If your book isn’t selling what you hoped, you can use these questions as a checklist to determine whether you’ve done everything possible to help it reach the right readers.

Of course, you don't have to do everything on this list, but choosing elements from each section will help your book stand out from the crowded market. If you want to fill it in, you can download it by clicking the links below. 

Marketing Checklist PDF

Marketing Checklist Word doc 

This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition by Joanna Penn, available in ebook, print and audiobook.

Marketing principles

• Do you have the right attitude and mindset toward marketing? Have you reframed it as a positive, creative process that can be incorporated into your author life?

• Are you taking responsibility for your book sales success? Or are you waiting for others to do the work for you?

• Are you willing to learn new things and give marketing ideas a try?

• Do you understand that marketing is more than just a book launch?

• Have you set aside a budget in terms of time and/or money for your book marketing?

• Have you decided on the WHY behind your book marketing? What drives you? What will keep you going through difficult times?

• Have you decided on your definition of success for this book and for the next five years of your author career?

• Have you identified where you sit on the various polarities of marketing?

• Have you worked out how to schedule time for writing and marketing activities within your busy life?

• Have you looked into using a Virtual Assistant to help you with marketing if you’re struggling on your own?

• What kind of marketing is fun and sustainable for you? What is the best use of your time and resources?

• What have you learned from your book marketing activities in the last 30 days? How can you use your lessons learned to improve your marketing for the next 30 days?

• Have you decided how you will cope when it all becomes too much and you get overwhelmed?

Your book fundamentals

• Are you happy that you have produced the best book you can for the readers you want to reach?

• Have you identified your comparison authors?

• Have you clearly identified your target market? Do you know where they hang out online or offline and where you could reach them?

• Is your cover design professional and suitable for the categories you are publishing in? Does it resonate with your genre and give the reader clear expectations for the book?

• Have you read through and noted down the elements of the sales descriptions from bestselling books in your category?

• Have you written and optimized your book sales description based on copywriting principles?

• Have you spent time looking at the categories where your comparison authors sit on the online bookstores? Do you have a list of categories that would suit your book?

• Do you have a list of keywords that you can use in your book’s metadata? Have you considered using some of the useful tools to help you choose the best keywords?

• Have you decided on whether you will publish exclusively on Amazon through KDP Select or whether you will go wide? Do you understand the pros and cons of exclusivity? If you have chosen one or the other and you are revisiting older books, have you analyzed your sales by platform and made a decision about changing your publishing process?

• Have you chosen a pricing strategy that suits your situation? Have you checked the prices in your category for similar books? Does your price fit?

• Have you used free or price pulsing along with paid promotion to get your book moving?

• Do you have tiered pricing so readers can try you out for free or cheap and then funnel into your other books?

• Have you considered using boxsets or bundling, whether as a single author or as part of a collaboration?

• Are you writing a series of books or at least aiming for the same type of reader so you can link the books in a boxset? Have you used the Series field when publishing to link the books together on a series page? 

• Is your book available as an ebook and a print book? Is it available in all countries on the same day so readers can buy it if they hear about it?

• Have you set up your Amazon Author Central page and linked your book? Have you done this for the UK as well as the US store?

Short-term marketing

• Do you have a notice at the back of your book thanking readers and asking them to leave a review?

• Have you tried using free promotions to get reviews on your book?

• Have you tried using a Goodreads or other giveaways to get reviews on your book?

• Have you identified appropriate book bloggers and review sites and submitted your book to be reviewed?

• Have you sent out Advanced Reader Copies and asked your email list or Street Team to leave reviews?

• Have you identified free or paid promotional services that will email their list or promote on social media? (Remember, BookBub is only one option. There are many more!)

• Have you tried using Amazon Ads?

• Have you tried using Facebook Ads?

• Have you tried using paid advertising on other social media sites or blogs that might be useful for your genre?

• Have you scheduled multiple ads around a particular launch period in order to use the ad stacking method?

• Have you organized your production and release schedule to make the most of the algorithms in the initial 30/60/90 days?

Long-term marketing

• Are you writing more than one book? Are you committed to building a long-term author platform and marketing your books over time?

• Do you have an author platform already? Do you have any way to reach potential readers right now? What can you use from your existing networks?

