Author Resources

You’ve written your ebook, but how do you get it in front of readers? With the growing competition in the ebook market, having a solid marketing strategy is essential to stand out.

This guide will walk you through key ebook marketing strategies that can help you boost visibility, build an audience, and drive sales.

1. Build an Author Website

Your author website is your home base online. It’s where readers can learn about you, explore your books, and sign up for your mailing list.

• Create a Blog: Share updates, writing tips, and behind-the-scenes content to engage readers.
• Offer Free Content: Attract visitors by offering a free chapter or a short story in exchange for their email address.
• Include Buy Links: Make sure there are clear links to purchase your books from major platforms like Amazon, Apple Books, and Kobo.

2. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for building your author brand and promoting your ebook. Engage with readers on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

• Share Updates: Post updates about your writing process, book launches, and promotions to keep followers engaged.
• Use Hashtags: Use relevant hashtags to reach a wider audience. For example, #BookRecommendations or #EbookDeals.
• Run Giveaways: Engage readers by hosting ebook giveaways. This can boost visibility and increase your follower count.

3. Build an Email List

An email list is one of the most effective ways to stay connected with your readers. By regularly emailing your list, you can build relationships and drive sales.

• Send Regular Updates: Keep your readers informed about upcoming books, special offers, and free promotions.
• Exclusive Content: Reward your email subscribers with exclusive content, like early access to new chapters or bonus material.
• Promote Special Deals: Use your email list to promote discounts, sales, and other limited-time offers.

4. Optimize Your Book’s Metadata

Your ebook’s metadata (title, subtitle, keywords, and description) plays a crucial role in making your book discoverable. Optimizing these elements can help attract readers.

• Choose Keywords Carefully: Research keywords that potential readers might use to search for books in your genre.
• Write a Compelling Description: Your book description should be clear, concise, and engaging, highlighting key plot points and themes.

5. Utilize Book Promotion Services

Several websites and services specialize in promoting free and discounted ebooks. These platforms help you reach more readers during promotional periods.

• BookBub: One of the most popular ebook promotion services, BookBub can help you reach a massive audience during sales or free book promotions.
• Bargain Booksy: A service dedicated to promoting discounted ebooks across various genres.
• Freebooksy: Ideal for promoting free ebooks to a wide range of readers.

6. Run Paid Ads

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising can help drive sales and boost your book’s visibility on platforms like Amazon and Facebook.

• Amazon Ads: These allow you to target specific keywords, which helps your ebook appear in relevant search results.
• Facebook Ads: Target readers based on interests, demographics, and behavior. This can be highly effective when promoting ebooks within specific genres.

7. Network with Other Authors

Connecting with other authors can open doors for cross-promotion and collaborations. Consider participating in group promotions or bundle deals with authors in similar genres.

• Join Online Communities: Platforms like Goodreads and Facebook author groups are great places to network and find collaboration opportunities.
• Author Interviews: Share your experiences and insights by participating in author interviews. This can help you reach new audiences.

8. Create a Launch Plan

A successful ebook launch requires planning. Start marketing your book well in advance and build anticipation through teasers, cover reveals, and sneak peeks.

• Pre-Orders: Setting up pre-orders can generate excitement and give you early sales data.
• Book Launch Events: Host a virtual book launch or participate in a blog tour to gain exposure.

Final Thoughts

Marketing your ebook doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By leveraging social media, optimizing your metadata, and utilizing email marketing and promotion services, you can boost visibility and increase sales. Start by focusing on a few strategies that align with your goals and scale from there.

Share this post: If you found these ebook marketing strategies helpful, share it with fellow authors!

It has been tough on all of us but we believe nothing can stop you. Every day we see our talented community writing and keeping the hustle going. We have become closer and much better at finding good in the world.

We had some positives during the course of the year. I think for 2021 we should focus on the positives as we have a fresh start. Yes it is only a date but it is a good date to start over. Maybe start over isn’t the right word, maybe it should be refocus.

2020 Challenges

2020 was certainly filled with many challenges none of us were prepared for. We had to change our focus on what is important to us. For most that meant keeping the family safe.

With the lockdown we had time to put our heads down and focus on some things that we have been meaning to do. It is amazing how much you can get done. Our team really did a lot of behind the scenes work.

