The most successful indie authors have marketing plans for their books or series. Generally, when you are launching a book or promoting a book, you want to have a plan in place 4-6 weeks in advance.
Part of the plan is figuring out which sites you can use to promote your book. Self Publishing Review has a list of free book marketing sites. Indies Unlimited also recommends BookDoggy, which lists indie books and gets a lot of clicks. Reedsy also has a tool that allows you to search their database for book promotion sites.
If you have a new book coming out, you may want to take advantage of pre-orders. Pop Editing has an article about the benefits of pre-orders, which includes getting more buzz and getting more ratings and reviews.
It also helps to have a credible book foreword, according to KunzOnPublishing. Make sure to ask someone who is an established expert with objective characteristics such as books they’ve written and subjective characteristics such as they’re likeability.
And don’t forget the book blurb. Digital Book World has a fill-in-the-blank formula that can help you get started. It’s not meant to be the final book blurb, but it is a solid start!
For more ideas on how to market your book and your brand, see Smart Authors Lab’s “What bestselling authors can teach you about marketing self-published books.” Ideas include being a guest on podcasts, building an email list, and more.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2017.