• What is your promise to the reader? What experience are you offering them? Does your book cover and author brand resonate with that promise?

• Have you decided on your author name? Why might you consider using multiple author names for different books?

• What words, images and colors do you want to be associated with your author brand?

• Revisit your comparison authors. What words, images and colors are associated with their brand and what can you learn from them? How can you model success?

• Are you using a professional author photo that resonates with your brand?

• Do you understand the principle of co-opetition and social karma? How can you work with other authors in your niche for mutual benefit?

• Have you set up a professional author website that you own with at least an About page, a Book page and a Contact form?

• Do your book pages contain links to all the places your book is sold?

• Have you set up an email list signup and added it to your website?

• Are you offering something of value in exchange for a reader's email on the sign-up page?

• Do you have a notice at the back of your book directing readers to this free offer?

• Have you set up an auto-responder series, even a simple one, for your email list?

• Have you decided what you will send in your regular broadcast emails?

• Are you keeping your list warm by contacting them regularly with useful, entertaining or inspirational content?

• Have you started building a Street Team or review team of super-fan readers?

• Have you decided how you will use content marketing? How will you use text, video, audio or images in your content marketing schedule?

• Will you maintain a regular blog around your specific niche? How will that tie into your book marketing? What benefits will it provide for your target market? Are you committed for the long term?

• Do you understand the principles of copywriting for headlines and how you can optimize your blog for search engines and traffic?

• Will you pitch for guest blogging on other sites? Have you identified specific target blogs that resonate with your audience? Have you read the submission guidelines and do you understand what type of content their audience prefer?

• Have you looked at how images are being used in your niche? Have you played with Canva or PicMonkey to create your own images? Have you identified how you will use images as part of your marketing?

• Have you set up social media profiles on the major sites? Have you picked one or two primary social media platforms and linked everything to your author website?

• Do you know what you will share regularly on social media in order to provide value for your target readers? Do you understand how social media can sell books?

• Have you spent some time learning how to use the specific social media site/s you want to use? Do you understand the often unspoken rules of social media etiquette?

• Are you being consistent with your social media sharing?

• Are you scheduling your social media to reach readers in different time zones?

• Have you thought about how to optimize your time on social media to avoid time suck? Have you looked at the scheduling tools available?

• Have you considered starting a podcast? If yes, how will that fit into your wider book marketing or business strategy? Do you understand the time it involves and have you budgeted for that?

• Have you listened to podcasts in your niche in order to understand the best way to use podcasting in your book marketing?

• Have you identified and pitched appropriate podcasters in your genre for interviews around your book?

• Have you considered how you could use video in your marketing? Have you watched YouTube and checked view counts to see what type of videos resonate with your audience? Have you tried using live video or video ads to see if that works for your book?

• If you have audiobooks, have you used promo codes to give away copies to audiobook reviewers? Have you promoted your audiobook on podcasts? Have you embedded a SoundCloud clip into your book page? Have you created a separate audio page on your author website? Have you tried paid advertising to audiobook listeners in particular?

• For marketing print books, have you given away ARCs using sites like NetGalley? Have you made sure your book is available at live events or festivals? Have you considered direct mail or advertising to booksellers or libraries? Have you fostered relationships with booksellers or distributors, schools, librarians, book clubs and other places where print books are directly sold?

• Have you considered how merchandizing could fit into your book marketing? Have you checked out print-on-demand merchandizing options at Society 6 and other sites?

• Is there a newsworthy story hook around your book or around you as the author? Have you crafted a press release or story pitch and sent it to targeted journalists?

• Do you understand the pros and cons of seeking out traditional media? If you want to hire a publicist, do you understand how to make that worthwhile?

Launching and relaunching your book

• Have you decided on your book marketing strategy? Do you know what you will do and what you won't do for this launch or for your author marketing in general?

• Have you focused on one particular book marketing goal so you don’t get overwhelmed?

• Do you have a clear idea of what you will action per author name and over what time period?

• If you have already been marketing for a period of time, have you revisited each book and looked at what you could do to relaunch it or improve sales?

• What are your book launch or relaunch dates?

• Have you set aside time in your schedule to focus on your book launch just in case more opportunities come along?

• What is your definition of success for this launch?

• Have you built relationships with influencers or authors in your niche? List them out along with any ideas for working with them on this launch.