We contacted almost every author that has filled out an author interview with us on all our sites and asked what they needed help with. For most just providing an outlet to discuss what they were going through helped a lot. Heck, it helped us too. The Awesomegang family is just awesome, more than we ever knew.

We started a few new sites during the year and put more focus on sites we started before this all broke out. We have been asked to start a fantasy site for years now. Awesomefantasybooks.com has been fun making, a lot of fantasy authors are taking advantage of having a niche site all to themselves. The growth has been well just awesome! (Sorry for the pun, not really)

Soon Sci-fi authors will have a site all to themselves too. We are probably a month or so away from allowing submissions. We are in building traffic mode there. You may have seen our Facebook ads. I will let you know when it is ready for prime time.

Speaking of niche sites 2020 was really the year that our romance site took off. Toplesscowboy.com provided a lot of love and happiness to readers during these tough times. People needed an escape and many are finding them in romance novels.

The only site that has been down a little for us is Awesomeaudiobook.com That was just a product of less people listening to audiobooks in their car on their way to work. All the audiobook sites are suffering right now. It is also a tough nut to crack since putting audiobooks on discount is tough with codes and such. Personally I am finding myself buying the ebook and the audiobook a lot more. I am a business book junkie and when they say the graphics are in the book I need to see them.

I think 2020 was a year that people rediscovered how much they loved reading books. I know for me I turned off the tv news more often and opened a book. I found myself reading things in other genres I would never read.

2021 Goals

In 2021 we are focusing more on helping educate authors more about promoting their books. This past year we have been getting some great guest post from people that know book marketing. You can see them on Awesomebookpromotion Resources Page.

You will see a lot more of this in 2021. I have over 20 years of internet marketing experience and I need to share more of what I know with everyone. Of course I am only an email away or you can come ask in our Awesomegang Facebook Group.

We are also planning on more helpful videos and I heard a rumor we may have a podcast also. 🙂

You will be seeing some new faces as we are expanding. Liz, Jenny, and Joan each needed help during the year. We are bringing in 2 more people to work behind the scenes. You will be seeing Caitlin and Camisa on the sites.

Every one of our sites got new servers and they expanded. The growth of Pretty-Hot.com and BookReaderMagazine.com had us double the servers twice in 2020. They are now each on their own robust server.

When the pandemic first started we had a huge influx of new readers to DiscountBookMan.com. People stuck at home without a paycheck were looking for entertainment and being frugal about finding it. We were happy to help fill their need. Of course this meant updating that server to a level I couldn’t imagine.

Let’s make 2021 the best year yet and thanks for being awesome!

Vinny

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers” – Tony Robbins. 

Successful book marketing isn’t just about the things we do. It’s also about the questions we ask.

When you take the time to focus and reflect on your aims and objectives for marketing your book, you stand a much better chance of experiencing the results you want. 

It’s easy to jump straight into the process of marketing after you finish writing. Understandably, you want to keep your momentum going. 

However, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect and pause before starting. These six questions will help guide you. 

What are my aims for this campaign?

At first glance, the objectives of a fiction marketing campaign might seem obvious – to sell more books.

And while that is probably the ultimate aim for most indie authors, there might be more immediate goals that are necessary stepping stones along the way.

For example, imagine you are a new author just starting in the indie author world. At this stage of your career, you might be more interested in getting reviews or free downloads rather than sales.

The takeaway is that you need to think clearly about your objectives at the very earliest stages of a marketing campaign. What makes sense for another author might not make sense for you.

It’s fine to pursue sales if that’s the most important thing for the stage of your author career you’re at, but there are plenty of other worthwhile objectives, such as building awareness of your work, growing your followers, or getting feedback on your fiction.

Which niche readers do I want to reach?

A smash hit mainstream novel might be your eventual aim, but most indie authors start by writing for a far more targeted, niche readership.

This freedom to write for the specific group of readers that mean the most to you is one of the best things about independent rather than traditional publishing.

You don’t have to try and reach everyone. Instead, you can write and market to the readers you authentically want to serve.

But who will they be?

Try and think beyond genre. There are so many niche genres that you can drill down and find a very specific target market. You can then use this information to focus your marketing efforts on trying to reach only the carefully defined group of readers that will love your book the most.

