Marketing and Promo: Accomplish This ONE (Major) Thing
I have been reading up on the subject of how to market a book since the day I decided to self-publish. I should have started even earlier. Sure, in the past I’d read books on the topic, but not with the kind of seriousness I’m applying at present. Now I’ve got my game face on, and I am ready to roll.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty, let me say that what this blog post will convey is only what I’ve learned so far, things I’m trying myself for the first time. Things you can try as well. Are they guaranteed to work? Obviously not, but hopefully they will help to get the ball rolling as far as selling the book is concerned. If you have opinions about what you read here that you’d like to bring to light, or experiences and/or tips you have concerning these techniques, please comment below. I am all ears, and I’m sure other indie authors will be as well.
You Have One Job to Do
What I’m understanding from several “experts” in the field is that the first goal for self-publishers who are promoting their book is simple (but not easy): get reader reviews on the various book-selling platforms. Amazon, in particular. (It is, after all, the biggest book-selling platform in the world.) Any review you can get on any platform is a win, but if you want Amazon to recognize your book and have it turn up in searches and recommendations, you must have at least ten reviews. Twenty-five is better. So, as you launch your book, the first goal is to get ten reviews, and the goal right behind that one is to get twenty-five (on Amazon). The faster you can get them the better!
Your book will be a new release on Amazon for thirty days, during which time it will be granted extra visibility on the platform because it is a “new release.” Every day starting with the day of release is crucial for getting reviews. The idea is to get them as quickly as possible so the Amazon algorithms start working in your favor. If Amazon determines that a book is doing well (selling books), it will help it to do even better.
How do you get reader reviews?
Going on social media and shouting “Read my book!” is not going to get the job done. And you can’t just call your relatives and ask them to write reviews for your book. Amazon has rules about reviews, and they will take them down if they suspect anything fishy, like having relatives write them or paying for reviews in any way.
• Advanced Review Copies
You can gift readers an Advanced Review (or Reader) Copy—the ARCs I blogged about not so long ago (more on ARCs here)—but you cannot “pay” them to leave a review. You’re also not supposed to have close friends review your book. Amazon wants the reviews to arise organically.
That said, you are allowed to have acquaintances, such as subscribers to your website or blog, or those you’ve met on social media, read the book and leave an “honest” review. If they have received an Advanced Review Copy, they must simply make a statement at the very start of the review that says, “I received a free Advanced Review Copy of the book in return for my honest review.”
Giving away ARCs prior to your book’s release date is a great way to get those early reviews. Digital copies can be gifted without cost to you. You also can put together what is called a “Street Team” made up of subscribers of your blog or website, who agree to leave a review in exchange for a free copy of your book. These fine readers will become your core supporters.
Prior to the June 1 release of They Will Be Coming for Us, I’ll be putting a Street Team together, and I will be calling this group of awesome people My Book Besties. More on that in a couple of weeks.
• A Giveaway Contest
Yes, I know, it sounds like the experts are telling you to give away a lot of books. Well, if you want to sell a lot of books, you’re going to have to draw some attention to your book. Getting attention is not going to be easy. In 2018, 1.68 million self-published books flooded the market (that’s an average of 140,000 a month), and I’m pretty sure that number has gone up in the years since. Showing people the cover of your book and the blurb only gets you so far. You need that word-of-mouth magic in order to create serious buzz and get readers talking. In order to recommend your book, people have to have read it, plain and simple. So, you must give it to people to read and hopefully they will love it enough to start talking about it and reviewing it and posting about it on social media.
Aside from your Street Team, where do you find the readers who can help get the buzz started? One very effective way to do it is with a Goodreads Giveaway. (You also can host your own giveaway on social media, but unless you have millions of followers, you won’t reach the numbers of readers that Goodreads can). Goodreads allows you to give away paperbacks or digital copies. If you opt to give away paperbacks, you have to purchase the books and do the shipping yourself. If you opt to give away e-books, Amazon will deliver them to entrants’ Kindles for free. You may give away one copy or any number up to one hundred copies. The giveaway can continue for up to thirty days. It costs either $119 or $599. Most experts say the more expensive version is nice, but not necessary. Here’s what you get for your money.
· Giveaway featured in friends’ Goodreads news feeds when someone enters
· Email sent to notify the author’s followers and readers who have marked the book as Want to Read
· Goodreads reminds winners to review the book
· Entrants required to add the book to their Want to Read list (this puts an update that features your book into the news feed of each of the entrants’ friends and followers)
· Premium listing on the Giveaways section of Goodreads ($599 version only)
· Personalized email sent to everyone who doesn't win the Giveaway ($599 version only)
If you give away one hundred copies, that’s a good number of people who will have the opportunity to read your book. Some of them will want to be one of the first to review it, too, especially if they love it. And all of these reviews will be ORGANIC, the kind Amazon likes the most. Will all winners of the book read it and review it? No. But some will. And, another perk, about eight weeks later, Goodreads will remind everyone who won the contest to rate and review your book.
My Goodreads Giveaway for They Will Be Coming for Us ended last night. I purchased the $119 version, offered one hundred digital copies, and ran the contest for thirty days. Here are the results: 998 Goodreads members entered the contest; 960 of them marked the book as “Want to Read”; Amazon notified the one hundred winners and delivered copies of the book to their Kindle libraries no later than 3:37 this morning, when they told me the copies had gone out. Wow! One hundred people just received my book. They can review it on Goodreads whenever they like, but they will have to wait until the June 1 release to review it on Amazon. Keep in mind that on Goodreads, a three-star review or higher is considered a positive review, whereas, on Amazon, three stars represents an item of low quality.
• Media Reviews
Seek out book reviewers wherever you may find them, whether that’s on social media (Bookstagrammers on Instagram, for instance) or popular blogging platforms (like WordPress and Blogger), or more traditional places like print magazines and newspapers (more on reviews here). When reaching out to individuals who do reviews, use their names (don’t send a form letter), tell them the reason you chose them to review your book (for example, you saw that they enjoyed a book that’s similar to yours), and offer to send out an ARC (most of them want paperbacks, though some will accept digital). Be sure to give them a quick pitch of the plot, as well as an enticing blurb from a positive pre-publication review, if you have one. Let them know when the book releases. If they agree to read your book, usually they’ll post or publish a review close to or on the release date.
If you get a positive review, hopefully a few people who read that reviewer’s blog or follow that reviewer on social media, will pick up a copy and, in turn, leave you a review. I’ve noticed that the reviewers on Instagram are a pretty tight bunch who like to recommend good books to each other, so if one reviewer raves about your book, the others might just want to read and review it as well.
Be Sure to Work Ahead
Once you get your ARCs out to people, they’ll need some time to actually read the book. People are busy, as we all know, so have your giveaway end at least two to four weeks before your book’s release date. When reaching out to media reviewers, I suggest giving them even more time. They receive huge numbers of requests for reviews, so the more time you can give them, the better. Two to three months before release day would be good. When working with a Street Team, get that ARC into their hands two to four weeks before your release date.
As you can see, there isn’t just one thing you have to do to get those coveted reader reviews. You have just one goal, but you’ll want to come at it from several different angles. These are just three ways to get started. In my next post, I’ll discuss several more marketing and promotion techniques.
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Twitter: @kimcanrite
Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. She has worked as a developmental and copy editor since 1994. Her thriller, They Will Be Coming for Us, will publish June 1, 2021.