• Have you pitched bloggers or podcasters for interviews or guest posts?

• Have you built your email list and told them about the upcoming launch? Have you built a Street Team or do you have early reviewers ready to read?

• If you're using pre-orders, have you set them up on the respective stores?

• Are you ready with your book cover, categories and keywords, as well as your book sales description?

• Have you sent out Advanced Review Copies?

• Have you set up the book page on your website along with links to all respective stores? Have you set up the book page on Goodreads?

• Have you commissioned any images that you will need for marketing?

• Have you pitched a newsworthy idea to journalists or sent out a targeted press release? Are you working with your publicist (if you have one) to ensure maximum reach?

• Have you scheduled price promotions? If you have one major price promotion, have you stacked other ads around that to maximize sales?

• Have you scheduled social media or are you ready to share on launch?

• Have you prepared your book launch party, whether it is physical or digital?

• Have you checked that your book is setup correctly when it’s live on the stores? Have you bought it to check the formatting?

• Have you sent out emails and told fans on social media that your book is available?

• Have you taken screen prints of the launch and ranking for social proof later?

• Have you assessed what worked during launch and what you can learn and put into place for next time?

Book marketing is not a monolithic thing, it doesn't happen at one single time, and your marketing activities will change over your career as a writer.

There is no magic bullet, only a number of different options that you can utilize along your author journey. 

Here are some of the opposite polarities on the marketing scale that, along with your definition of success, will help shape your marketing activities. You will move up and down on these scales with every book and as you change over time. There is no ‘right' way, just a series of choices that can result in multiple combinations of book marketing approaches.

This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.

Short term vs. long term

Many new authors with only one book will focus on short-term sales spikes because they can't yet imagine a future with more books. I was exactly the same! Short-term sales are fantastic for that initial launch push, but they often cost money and are not sustainable over time. After all, once you hit the top of the charts, there's only one way to go from there.

If you want a long-term career as an author, you also need to think about long-term marketing. You want to build a sustainable baseline income, money that comes in from your books consistently every month. This comes from having more books on the market but also from building your email list and other platform-related marketing activities.

Focused vs. eclectic

Some authors focus entirely on one brand, one genre and one type of marketing. They go deep and become an expert, ignoring everything else in their strategic direction.

I wish I could be like that sometimes! But the opposite is someone like me who likes to write in multiple genres, who has a bit of a magpie brain and likes to try different things over time, who can't focus on just one way of marketing.

Both can be successful, and because it often does come down to personality, it's important to avoid comparisonitis with other authors who do things differently. See my book The Successful Author Mindset if you are struggling with this or other mindset issues.

Income vs. brand building

Some marketing activities are about making direct income, whereas others are about brand building. For example, getting on a network TV show or a national radio show can be amazing for building awareness of your author name, and as social proof for your website. Having a physical book launch party at a swanky location might make the local paper, or give you some great photos for social media.

But if you want to make direct income, you'd be better off publishing a multi-book-boxset and using some paid ads to direct sales there.

Paid vs. free (or money vs. time)

I've spent nearly ten years building up an author platform using my time, not my money. It costs little to set up a professional website with an off-the-shelf theme, and it's free to write articles, or podcast, make videos and share on social media. It's free to self-publish on all the major platforms, and you can find out everything you need to know from free and cheap books and resources. You can definitely build an author platform and generate good sales from free marketing – but you will pay with your time.

If you are short on time and want to pay for marketing, you can spend whatever you like, from $5 a day on Facebook or Amazon Ads to hundreds of thousands for a TV advertising campaign or even just by ramping up those ads.

Traditional publishers have been using paid advertising for years. They know that there is competition for attention, and to get ahead of the pack, you often have to have a coordinated marketing campaign. Many authors are now using paid marketing activities alongside their longer-term platform-building. It's certainly how I use it.

The book vs. you

There are two main ways that your book can be discovered – through the book itself, or through you as the author.

Discovery through the book doesn't require you to have a Facebook page or an email list. These sales are driven by your book's metadata and the algorithms of the distributor, as well as paid advertising. They are based on keywords, book title, book cover, description, people's browsing history, the sales of your book, reviews and rankings in particular categories and everything else that exists within the online bookstore ecosystem.

