If you’re the author of a new fiction book, you’ve got a lot to figure out: what the plot is going to be, how to describe your characters and setting in a way that makes them come alive for readers, and how you will find an agent or publisher.
But wait – that’s not all! Once you’ve written your book, there’s still one big question: How do I get it in front of people who might enjoy reading it?
Marketing a novel can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to make sure your novel has the best chance of finding an eager audience.
6 Tips on Successfully Promoting Your Fiction Books
Create a Marketing Plan
Before you can start marketing your book, you need a plan outlining exactly what you will do and when you will do it.
What types of content will you create? How often? Who will create it? Where will it be published (i.e., on your website or on a third-party site)? What’s your goal with each piece of content (i.e., driving more traffic to your website)?
These are all questions that need to be answered before you get started. With these details, you can outline a strong marketing plan that includes the platforms you’re planning to target, the type of content you’ll create, the frequency and outreach ideas.
Be Social Media Savvy
Social media is one of the best ways to reach your audience directly, so make sure you have profiles set up and ready to go on all social networks that fit your target demographic (typically Facebook and Twitter). Make sure each profile links back to either your website or Amazon page and start promoting your books relentlessly.
Don’t just share the same old posts and your buy links on social media. Share something different and unique that sparks an interest — something about the characters in your fiction, a relatable trait, a few mysterious lines and anything else that your readers will enjoy and want to know more about.
Get the Marketing Started Before You Publish
While it’s true that you can start marketing your book at any stage during or after the publication process, there really is no substitute for getting started early. You don’t necessarily have to market your content as such — just get people interested in what you have to say and let them know that it will be coming out soon.
This is such a powerful strategy that many successful authors have used in the past to create hype around their books. You’ll also climb high on Amazon’s Bestselling list if your book sales in an initial couple of days after the launch are off the roof.
You can promote your new book launch on social media, even open up the pre-launch sales and provide discounts and giveaways for the first few readers for a great start.
Have a Dedicated Page for Your Book
These days, self-publishing isn’t just about writing and selling books. It’s about building a brand online that can help direct readers towards your content. And one big part of this involves having a dedicated page for your book that has all of the information any reader needs to know to buy your book.
You can create such a page on your personal website or use one like the Book Page on AllAuthor to get started. Through the AllAuthor’s book page, you can include every single detail about your book, including:
- Your book cover
- Book excerpt
- Book categories
- Links to the author’s social media pages
- Direct buy link to Amazon as well as other online retailers
- Direct link to read a sample of the book
- Publishing date and a lot more.
Share an Excerpt Online
One of the new things you can try is to share a tidbit from the book. It can be in the form of an excerpt or even a chapter of the book.
How to share the excerpt, you ask? Well, that’s where the critical part comes in. Don’t just stick your excerpt on your blog and hope people will read it. You want to spread it around as much as possible to see it by as many people as possible. So you can make use of social media platforms to publish a short, crisp and intriguing part of your fiction — something that’ll drum up the readers’ interest and make them curious.
You can end this excerpt with a direct buy link to your Amazon page to lead to some direct book sales.
Use Free eBook Promotion Sites
There are so many free ebook promotion sites available that you could use a different one every day for a year and still not run out of options. Most of these sites don’t charge anything for promoting your book and they often have huge user bases that can help put your ebook in front of thousands of potential readers.
At AllAuthor, we have a separate ebook directory to promote your free ebooks and those under high discounts. If you’re planning to run any deals or discounts during the launch of your book (or any time afterwards), you can include them in our directory. We also feature this section on our AllAuthor reader’s app for Android.
Wrapping Up
Writing fiction is a huge accomplishment and, with the right promotion, can be the first step towards becoming a successful author. With these tips, you can successfully promote your new fiction books online and garner huge interest and sales.
