use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets more people search using voice and natural language than typing in keywords on a computer screen. According to Statista, the number of mobile search users is expected to increase to 221 million users by 2020.

If you’ve ever said ‘OK Google' and asked for information, you know how this works. And you know that a voice query (question) gets one answer. When people search for a good book in your genre or you as an author, you want to be the answer.

Unlike search results on a screen where there is a top answer and then other results, voice gives one answer. You’ll be vying with your competitors for the one answer. It may seem unfair but there’s no second choice with voice results. Search engines look for featured snippets, information about you above the ranking list, and knowledge graphs as the first source of the one answer.

When you follow the tactics below, you are better able to guide search engines on the results they display for readers.

You can see this on your computer by comparing the old search results of rank with a featured snippet with the new search results Knowledge Graph side by side on the page.

Search for your author business (real name or pen name). If Google has created a knowledge graph, claim it. What’s important for you in this new world of search results is the Knowledge Graph and a featured snippet about you as an author and each of your books. These are the results that voice search uses.

How To Create Your Author Strategy for Voice Search

Authors can prepare for this shift in how people search and how search engines deliver results by taking steps to implement a search strategy for their online presence. Each step is a tactic to increase the probability of being the right answer for mobile searchers.

1. Business Mindset

As an author, you are a business. In terms of search, you are an entity. Everything online about you is a component of how search sees you as an entity. As a business, you need to create a consistent message about yourself as an author and your books wherever you are online.

• Blogs
• Social network postings
• Emails
• Articles written for websites or printed publications such as magazines or newspapers
• Postings made to a user review section of an online vendor or marketplace
• User reviews submitted to various existing user review clearinghouses (e.g. Yelp)
• Podcasts

Search engines gather information about you from a wide variety of sources. The more these sources align, the better search engines understand your business entity, you as an author.

The most important action you can take is to present a consistent message about your author business, the entity, online.

Each of your books is also an entity, so you need to apply the same strategy to each of your books.

2 Organize and Present

Search engines look for clear and concise information to answer searcher questions. You have no control over what Google or any other search engine returns as the result of a search. But you have methods to direct search engines to appropriate answers for a search query.

Think blocks of text and soundbites that quickly answer a searcher’s question.

For instance, in your author blog articles break up paragraphs into short blocks of information.

• Use headers and subheads to tell search engines what each section of your page or article is about.
• Use the same tactic for the book description for each of your books. Break up short paragraphs with headers to lead readers down the page and help search engines determine what you have in each section.
• Use bullet lists for concise, easily searchable information. Non-fiction authors can use bullet lists in the book description.

Use these tactics when writing about yourself as an author and for each one of your books. The more you organize your content on the web into chunks around one phrase the easier it is for search engines to find you and present the answer.

• Use meta descriptions for each page on your website. Depending on your website create the meta description in the SEO section of your site. A meta description is a short 150-166 character description of the page. It’s like a mini-ad for the page. This works well for your author page and for each book.

Here’s an example: Heather Bailey will sweep you away in her book Cliff Hanger. Sparks fly and danger lurks when Tana and Jim meet. Romantic suspense fans will love the thrills.

Put the most important information first like your author name and the book title. Google can cut off the description at any point. And, the search engine will look at the page and may pull something else from the page. You have no control over what Google displays, but a well-written meta description helps.

Avoid long paragraphs that cram a lot of information into one paragraph. Break up what you say with distinct topics and short paragraphs addressing each topic.

Clear, concise, and organized information increases your chances of search engines returning what you want your readers to hear.

A webinar Meet the One Answer Challenge with software search engine optimization (SEO) tool SEMrush, goes into more depth about writing for voice search.

3. Go Wide

When you publish your book at different digital retailers (wide distribution) like Apple Books, Nook, and Google Play, you help search engines discover your books. It’s a tactic for making your books discoverable on different voice devices because each voice device searches first within its own framework. Alexa searches on Amazon, Siri searches in Apple Books, Google searches in Google PlayBooks.

• Amazon Alexa
• Apple Siri
• Google Voice Search
• Windows Cortana

For authors who work exclusively with Amazon and receive a bulk of their income from Kindle Unlimited, the choice of going wide is a personal decision. You’ll need to balance your income stream with the desire to improve discoverability online.

4. Audiobooks

Audiobooks are the perfect medium for voice. An audiobook is your book in voice. Each voice device can read audiobooks. Readers can ask their voice device to read your book to them. If a reader has not purchased the audiobook, the device will tell them where to buy the book.