Discovery through you as the author includes activities such as interviews, guest posting, social media activities, audio or video, speaking at events, networking, PR or staying in touch with readers through your email list.

You may have a different focus per book. For example, I recently launched a new sweet romance series that I co-wrote with my mum. It's under a pen-name that I'm not disclosing (yet) because I want to keep the audience segmented away from my thriller and non-fiction niches. We won't be doing any platform-building or blogging or podcasting or anything that involves us as authors. My mum is 70 and is not Internet savvy, so she doesn't want to do all that, and I'm already running two other active brands under my own name. So we are relying entirely on the books themselves plus paid advertising. This is quite common for authors using multiple pseudonyms, as it is hard to maintain multiple platforms, and it is definitely possible to make a decent living from books using only this method.

Compare this approach to how I run Joanna Penn, my non-fiction name, and J.F.Penn for thrillers. For both of these brands, my photo is everywhere, I blog and podcast and use multiple social media sites. I have a very active platform for both names. I use paid ads to supplement these activities, but my marketing is often centered more around me as the author.

Your very first book with no audience vs. later books when you have a readership

When you're first starting out, you have fewer options for book marketing. You need a significant number of reviews for promotion on the bigger paid email blast sites, like BookBub, so they might not be an option. You can use other types of paid ads, but if you only have one book and no sell-through to others under your author name, you will likely be out of pocket.

However, once you have a number of books, preferably in a series or aimed at the same target market, you will likely have an email list that you can use for marketing a new book, as well as readers ready to leave reviews. You will have a budget for paid ads, and you will be more confident of sell-through. You'll also be clearer on your author brand and your target market. This is the benefit of time and a longer-term focus, consistently growing your readership book on book, year on year. Trust me, it gets easier!

Traditional vs. indie publishing

This is all about control. If you are traditionally published, you will not be able to change the price on your book, or switch out the cover, or change the category, which are tactics that many indies do to rejuvenate sales. Some agile publishers will do this on your behalf, but most traditionally published authors focus on marketing through literary festivals, live events, relationships with book bloggers and PR. Indie authors often focus online, with paid advertising, price promotions, boxsets and other activities that require control of the book.

Stand-alone vs. series

A few years ago, I co-wrote Risen Gods with J. Thorn. It's a stand-alone dark fantasy thriller set in New Zealand at the beginning of an apocalyptic event. It gets amazing reviews, but it's tough to sell.

Compare that to my main ARKANE series, which has nine novels right now, with more to come. It's much easier to market as I have a free first in series book on all platforms, which gets people into the series every day. If people enjoy the first book, they are more likely to read the next one. I also have box sets and can afford to do price promotion on earlier books to lead people into the series. The principle is the same with non-fiction.

If you write stand-alones, consider what might tie them together, for example, sense of place, or the same target market.

Exclusive vs. wide

Your marketing will differ depending on where and how you publish.

If you are exclusive to Amazon with the KDP Select program, then you will have visibility in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) ecosystem, which has become its own market. KU readers pay a set amount per month and can read as many books as they like – as long as those books are in KU. Some of them may buy other books, but their preference will be to borrow, rather than buy. These are high-volume readers who can devour a series quickly, giving you a lot of page reads and a good author income. There are also specific KU marketing options like free days and Countdown deals, plus some authors claim evidence of an algorithm preference for books in KU.

However, if you're exclusive to Amazon, you miss out of the huge audience that shops on Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble Nook and all the other retailers that are springing up in markets around the world, as well as the merchandising opportunities there.

Publish fast vs. publish slowly

Publishing fast is a form of marketing in itself, because the Amazon algorithms favor new content, much as Google does. Some authors choose to write and publish at a faster pace, within a 30, 60 or 90 day period, using email lists and paid promotions to keep their books high in the rankings.

Most authors choose to write and publish over a longer time-frame, with an annual or bi-annual schedule, using sporadic launch promotions and longer-term marketing tactics.

Writing to market vs. writing the book of your heart

“Writing to market is picking an under-served genre that you know has a voracious appetite, and then giving that market exactly what it wants.” Chris Fox, Write to Market

Writing to market is baking the marketing into the book by writing something that will sell because there is an audience waiting to devour it. This suits writers who can write fast and adapt to new niches, but also where the author reads and loves something about the genre.