How will I choose between DIY and done for you?

After you’ve determined your marketing objectives and the specific readers you want to reach, it’s time to think about the activities your campaign will be based around.

For almost any element of fiction marketing, you have two broad choices – do it yourself, or have it done for you.

But how do you make that choice?

Sometimes, you don’t have the luxury of choosing. If your budget is limited or non-existent, you should focus entirely on free and DIY options.

However, if you have the option of investing in paid marketing, you should weigh up the pros and cons.

DIY marketing has the advantages of being entirely under your control, it doesn’t require financial outlay, and you gain valuable skills and experience for your future projects. It also has the drawbacks of being time-consuming and requiring a learning curve.

Paid marketing services have the benefit of being convenient and requiring less of your time and effort. However, on the downside, you are required to invest money and you lose the direct control you have if you opt for DIY.

Think carefully about what mix of DIY and done-for-you makes the most sense for your situation. 

What is my marketing timeline?

The next thing to think about after figuring out your mix of DIY and done-for-you marketing activities is how to schedule them.

If you’re new to fiction marketing, this might be challenging!

As a general rule, try and allow more time than you think things will take. This builds in a buffer to account for any delays. 

It’s also important to consider if certain activities need to occur before others. For example, imagine that you want to run a campaign to get reviews for your book, and you also want to promote it on a particular fiction promotion site. However, the fiction promotion site requires you to have a certain review score for your book before it can be promoted.

In the situation described above, you would need to make sure that you allocated sufficient time to your review campaign to get the right number of reviews before you started the process of being accepted by the promotion site. You would ideally leave a short space of time between the two so that any delays were accounted for. 

As you become more experienced at running fiction marketing campaigns, you will get a better feel for how long different activities take, and can run a tighter schedule accordingly. 

However, at the start, leave yourself plenty of space so that things are carried out properly and not rushed due to unrealistic time constraints. 

Which marketing tools will I use?

As you will probably be quite hands-on with certain parts of your fiction marketing, particularly at the start of your indie author career, you should find as many ways as possible to lighten your load and work more efficiently. 

Thankfully, marketing tools can make your job a lot easier and less stressful.

There is a tool available for almost any marketing activity you can imagine. If you’re not sure what these are and how they would help, consider the following examples:

• Email. If email is an important part of your fiction marketing plan, you should make sure it doesn’t become a drain on your time and energy. Using a free service like Gmail allows you to batch schedule emails to send in the future. This allows you to write and schedule them all in one focused period of time, rather than having to log in, compose, and send at every stage of your campaign.
• Social media. Social media can be a free and effective way of promoting your fiction projects. However, will all the different social platforms and their many notifications, it can soon become overwhelming. Consider using a tool like Hootsuite to manage content and replies across multiple social networks in the most efficient way possible. 
• Project planning. Even after you’ve determined your ideal marketing timeline, and the sequence of activities that makes the most sense, it’s essential to keep track of your campaign and its many elements. A free tool like Trello is an easy and efficient way to keep everything under control and on schedule. 

Don’t become too obsessed with choosing marketing tools. Simply find a few which make your marketing faster and more efficient, and if possible, make sure they are compatible with your writing software.

What lessons am I hoping to learn?

As well as the tangible benefits of a fiction marketing campaign, such as more sales of your book or reviews, there are also intangible benefits, namely invaluable knowledge and experience you can use to move forward in your author career. 

But if you want to make the most of the lessons your marketing campaign can teach you, it’s essential to approach this intentionally. 

This requires looking forward ahead of the campaign and reflecting on it after it’s over.

Consider these three questions ahead of your campaign:

1. What am I trying in this campaign that is new or different?
2. How will I know that this marketing campaign has been a success?
3. If I don’t achieve my objectives, what learning points can I take forward to ensure my energy wasn’t wasted?

In terms of reflection, use these three questions as a starting point after your campaign is over:

1. What parts of the campaign went according to plan? What are the reasons they succeeded?
2. What did not go as I expected? What are the reasons for this?
3. Knowing the results I have got, what would I do more of when marketing my next book, and what would I scale back? Why?

Ultimately, there is no substitute for learning through experience when it comes to marketing fiction.

