If you are thinking about self-publishing your first book, you will be competing with hundreds of books on the same topic. To make sure that your first eBook doesn’t flop, you have to create a detailed marketing plan and promote it using traditional and new media.
Even if you are not a marketing person, you have to promote your book. Following are seven eBook marketing strategies for first-time authors.
Choose the Right Platform
The first thing you need to do is find the right platform to sell your eBook on. Whether you use Kindle, Lulu or Smashwords, you have to choose the site that attracts your target market. It also needs to have mechanisms in place to easily collect money from customers and deposit earnings into your bank account.
Send Review Copies
To create instant awareness of your upcoming publication, approach authority figures in your industry, and ask if you could send them a review copy. In addition to building a relationship, you can get them to talk about the book or give you a testimonial to publish on your website.
Sending review copies is also a good way to recruit industry authority figures as affiliates.
Recruit Affiliates
If you don’t want to do all the marketing by yourself, try recruiting other people – also known as affiliates – to promote your eBook for a commission. Affiliate networks, such as ClickBank or JVZoo, manage these programs.
Promote on Social Media
Social media provides endless Book promotion opportunities for authors. There are several ways to create a buzz around your eBook using these tools.
You can set up a giveaway or competition on your social networks; offer free copies in return for reviews; create an email campaign; or give them discount codes. Make sure you don’t make the common eBook promotion mistake of giving away free copies without getting something in return.
Team Up with Bloggers
People tend to underestimate the power, reach and influence of bloggers. Do not be one of those people.
One way you can team up with bloggers is to write a guest post to market your book. Contact bloggers who cover the same subject as your book topic and ask them to give you an honest review. You could offer a one-off payment or a commission with an affiliate link as an incentive.
Build Links
It is important to build relevant links to your eBook sales page, your website and your reviews. Ideally, these links would be relevant and organic. You can try guest blogging or reciprocal linking.
Avoid bulk link building services that can damage your site’s reputation and get your pages banned from popular search engines.
Use Your Blog and Videos
If you have a blog, build an email list or get people who are already on for your list to purchase your book. Encourage them to visit your eBook page and read the reviews.
However, to really capture the attention of your audience, you might want to create a video where you talk about the benefits of your book, and why it will help them solve a problem they’re having.
Place your links in the description box of your videos featured on popular content sharing sites, so you are building traffic and popularity at the same time.
Above are seven eBook marketing tips for first-timer authors, as well as veteran book publishers.
What About You?
What are some marketing strategies you’ve used to market your eBook?