A great example is LitRPG, which features characters trapped within MMOs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games). A lot of indie science fiction and fantasy authors, who are also gamers, got into this niche quickly, writing books to this market and some of them did incredibly well.

This tactic works until the sub-category on Amazon becomes saturated, then the market becomes harder to sell in, and some writers move onto other genres.

“Be an artist: write what you love. When you're done, then worry about marketing it.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Discoverability

Most authors start out writing the book of their heart, the book their muse wants them to write, the book that has been itching for years to be created. They write that book without any thought of marketing and worry about reaching readers later. Many will continue in this vein, satisfying artistic needs before marketing considerations.

This polarity can also be described as writing for readers vs. writing for yourself. The purest example is poetry, because you write it for the love of language, to nurture your creative soul, rather than for money. Poetry is hard to market and is not a top-selling niche, so you will always write it for you. If you want to write for readers, then check Amazon or AuthorEarnings.com for the top-selling genres and you will find plenty of voracious readers for your words.

It's important to understand that you can do both over your author career, and your approach will differ per book over time. Many authors start out writing because they have a burning idea they want to get into the world and they are passionate about a particular niche. Later, they may write to market, especially if they are now writing for a living. You gotta pay those bills!

I do both. My fiction as J.F.Penn is all written for the Muse, each project born from my curiosity. Much of my non-fiction, including this book, is written to help others on the author journey. I have an audience who want this book, so in a sense, it is written to market.

Neither option is ‘better' than the other. What's so fantastic about the creative world we live in now is that there's room for writers of all types, and many more authors are making a living with their words.

Online vs. offline. Global vs. local.

Offline marketing is anything you do in person, for example, speaking at a local event about your book. It might be running a class at a school to promote your children's book, or attending a networking event, or speaking at a literary festival or a book club at a library. The benefits of this type of marketing include immediate sales and local brand building, as well as the possibility to develop a community and other author friends.

The problem with offline marketing is that it is not scalable. You can only reach the people who are physically with you at that moment. Compare that to spending the same amount of time writing a blog post that could touch thousands online in multiple countries, or going on a podcast interview that could reach a global market, or curating photos on your Instagram channel within your niche. I choose to spend most of my marketing time and budget online in order to grow a global audience, but I also do a few speaking events and writers’ festivals every year. I do both, but I focus on global, online marketing as the most effective and scalable use of my time.

Introvert vs. extrovert

Thanks to Quiet by Susan Cain, many writers are happily claiming their introversion. I'm an introvert, which means I get my energy from being alone. I hate small talk and large groups. I'd rather think than speak, and write rather than talk. I rarely answer the phone. I'm INFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, and many authors fit a similar model. This also means that conferences and events are tiring, so I can't do too many of them a year. If you're like me, then we're super lucky these days, because online marketing suits introverts. We can attract an audience online and connect with readers, while still spending time alone.

In contrast, extroverts get their energy from people, so live events are fun and energizing for them and may be a much better way to market and connect than it is for introverts.

Ebook vs. print

I recommend you have both available, but different forms of marketing suit the different formats. This relates to online and offline above because print books often sell very well at live events and speakers can do well with ‘back-of-the-room' sales. Non-fiction also sells better in print and I certainly find that December sales of print are always better because of the gift season.

Ebook-specific marketing includes free promotions, which can't be done with print books because there is always a cost of production and shipping. So you can give away thousands of free books, and it won't cost you anything, whereas most authors put a cap on the number of print books they give away.

Fiction vs. non-fiction

My non-fiction marketing as Joanna Penn is different to how I market my fiction as J.F.Penn. For non-fiction, I have a blog and a podcast. I curate information on social media and I do live speaking events. For J.F.Penn, I concentrate on writing a series in a popular genre, using a perma-free first in series, utilizing paid ads and price promotions, boxsets and networking with other authors in the genre. For both, I concentrate on building an email list of readers, but they are quite different in the focus of marketing activities.

Your own name vs. a pseudonym

If you are writing books under a version of your name, as I do for Joanna Penn and J.F.Penn, then you can use your own face, your photos and details about your life in your marketing. You can do videos and audio and PR and generally be more open. Platform-building is easy and sustainable over time.