However, if you use the six questions here to guide you, you stand a better chance of gaining useful experience that serves you far into the future.

About The Author
Chandler Bolt is the host of the Self Publishing School podcast & the author of 6 bestselling books including his most recent book titled “Published.”. He’s also the founder & CEO of Self-Publishing School, the #1 online resource for writing your first book. Self Publishing School made the INC 5000 in 2018 (#2,699) as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the US. Through his books, podcast, training videos, and Self-Publishing School, he’s helped thousands of people on their journey to writing their first book.

As authors, we often find the actual process of writing our book easier than figuring out its marketing plan.

Don’t get me wrong. Writing a book is no easy task, and there are a lot of steps required to make it happen. But as writers, and not just any writers but those who actually managed to make our book writing dream a reality, we know we have skills in this area. As for marketing? We often don’t need where to start.

This can be a real problem for authors. While the rise of self-publishing has allowed for more fresh voices to be heard than ever before, its also created an unprecedented level of choice for readers. To stand out from the crowd, you need to market your book effectively.

Thankfully, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. There are a range of tried and tested methods which enable you to get your book into the hands of the right readers. Even better, many of them are free or low cost.

Let’s check them out!

Utilize Your Author Network

One of the many great things about being a modern author is the ease with which you can connect with your fellow writers.

Whether through social media groups devoted to writers, or by joining a specialist online course for authors of your type, there are more ways than ever to find like minded writers to lean on for mutual support and advice.

As well as being a vital support network during the stressful process of writing your book, and a source of information about the ever changing world of publishing, your author network can be a great promotional tool around the time of your book launch.

Here are some effective ways to call upon your author network to help you promote your book:

• Social media. Hopefully, some of the authors in your network have respectable social media followings, on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. There’s no harm in asking them to share your book with their followers, provided it’s a genuinely good fit for their interests. Just be sure to return the favor when you are in a position to!
• Author blogs. Do any of the authors in your network have their own blog? If so, you can ask to guest post for them. Make sure to provide a genuinely useful guest post, which will be of use to the readers. Then, you can mention and include a link to your book in the guest post author bio.
• Mailing lists. Have any of the authors in your network built their own mailing list? Author mailing lists are a great way to get the word out about your book. See if any of the authors are willing to mention your book the next time they reach out to their list.

Promoting your book might seem like a daunting task at first, as it feels like you have to start from scratch. However, by utilizing your author network, you already have some effective promotional tools at your disposal.

Use Book Promotion Sites

Book promotion sites are often one of the most effective ways to promote a new book.

The best promotion sites have a dedicated following, and know when and how to get the word out about a new book for maximum effect.

There are a mixture of free and paid promotion sites out there, and you can consider using both. So what are some things to keep in mind when using book promotion sites?

• Suitability. There are a wide range of different promotion sites out there, some for specialist genres. Make sure that the promotion site you are choosing has a following that enjoys the type of book you are promoting.
• Numbers. With book promotion sites, a large part of their success comes down to the numbers of people that follow them. By comparing the numbers of different book promotion services, you can choose the one which is likely to turn out best.
• Reputation. Not all book promoters are equal. Be sure to choose those which have a good reputation in the author world.

Think of book promotion sites as a shortcut for getting your book noticed by the largest number of people possible. The free ones are often effective, and when carefully chosen, the paid ones will more than pay for themselves.

Harness The Power Of Offline Promotion

An often overlooked aspect of promoting books in the modern context is the power of offline promotion.

Naturally, as authors focused on the modern world of book publishing, our thoughts first turn to online methods. However, there are a whole host of effective offline promotional methods. The best thing of all? Many of your fellow authors will overlook these, meaning its often easier to get results than it is online.

So what are some of the ways you can promote your book in the offline world?

• Local bookstores. If you’re lucky enough to still have one, your local bookstore is a great place to promote your book. These places are often eager to support local talent, and will be more than happy to host you for a reading or a signing. This is a great way to build a presence in your local community of readers.
• Book festivals. People are increasingly turning to specialist festivals as a form of entertainment, and there are plenty that cater to readers. If you can find a festival dedicated to your genre, enquire about the cost of attending. You might find it to be a great way to make a real connection with the most passionate fans in your genre.
• Libraries. Often, libraries are incredibly busy places, and do a lot more than just loan books. Find out if your library hosts any events for authors. You might find this is a great way to connect with local readers, and it can be a good way to build your local offline network.