Each voice device has a separate way to access audiobooks, but all devices can play the audiobook to the listener.

Audio editions of your book are powerful connections for voice devices.

5. Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Page

Search engines like frequently asked questions. An FAQ page consolidates basic information about you as an author with questions and answers. One of your answers may be just what a reader is looking for.

Think readers first and what they want to know about you. The best questions are those readers and prospective readers ask about you and your books. Use questions your email subscribers ask.

Assemble 10 to 15 of the questions readers ask the most and create a short, concise answer. Most website tools offer a pre-formatted FAQ page. If you’ve ignored it before, add it to your website.

Technical Pro Tip

Authors who love tinkering with tech can create personal voice answers for Alexa and Google. Create a skill in Alexa and an action for Google. Both search giants have simplified developing apps for their voice devices.

Use Alexa Skills Blueprints and Google Template for Actions to get started.

Voice Search is Here to Stay

Each of the five actions is a tactic in your strategy to become the one answer in voice search. Overall, you want to present yourself and your books with clear, concise text. Use short paragraphs. Use headers to tell search engines the topic of each section.

There are no guarantees. Search engines can choose whatever they sense is important on a web page. Use a consistent strategy about your author business and your books wherever you are online. When you are clear, readers can find your books as the one answer.

Are you ready to embrace the voice-first revolution? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Zara Altair creates website relational search management and semantic writing for small business clients. She writes historical fiction, The Argolicus Mysteries, where politics and murder collide in an Italy ruled by the Ostrogoths. In addition, she coaches beginning writers to Write A Killer Mystery. Find her video tutorials on YouTube.

Finishing your book is a huge accomplishment. Now the hard work begins. J.D. Lasica shares 10 ways you can get the most out of your book launch while remembering that book marketing is made up of different choices for different stages of your author career.

Do you have a marketing game plan for your book launch? After you type the final sentences of your masterpiece, your task is not yet complete, alas.

Before you release your work into the wild, it’s time to turn your attention to getting it read.

I’m mostly talking to you, indie authors (although traditionally published authors who expect their publishers to do all the heavy lifting for their new book are in for a rude awakening). You want to hit the charts and grow your fan base? It starts with a strategic marketing plan.

Veteran authors whose goal is to get wide uptake for their new titles understand that marketing isn’t a dirty word. Simply put, you’re trying to get your book in front of the people who’d love to read it.

Here, then, is a 10-step Book Launch Marketing Blueprint. You don’t need to follow all 10 steps, so dig into the ones you think will give you the greatest return for your time and money.

1. Create a book launch team

Your book release may fizzle unless you spend some time assembling a book launch team, also called an advance team, street team or ARC team (for Advance Reading Copy) in some places. Whether you plan to go wide or go exclusive with Amazon, your brilliant tome won’t hit the top of the best-seller lists on the basis of your sparkling prose or scintillating plot alone.

You need escape velocity to get your book discovered among the 5-million-plus titles on Amazon alone. That requires a few things—a great cover, a compelling title, the right book description, the proper metatags and categories—but it starts with an all-star book launch team. I try to form a team with at least 120 members, but even a handful would be valuable to a new author.

These folks are the tip of the spear—readers or acquaintances who’ll take time to read your work and, at the proper time, leave an honest review on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, or your platform of choice. Reviews are by far the most effective way of providing social proof and getting visibility for your book. I’ve found several generous beta readers on Goodreads, and a few of them even joined my launch team.

Make sure you set down clear expectations right from the start, make it easy for them to get your book in any form they want (I recommend Bookfunnel), invite feedback, incorporate last-minute tweaks, and then help them publicize your book through social media and word of mouth.

Don’t forget to keep up the communication and heap praise and love on your volunteer team members.

2. Set goals

Any good marketing plan establishes goals at the outset. For instance, with my latest thriller, my goals were to hit No. 1 in at least one category in the Kindle store to snag that coveted Bestseller tag (done), become a Hot New Release by week three (done), and triple the size of my mailing list (only doubled it), with a stretch goal of getting the attention of an editor at Amazon’s thriller imprint, Thomas & Mercer (still checking my in-box but perhaps it’s too early for that).

Even if you don’t achieve every goal, it’s better to set goals and fall short than to just have an objective of “whatever.”

3. Target your readers

Do you know who your readers are? If you write romance novels, they probably spend more time reading Marie Force or Danielle Steel than Clive Cussler or Neal Stephenson.