If you're writing books under a pseudonym that you want to keep secret or separate from your name, as I do for the sweet romance, then platform-building is difficult. If you don't want to use your face or your photos or your voice, then you're more likely to focus on writing a series, price promotions and paid ads.

Data focused vs. people focused

Marketing is diverging into two poles: the kind that uses data analytics to drive decision-making and advertising, and the kind that focuses on attracting like-minded people.

Data focused marketing includes tools that dig down into the Amazon sub-categories, looking for under-served niches and focusing on algorithm changes, as well as spreadsheets for keyword focus, return-on-investment (ROI) and tweaking website SEO to reach more readers.

People focused marketing includes speaking, collaboration, writing articles, podcasting, making videos or using images to attract like-minded people and then developing a relationship with them over time.

There is room for both, but they suit different people, and you may find one more attractive than the other.

Push marketing vs. pull marketing

Push marketing is also known as interruption marketing, things like paid advertising that push your work in front of people. Pull marketing is about attraction and permission, drawing people to you by providing useful, entertaining or inspiring content and developing a relationship that makes them want to buy from you over time.

So, these are some of the polarities that you will navigate through your book marketing journey over time. Think of them all as sliding scales that you move up and down along the way, focusing on different aspects over time. Remember, there is no magic bullet when it comes to marketing, only what is the right thing for you and your book over time.

This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.

Where do you sit on these sliding scales for each book? How can you use the various options to help focus your author marketing? Please do join the conversation and leave a comment below. 

My marketing advice comes from my own experience of selling books under multiple pen names, but it is only anecdotal and what works for me might not work for you.

The best advice comes from the organizations that work with multiple authors and have thousands of books going through their platform a month, collecting data points along the way.

For book marketing through email blasts, BookBub is still the heavy-hitter, but I also recommend FreeBooksy, BargainBooksy, Red Feather Romance, and NewInBooks. They have options for wherever you are on your author journey, it's more affordable than BookBub and you are more likely to be accepted.

In today's article, Ricci Wolman from Written Word Media, the company behind Freebooksy, BargainBooksy and more, shares the main reasons why your book promotion might be struggling. You can listen to an interview with Ricci on book marketing tips for fiction and non-fiction here.

1. You recently promoted the same title to the same audience.

The first time you run a promotion with a book promotion service, your book is seen by thousands of readers for the first time. The majority of those readers who are interested in your book will download or purchase your book.

This means that the first time that you promote a book with a book promotion service will likely be your most successful promotion with that service. If you plan on promoting on the same service multiple times, it makes sense to wait at least 30 days, if not longer, between promotions.

This gives the book promotion service time to acquire new readers, who have not already seen or downloaded your book, which will increase your odds of having a successful promotion. You may want to as the book promotion services how many new subscribers it adds to its list every month to get a sense of how long it takes the service to replenish their pool of readers.

2. Your cover looks unprofessional

Humans are visual beings. Our eyes are drawn to images before they are drawn to text. This means that your cover (not your title or book description) is what will initially prompt readers to click on your book.

Effective book promotion services reach most of their readers through email. Readers scroll down an email filled with books and will make a decision on whether or not to click on your book based almost entirely on your cover. Make sure your cover is simple, engaging, and legible for best results.

3. Your back matter is missing critical calls to action

The benefits of running a book promotion are four-fold:

1. getting downloads of the promoted title;
2. spurring sales of other titles in your catalog (halo sales);
3. growing the audience you “own” by adding them to your email list; and,
4. educating the retail’s algorithms on who is most likely to read your book.

The best way to garner benefits 2 and 3 is to ASK readers to take those actions in the back matter of your book. This will increase your returns during every book promotion.

Readers who reach the end of your book are the readers who are most likely to want to stay involved with you and your work. Be sure to include links to your other titles in order to spur halo sales and include a signup link for your mailing list in order to build your following.

4. Your price is too high

Most readers subscribed to book promotion services expect a deal. If you’re looking to get your book into the hands of the highest volume of readers, then make your book at Free or price it at $0.99.

Generally, any price point under $2.99 is considered a deal but the lower you go, the more downloads you will receive. Pricing your book above $2.99 will likely result in disappointing results.

5. You don’t have any reviews

We know it’s hard to get reviews, and some book promotion services (like ours) will promote books with no reviews. However, your results will be better if you have reviews.