By combining offline and online promotional methods, you give your book the best chance of success. Leave no stone unturned in your mission to get your book into the hands of the right readers.

Affordable Book Promotion – Final Thoughts 

Hopefully by now you see that promoting your book effectively doesn’t have to cost a whole lot. You can draw upon the relationships you’ve already built, harness tried and tested promotional services, and reach out to eager readers in your local community.

Be sure to approach learning to promote your book in the same way you would anything else. It takes time to become effective, and you are bound to make mistakes on the way. Just learn from them, and over time you will develop a solid sense of how to effectively promote your book.

We wish you the best of luck with your next book promotion, and hope you make the methods in this article work for you.  

 

Today’s post is courtesy of our friend Dave Chesson. Dave is the guy behind Kindlepreneur.com, one of the largest book marketing websites, and KDP Rocket, a software that helps authors get their books discovered on Amazon.  

Awesome Gang author interviews are a truly epic opportunity.

But do you know how to make the most of yours?

A large part of author marketing success is down to getting the most bang for your buck.

Say you write a blog post for your author website. Great job!

But why stop there? Why not create an enticing tweet, with a relevant hashtag, linking to your content? Maybe an aesthetically pleasing pin to attract the Pinterest crowd?

Author interviews are no different. There are a multitude of ways to maximize their benefits for you.

Read on to discover my tried and tested ways to experience the maximum possible reward from your Author Gang interview.

Let’s get to it!

Editorial Reviews

Every author knows the importance of reviews.

The way that readers react to your book can make or break its success.

If you’ve ever had a book launch met with a lack of reviews, or even negative comments, you know exactly how this goes.

As much as we might wish otherwise, reader reviews are outside of our direct control.

Editorial reviews, on the other hand, are not.

If you’re not currently using editorial reviews, check out this guide to Amazon Author Central to learn more.

How do editorial reviews benefit you as an author?

• Credibility.

More and more people are wising up to the fact that customer reviews aren’t always what they seem. Blackhat book marketers can manipulate them. Even when they are valid, the thoughts of some random Amazon customer aren’t always that impressive.

Editorial reviews, from a source as respected as Awesome Gang, are likely to have far more value in the eyes of a discerning customer.

• Permanence.

Online bookstores can, and do, delete customer reviews as they see fit.

By adding an editorial review, you protect yourself against this threat.

Don’t build your house on borrowed land. Practice permanence with an editorial review.

• Differentiation.

Often, a customer will face the choice between buying your book or another.

If the two books are similar in most other aspects, editorial reviews might be the deciding factor.

Picture it. You can choose between Book A or Book B. They both seem to cover similar topics to a comparable level of quality. They both have nice covers.

If they both have favorable reviews from customers, but only Book B has positive reviews from editorial sources, which do you choose?

It’s a no-brainer. Don’t miss out on editorial reviews.

Social Media

Social media can be a contentious topic among authors.

Most authors are aware that social can serve as a powerful, free book marketing channel with a potentially unparalleled reach.

Many authors also feel frustrated by the perceived inefficiency of social media promotion and the challenge of creating effective content for it.

HootSuite is an effective solution to the efficiency problem. Batch schedule your content for an upcoming time period, be a good neighbor by tagging @ourawesomegang, shorten your link, and you’re good to go.

But how can you repurpose your Awesome Gang author interview into effective social content?

• Facebook Groups.

Any Facebook group focused on books will respect Awesome Gang.

Your fellow authors will know Vinny’s earned reputation as one of the best in the business.

Readers will know that Awesome Gang deliver on their promise of sharing exciting, relevant new reads.

If you’ve had the good fortune of featuring on an Awesome Gang author interview, be sure to spread the word.

• Facebook Page.

Facebook groups aren’t the only avenue offered by Mr. Zuckerberg to share your Awesome Gang interview.

If you have a business type page for your author activities, posting a link to your interview will impress anyone casually scrolling through.

If you share it on your personal page, it shows your personal social circle that your author ambitions are really going somewhere.

• Twitter.

Aside from the Hootsuite and tagging advice offered above, there are a couple of ways you can make the most of sharing your author interview on Twitter.

