Many authors don’t realize they really need to start marketing their book before it’s ever published. Of course, you can start any time, if that opportunity has passed you by and you’ve already published your book. But either way, there are a few things you need in your author marketing starter kit for your best chance at success. Below you’ll find what you’ll need BEFORE your book is published.
Your Author Marketing Starter Kit: Begin with Visibility
Coming out of nowhere with a book to sell isn’t the most effective tactic for marketing your book. It’s always best to have some visibility before you start marketing your book, or at least some discoverability! What does this mean? It means that your author marketing starter kit needs to include reliable online platforms where your audience can find you.
Getting Established Online
The beauty of the internet is that anyone can take up space there. You don’t even need an invitation to the party. Besides, everyone is online. It is where they engage with others, and a never-ending resource for information and inspiration. You don’t want to be invisible here.
Your Author Website is the Most Powerful Tool in Your Author Marketing Starter Kit
An author website isn’t necessarily the first thing you need to establish, but it is the single most powerful tool in your author marketing starter kit. Social media platforms are not enough. You will need an author website and it needs to work to serve its purpose.
Social Media Platforms
Though you don’t need to be everywhere all at once to have a social media presence, you should at least be visible on one or two platforms and engage occasionally. This will become more important when it comes time to promote your book. This is where your audience is most likely to first discover you and where you can build an audience.
Author Platforms
We always recommend that authors set up a Goodreads profile and an Amazon author profile. These are the spaces where your audience expects to find you. It’s a simple tool in your author marketing starter kit that makes a big difference when it comes to visibility.
Your Author Marketing Starter Kit: Selling Yourself and Your Book
Once you’ve placed yourself in the spaces people can expect to find you, or at least set up the structure for that, you need to dedicate yourself to your book marketing strategy. Keep in mind that marketing yourself and your book requires a sustained, long-term effort. It goes beyond the book promotion phase.
Your Marketing Budget
Before you begin thinking of the marketing strategy piece of your author marketing starter kit, you need to consider your marketing budget. This budget is not only the money you have to spend on publishing and marketing your book, but your time and energy as well. Your budget needs to be sustainable.
Your Personal Author Brand
Because marketing yourself is part of marketing your book and these efforts need to be sustainable to be effective, you will need to establish a personal author brand. This simply means you will have a consistent and reliable presence, among other things. You can find out more about what a personal brand is and how to begin establishing it here.
Your Marketing Strategy
This is what drives your efforts and makes use of the tools in your author marketing starter kit!
Knowing your marketing budget allows you to create a sustainable marketing strategy. You need to decide how much time you can spend, where you want to focus your efforts and when. This all leads up to not only selling and promoting your book, but building your audience, and establishing your credibility. How you will do this is up to you. And it doesn’t hurt to get some help if you don’t know where to start.
Creating Awareness and Captivating Your Readers
Like selling any other product, your book needs to be visible to your audience. You can’t buy what you don’t have access to. Also, like with other products, your audience needs to know why you and your book are worth their time and money. As you may have guessed, this means promoting yourself and your book. Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it seems.
Your Marketing Materials
Your author marketing starter kit needs to include marketing and promotional materials. Although your marketing strategy is a long term effort, part of that strategy does involve active promotion. You will need things like business cards(digital and print), press kits, and other promotional materials. Read more about author marketing materials here.
Your Book Cover
Last but not least, the book itself! You need a slick, professional looking book cover. From fitting the right genre conventions with the design, to compelling and succinct back cover copy, your book cover is its biggest marketing tool. Like your website, it is a true powerhouse in your author marketing starter kit.
And don’t worry, if you already have a cover that is not so great, you can do a redesign. Nothing is set in stone.
Overall, your author marketing starter kit contains all the tools you will need to begin building your brand, creating your marketing strategy and ultimately, selling your book. And they will stick with you throughout your journey. Remember, these things don’t happen all at once and you will use them at different times. But you will use all of them.
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