Reviews act as a baseline mark of quality for readers, and books that have reviews will see better results from their book promotion.

6. You are promoting to the wrong type of reader

Many readers have specific genres that they are interested in reading. If you are promoting your book to a reader audience that isn’t interested in your type of story, then you won’t see many sales from the promotion.

Many books are written in such a way that they fall solidly within one genre (a pure, international thriller, for example) but often authors write across genres in order to be able to include different story elements. In these cases, it pays off to test targeting multiple types of readers in order to see which audience responds the most enthusiastically to your book.

If you are unsure we recommend emailing the book promotion service with a link to your book and asking them which genre is most fitting for your book.

7. You rely on a single book promotion to drive sales

Running a book promotion with a service is a great way to kick-start sales and start building your audience. However, a book promotion tends to have a short shelf-life. You’ll see a spike in sales within the first 24 – 48 hours, followed by a tail of sales in the weeks following.

The best way to amplify a book promotion is to stack promotions with various services AND to engage your audience at the same time that the promotion is running.

When running a promotion, you should always email your email list and post to social media. Sales from multiple sources add up and can help you climb the charts faster. Putting concerted effort behind your promotion will make the difference between average and above-average results from your book promotion.

Will these tips help you avoid making a mistake with your next book promotion? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Ricci Wolman is founder of Written Word Media, the parent company of book promotion sites Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, Red Feather Romance and NewInBooks.

You can listen to an interview with Ricci on book marketing tips for fiction and non-fiction here.

Do you want to sell more books and reach more readers?

Do you want to discover how to build an author career for the long-term as well as spike your book sales right now?

How to Market a Book Third Edition is out today in ebook, print and audio formats. (Coming soon on Audible.)

The last edition was released in 2014 so a lot has changed. There are new chapters on specifically marketing audiobooks and print books, as well as a section on mindset and the polarities of marketing, which will help you understand why marketing can be so different per author and per book.

I've also updated the sections on short-term marketing and author platform building, plus included details of my own book launch and marketing experiences. I now write under 3 pen-names and treat each one quite differently, so whatever genre you write, you'll find something of use in the book 🙂 Here's the blurb, table of contents and some review quotes from early readers.

If you don’t know much about marketing, don’t worry. We all start with nothing.

I’m Joanna Penn and back in 2008, I had no book sales, no audience, no website, no social media, no podcast, no email list. No nothing.

Now I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and non-fiction. My books have sold over 500,000 copies in 83 countries, and I’m an award-winning creative entrepreneur and international speaker, making a multi-six-figure income with my writing.

Learning how to market my books and my personal brand changed my life. Yes, you need to write an awesome book, but you also need to know how to get it in front of the right readers.

How to Market a Book is for authors who want to sell more books, but it's also for those writers who want to think like an entrepreneur and build a long-term income. It's for traditionally published authors who want to take control of their future, and for self-published authors who want to jump-start a career.

Buy now in ebook, print or audiobook format!

There are short-term tactics for those who want to boost immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer.

It's also about going beyond just the book because these methods can take you from being an author into making money from other products, professional speaking, and creating opportunities that you can't even imagine yet.

In this completely updated Third Edition, you’ll discover:

• Part 1: Marketing Principles
  Book marketing myths, how discoverability works, and the polarities of marketing that will determine what you choose to implement
• Part 2: Your Book Fundamentals
  Prerequisites for success, how to optimise your book for online sales, categories and keywords, exclusivity, pricing and use of free, box-sets and bundling, and writing series
• Part 3: No Platform Needed. Short-term Marketing
  How to get customer reviews and find book bloggers, paid advertising with email blasts, paid advertising with Facebook, Amazon Ads and ad stacking, algorithm hacking, big data, and production speed
• Part 4: Your Author Platform. Long-term Marketing
  Building an author brand, author website, list-building and email marketing, content marketing, blogging, audio and podcasting, video and book trailers, social networking, professional speaking, marketing audiobooks, PR and publicity, TV, radio and traditional media
• Part 5: Launching Your Book
  Why launching is different for indie authors, soft launch, launch spikes, post launch, how to relaunch backlist books. Includes an example book marketing strategy and launch plan checklist.

