Why Writers Need To Know How To Market Their Own Books

It is all about selling a book, and this leads to a lot of writers simply assuming that they do not have to continue to market a book after it has been published.  Marketing is a long-term process and one which is not to be taken lightly.

Money is an objective here, and the truth is that most writers need to make money writing, or at some point it simply slows down.  To make sure that flow of money doesn’t slow down, you need to think carefully about marketing your book.

So the question is, how do you market your own book? 

This is a bit tricky since it involves a fine balance between not blowing your own horn while also making it clear that you have published a book and you hope people would like to buy it.  There are many ways to market a book and market it well, but here are five suggestions that have helped me.

1) Market to “circles:”  Start with friends and family and then expand from there.  While you can assume that most of your family will be interested, you should not assume that this is an easy circle to sell books to.  They are the ones most likely to want a free book.  Therefor, expanding your market to acquaintances is a must.

2) Give out free e-copies of your book:  I’m always willing to give out free e-copies of my book — provided that the recipient is willing to review the book on Amazon.com.  If you are willing to email me an address I will even send a review copy to you.  This is a huge help.  People are more likely to read, and then mention a book they have reviewed, so you can reach more people than you could do alone.

3) Plan to have a specific number of books to sell per month:  Decide on a  format, and then a specific number of copies you’d like to sell.  Write it down. When you sell more than that number, set a new goal.

4) Market your blog, and then market your book professionally on that blog:  You are a writer, so it is important to have a blog which you write on.

5) Write new books, but keep telling others about your existing books: Writing new books is something that most writers do with ease.  The best idea for marketing your own book was given to me by a fellow writer:  Write another book, and write about the same subject area as your last one.  If not, market both books in different places. 

It is wonderful to have a good selling book (even if it is self-published you can still make money), but with marketing on your side it makes it better.