Read other authors in your genre and create a list of “comps”—other authors who write similar works. Write to that market, then market to them through the steps that below.

Once you begin to advertise, you’ll likely see that some of your comps pan out while others don’t.

4. Use your author site to grow your list

Ask any successful author and they’ll tell you that your mailing list will pay far greater dividends than devoting all your free time to, say, social media. (Writing more books helps, too.) So make sure your author site does one thing well: funnel readers to sign up for your mailing list. Then keep in contact with these, your most diehard fans, on a regular basis.

Many authors still use a freebie or reader magnet—usually a novella, short story or book one in a series—to entice readers to subscribe. Newsletter swaps with fellow authors is another good way to grow your following.

Tip: Don’t create a one-off website for your book. Create an author site and devote a section to each new title you publish.

5. Don’t overlook the Big Kahuna

BookBub has become the 800-pound gorilla of book promotions. So save up and splurge for a BookBub featured deal. If your title gets accepted—they’re big on romance and thrillers, less so on sci-fi—it’s worth ponying up to reach a portion of their 10 million subscribers by discounting the price of your book to free or 99 cents. You’ll be rewarded with a huge spike in readers and, if you have a backlist, introduce them to your other works.

Tip: I snared a BookBub featured deal on my second try and got 41,868 people to download my thriller. One trick I used was to let the editors pick the date to run the promotion. They chose a date a month out, but that still worked out well.

6. Go with the audio flow

The fastest-growing segment of the reader audience is among people too busy to read. So consider reaching them through the medium they like best: audiobooks. For Catch and Kill, I found a golden-tongued narrator on ACX who agreed to a 50-50 revenue share (after ACX takes its cut).

If you’re comfortable with narration, try it yourself. Then begin promoting your Audible title just as you would your paperback and ebook. Sometimes your biggest fans turn out to be listeners, not readers.

Joanna Penn's home audio sound booth

7. Hit your social channels

If you’re on Twitter or have a Facebook author page, great. Prepare your followers for your new release in the weeks and days leading up to your launch date. Then create a series of updates about your book, using excerpts from reader reviews or testimonials you’ve solicited.

But be judicious. Don’t be that guy whose Twitter feed is a nonstop loop of self-promotion. Other authors have found value in creating YouTube videos, Pinterest boards, Instagram updates, LinkedIn posts, or Snap whatever-they’re-called.

Tip: Create some pre-made social media updates for members of your launch team.

8. Use other paid promotions

BookBub editors receive on average 300 featured deal submissions per day and claim to accept 10 to 20 percent of them, but the true number is probably well under 5 percent. So if your budget allows, consider other book promo sites with healthy mailing lists, including Robin Reads (194,000 members), Bargain Booksy (294,000 users), Free Booksy (407,000 registered readers) and others.

The ultimate goal is not just to sell a few more books but to tickle Amazon’s algorithm and spur sales, leading Amazon to begin promoting your book to readers browsing similar titles.

9. Advertise on Amazon and Facebook

Entire courses and webinars have been taught about how authors can get visibility for their books through Amazon and Facebook in particular, both in the United States and abroad. So let’s just say that the authors at the top of the indie author food chain have learned what works—and advertising that zeroes in on your particular blend of readers can work spectacularly well. Just make sure you dig in and learn what works or your dollars won’t be well spent.

10. Grab some old-fashioned or newfangled publicity

Depending on the kind of book you’re writing, the subject matter may be compelling enough to rate a guest appearance on a podcast, in a magazine, or in an online publication. A Forbes.com tech columnist wrote a glowing article about my last book in a way that tackled the broader subject of technology’s impact on society, so look for those hooks. Both traditional media and new media remain valuable tools in any marketer’s arsenal.

Bottom line: You need to be marketing, not just writing.

Additional ideas and techniques

You may want to consider other approaches, such as reaching out to book reviewers (my team reached out to more than a hundred and scored one review), paid book reviews such as Kirkus Reviews, Booklife, IndieReader or Reedsy Discovery, paid giveaways such as a Goodreads Giveaway, book trailer videos, influencer marketing, or entering book contests. I passed on all of these because of a naturally occurring phenomenon known as time suck.

So there you have it, 10 ingredients for your Book Launch Marketing Blueprint. Your mileage will vary. But it’s important to get behind the wheel if you want to get to the promised land.

What strategies do you use when launching a new book? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

J.D. Lasica is the author of the high-tech thrillers Biohack and Catch and Kill and co-founder of a new platform for indie authors debuting in the fall of 2019.