Reviews

“There are a lot of book marketing ‘experts' out there, most of whom have never actually done the things they're pretending to be experts about. Joanna Penn really has made her mark in indie publishing and How to Market a Book is worth reading for anyone looking to do the same.” – Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts

“Joanna is not just a go-to-expert for writers, she's a go-to-expert for the experts like myself. She's been working continuously as an author and entrepreneur for more than a decade, and has connections and conversations with people across the publishing industry that put her insights and advice into a class of their own.” – Jane Friedman, Author, Publishing Consultant, Speaker. www.JaneFriedman.com

“I read the first edition of How To Market A Book shortly after it was published in 2014. Until then marketing was a dark, terrifying frontier. This book changed the way I approached marketing because it removed the fear of getting started. The 2017 edition is more of the same, but updated to match the new indie landscape. The chapter on Sampling is worth pressing that buy button all by itself, but there are plenty of other great nuggets too.

One of the most important is author branding, something Joanna Penn has mastered. How do we know that? If you’re a fan of the podcast you will literally hear this book in Joanna’s voice as your read it. Now that’s branding.” – Chris Fox, bestselling author of Write to Market and Six Figure Author

“There are thousands of books about how to sell books but this is one of the few written by someone who walks the talk. A bestselling author herself, who has shared every step of her publishing journey with empathy and generosity, Penn is an inspiration to multitudes of writers. Whether you're an indie, trade published or hybrid author, whether you are just starting out or have already sold widely, whether you love marketing or hate it, you will learn from this book.” – Orna Ross, Author and Director, Alliance of Independent Authors

“Joanna Penn’s wonderful podcast was a major influence on me when I was a struggling author, trying to work out how to get readers to discover my first self-published books. Her non-fiction, too, has been a life-saver, and this revised edition of How to Market a Book is filled with her hallmarks: a thorough approach, comprehensive scope and a delivery that is patient and easy to read in a way that is 100% “Joanna.”

I commend it to new authors, but also to experienced veterans who would benefit from a review of their marketing to ensure that they are up to date with the most current thinking.”- Mark Dawson, bestselling thriller author and creator of the Advertising for Authors course and the Self-Publishing Formula podcast

“Joanna Penn's How to Market a Book is a solid reference guide for beginners and experienced authors alike. The book provides straightforward, actionable advice you can use from day one. This book is a must-have in any author's library.” ~Honoree Corder, author of The Prosperous Writer book series & You Must Write a Book

“The Third Edition of Joanna Penn's How to Marketing a Book does not disappoint! Book marketing changes fast, and with this updated content Joanna solidifies this book's place as one of the must-read books on every author's bookshelf.” – Jim Kukral, www.BusinessAroundABook.com and the Sell More Books Show podcast

“Joanna Penn has an intuitive understanding of how marketing works and how that pertains to the unique challenge of reaching readers and selling books. Her advice is always practical, actionable, and – most importantly of all – effective.” – David Gaughran, author of Let's Get Digital and Let's Get Visible

“In ‘How To Market A Book', Joanna answers the question every author is asking: ‘how do I sell more books?' She teaches exactly what's working now – based on her experience publishing both non-fiction and fiction books. No “hype” or “fluff” here. Great read!” Chandler Bolt, author of Book Launch and founder of Self-Publishing School

“Joanna Penn’s How to Market a Book is the most up to date, personable guide to modern book marketing I know. Packed with tips from the charming and well-informed Penn, it’s an essential guide for indie authors who want to keep up with the ever-shifting world of book marketing.” – Joel Friedlander, author and founder of TheBookDesigner.com

“Puzzled by marketing? Save years of research and trial and error with Penn's spot-on modern classic.” Bryan Cohen, author of How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis and co-host of the Sell More Books Show podcast

“Right now, self-publishing is a wide open opportunity for writers. But it's a confusing and increasingly competitive field. Joanna Penn is one of the guides I rely on to help me navigate the maze, make better marketing decisions, and sell more books. If you read this book, she'll do the same for you.” – Mark McGuinness, Poet, Coach and author of Productivity for Creative People and Resilience: Facing Down Rejection and Criticism on the Road to Success

Buy now in ebook, print or audiobook format!

Buy audiobook direct from the author$9.99

Buy ebook direct from the author$7.99

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