Before you start promoting your book there are some book marketing must-haves you need to put in place. No, we’re not talking about strategy, or running ads, or using your social media savvy. We’re talking about what you need to do before all that. These are the foundations of your book marketing efforts. 

An Editor is the First Book Marketing Must-Have!

You’re probably wondering what an editor has to do with marketing and why we would include this in a list of book marketing must-haves. Well, because before you spend money and time and effort marketing your book it needs to be in as good of shape as possible. 

You can do all the other things on this list and you can create ads and promote it on social media and try to sell it at every chance you get, but in the end, if the book isn’t polished and up to professional publishing standards it will come back to haunt you in the form of bad reviews and low sales. Your reputation as an author is on the line, and so is your future success. 

Find out what to expect when working with an editor here. You can also read a straightforward breakdown of WHY you need an editor here. 

Your Book Cover is Its Biggest Selling Point

Another aspect of successful book marketing that may not come to mind when building your book marketing strategy is your book cover. Just as with your book’s contents, the cover needs to be polished and professional. After all, you put in all that work writing it, and it should be reflected on the cover. Because the book cover is what people notice first. It is what makes people choose to grab it or pass on it. 

This is why a great book cover is a book marketing must-have! Your book cover will need to fit all the standard conventions. The genre should be obvious at a glance and it needs to contain high-quality images and design. Even the cover treatment matters! 

If your book cover looks unprofessional or sloppy, if it doesn’t fit the intended genre or has mistakes in its layout or design, no one will even give it a chance, no matter how good the content is inside. 

Read more about what makes a good book cover here. 

Another Book Marketing Must-Have is the Marketing Copy

An often overlooked book marketing must-have is the back cover copy. Far too many authors view this as an afterthought. They think they can write a nice summary of what the book is about, and that potential readers will get it. The issue here is that marketing copy is a much different style of writing with a much different purpose than writing a book. 

Did you know that your back cover copy is ideally limited to less than two hundred words? Some say three hundred words is the maximum. But generally, less is more. 

Your back cover copy (or book description) needs to grab the reader instantly. It needs to fit the tone and tell just enough. The intent is to leave the reader wanting more. It needs to speak directly to them. There needs to be a buildup of emotions. This can’t be achieved by a summary or overview of the plot alone. 

If your book’s marketing copy is bad, it’s a hard thing to overcome. This is doubly true if the cover is bad. But if you have a bad cover, readers probably won’t even pick the book up to read the marketing copy in the first place. 

Get Reviews. As Many as You Can. 

Word of mouth is the number one seller of books. Next to word of mouth, positive reviews are the biggest driver of book sales. Even Amazon favors books that have multiple reviews(and positive ones) over books that have very few. This is because readers want proof that a book is worth buying and they trust other readers. 

Reviews build trust! This is why reviews are one of the top book marketing must-haves. Good reviews, and a lot of them, tell the reader that an unknown author is worth taking a chance on. 

The great thing about reviews is they can be used everywhere to promote your book. Use snippets on the cover itself. Add them to your website. Quote them on your social media posts. They can also be added to your Amazon page along with your book marketing copy. 

Are you wondering how to get book reviews? Well, there are several tactics you can try, including sending out ARCs(Advanced Reader Copies). Direct endorsements are even better! You can read more about getting endorsements here. Remember, you want to have these reviews and endorsements ready BEFORE your book goes on sale. 

Keywords are a Book Marketing Must-Have That Can’t Be Overlooked

Your keywords are another one of the super important book marketing must-haves! These keywords help readers find your book. This is because readers in your genre will be searching for books like yours using certain keywords. These keywords are also used by platforms like Amazon to add your book to the right categories and to make it searchable for users. 

It’s very important to get these keywords right. Just as it’s important to put your book in the right category. 

These keywords and categories are part of setting your book up on Amazon and other sales and distribution platforms. Even IngramSpark requires adding categories and keywords when you upload your book. 

And they need to be the right keywords and categories. Using the wrong keywords will render you invisible to your target audience. 

Keywords are also important to use in your marketing copy, and sometimes even your title(if you write non-fiction). But, the keywords needed for online sales platforms like Amazon work a little differently. Amazon is always making tweaks to how these work and changing up the rules, so research and awareness of these things are key. No pun intended!

A pretty fail-safe method is using Publisher Rocket for Amazon keywords. As for marketing copy and other promotional efforts, you can learn to do keyword research for yourself. 

It All Fits Together to Set You Up for Book Marketing Success

These book marketing must-haves all begin before your direct promotions. They are the foundation of a solid book marketing strategy. If there is a problem with any of these things it will show itself. So, before you spend money on ads and other promotional tactics these are the things to have. Do you see how they fit together to build your solid foundation? 

Remember, if you have a lackluster book with spelling and formatting issues, people will eventually catch on. Even if your cover is good. But if your cover isn’t good, will anyone even bother? But having a good cover with bad marketing copy that doesn’t fit the tone, or drags on with wordy summaries will make a reader second guess the author. If there are no reviews, potential readers may be skeptical. And if your book is in the wrong category or you’re using the wrong keywords, it may never be discovered in the first place. 

All five of these book marketing must-haves need to be in order and working in tandem or all the ads and promotions in the world still won’t sell your book. And that’s a lot of wasted effort, potential, and money.