Firstly, look for a relevant hashtag to include in your Tweet. Check out the recent tweets featuring the hashtag. You want the hashtag to be active, and used by the type of people you see as suitable readers of your work. You can also look at this list of best hashtags for authors.

Secondly, consider shouting out someone you admire during your author interview. Tag them in your promotional tweet. Best case scenario, they retweet you and you get exposure to their followers.

Even if you don’t get a retweet, you get to publicly respect someone valuable and hopefully get on their radar.

• Instagram/Pinterest.

Instagram and Pinterest are similar in the sense that visual content are their modus operandi.

You can use a free service like Canva to create an image quote from your Awesome Gang interview.

By posting these on Instagram or Pinterest, you enhance your reputation on those platforms, while also creating another permanent traffic source for your author interview. If you’re not sure about how to best use instagram for your book, check this out. If you aren’t familiar with using Pinterest, this one will help too.

As Seen On

Have you ever seen a graphic on an author website saying ‘As Seen On’ followed by the logos of various media organizations?

If you are interviewed on Awesome Gang, you have the honor of making them a part of your very own ‘As Seen On’ graphic.

How does this help you as an author?

• Social Proof.

Self-publishing has opened the door for a deluge of authors.

This has made a lot of readers sceptical due to the proliferation of pen names and personas.

By displaying a co-sign from someone as reputable as Awesome Gang, you instantly win trust in the eyes of a visitor.

• Competitive Advantage.

A lot of authors have a mental block when it comes to marketing.

Their identity and concept of self is limited entirely to ‘author’.

As a result, many authors don’t market at all, or don’t market to the extent where they are featured by trusted publications.

Even among the relatively small number of authors who are featured on brag-worthy blogs, an even smaller number then take the time to create an ‘As Seen On’ graphic.

Do this, and you instantly elevate yourself above the vast majority of your competition.

• Relationship Building.

In a world of single-serving friends, real relationships built on a foundation of win/win, mutually beneficial value are truly worth their weight in gold.

By featuring Awesome Gang on your ‘as seen on’ graphic, you show that you value the opportunity they gave you enough to give it permanent prominence on your own website.

Author Biography

Many author bios suffer from one of two fatal flaws:

1. They are drier than the Sahara, coming across as exhaustive resumes written by robots.
2. They are engagingly written but boringly bland, mentioning coffee, cats, and little else.

Writing an author bio should convey your charisma, but also your credibility.

Linking to your interview on Awesome Gang makes your bio certifiably credible.

Inside Your Book

Not everyone reads author marketing materials!

Plenty of readers will come across your book first. If your writing wins them over, they may want to learn more about you.

What’s the easiest way to make this possible?

Drop a link to your author interview inside your book. I favor this approach so much that I’ve even made it a key part of the front page of my Scrivener template!

So which key advantages are offered by this approach?

• Exposure.

If you’re realistic and honest about your author aims, you should want more people to read your books than to admire you on social media.

Doing this also gives a two-way flow to your author exposure.

1. People discover your books through various online platforms
2. People discover your online platforms through your books

Why would you avoid encouraging movement in both directions?

• Permanence.

If you go on your Facebook feed, and refresh it, I bet you don’t see the same content twice.

Social media posts may fade like tears in the rain, but books are forever.

• Long-Term Relationship Building.

Remember the point about how respectful it is to feature an organization such as Awesome Gang on your ‘As Seen On’ image?

Imagine how much the level of respect shown multiplies when you provide a link within your book itself.

Author Interview – Final Thoughts

There’s so much more you can do with your AwesomeGang review and interview. It can be a major addition to any of your other book marketing tactics. Just be sure to use those ideas above so that you get the most out of your efforts.

If you used your AwesomeGang review in a creative way, post below in the comments and share with the rest of the group.
—-

Dave Chesson is the guy behind Kindlepreneur.com, one of the largest book marketing websites, and KDP Rocket, a software that helps authors get their books discovered on Amazon.  Not only is he a consultant to publishing companies and NYT authors, he loves to break down the technical side book marketing and help review tools like Grammarly.  When he’s not working on book marketing, he loves playing dad Jedi and sipping tea with princesses with his rambunctious kids.