Easy Book Marketing Tips that Worked for Me and May Work for You!

All of us writers are looking for book marketing tips, right?

I’m still an amateur when it comes to this, but after publishing 6 books (3 traditional, 3 self-published), I feel like I’m starting to figure “some” things out.

Below, I have a list of the methods that have worked for me—meaning they resulted in more books sold—and those that haven’t, meaning I saw no movement on the sales needle.

Then there are those tactics that didn’t seem to fit in either category. They boosted the reputation and perhaps awareness of the book, but I couldn’t tell you whether they resulted in increased sales or not.

There are a lot of things you can try to sell your books, so understand that this is not a comprehensive list. There are other tactics I hope to try in the future, and some I’m sure I haven’t even heard of yet. (Feel free to share any you know about in the comments below!)

But hopefully this information will help you when deciding where to allocate your precious time and money for marketing your next book.

Book Marketing Tips that Worked for Me

Book Review Tours

Understand that I’m talking about book “review” tours here, not book blog tours. They are similar, but they’re not the same thing.

With a book blog tour, you sign up to have a certain number of book bloggers post about your book over a series of days or weeks. The bloggers typically include a cover, synopsis, author photo, and author bio, along with buy links for the book.

They “may” include a book review, but it’s not required, so most of them usually don’t.

I have found these types of tours to be pretty useless.

Book “review” tours, however, are offered by only a few companies and promise you so many reviews on the tour. Bloggers typically post the review on their book blog, and most also post on Goodreads. Some will to Amazon as well. (With Amazon’s strict policies, the number of book reviewers who can post there has gone down.)

As we all know, reviews are gold when it comes to your book. Yet it’s so hard to get them! Most people don’t understand how important they are, and even after they are asked, won’t take the time to do it.

A book review tour can be very beneficial to book sales. As you get more reviews, your book garners that social proof that is so important in the online world, which can help convince more readers to give it a try.

The book review tour companies that I’ve used so far and have been happy with include:

• iRead Book Tours
• Henry Roi Book Tours
• Suzy Approved Book Tours

Works: Book review tour.

Didn’t Work for Me: Book blog tour (without reviews). I also found that contacting book bloggers individually got me nowhere. I used the Reedsy list of book bloggers in my genre and spent hours researching and contacting them. Most didn’t answer at all, and those few who did said they were too booked up to accept any more requests.

Guest Posting—with a Call to Action

Guest posting on blogs that cater to your type of reader can really help expand your audience. You just have to be sure that you:

1. Write a compelling and interesting blog post.
2. Submit it to a blog your readers are likely to visit regularly.
3. Include a call-to-action at the end.

The key is to pull some of the readers from that blog over to your blog or your newsletter. If you don’t include a call-to-action at the end of post (usually offering something for free if they sign up for your newsletter), this tactic won’t work.

I’ve seen direct results with this. I’ll have a post go up on a blog where my readers live, and within the new 3-4 days, I’ll see several new subscribers to my email newsletter. Then, a few days after that, I’ll see new purchases on my books.

I would suggest that you offer a free chapter of your book in the free offer, as well as something else. Your reader is looking for something to help them immediately. Offer a report, tip list, recipe, how-to guide, or something that they will not be able to resist downloading. Then when they get a moment, they’ll read your free chapter—and may go on to buy your book.

Works: Guest post with a freebie that calls the reader to sign up for your newsletter.

Doesn’t Work: Guest post with no freebie or call to action. People read it and forget it. Or, a guest post with a freebie that includes only a free chapter. If people don’t already like your writing, they are unlikely to sign up for this. Include a free chapter and something your reader will really want and/or need.

Review Services

These are services that for a fee, will present your book to their community of readers for them to potentially select and review. The idea is that they have vetted these readers so the odds are high that if they select your book, they will follow through with a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

Understand that you’re not paying for reviews here. You’re paying for someone to find the reviewers for you that will be likely to read and review your book. There’s a difference, and a big one.

If you’ve ever tried to hunt down book reviews and contact them one-by-one yourself, then you know how helpful this type of service can be.

The reviewers themselves, however, are not paid. They have no interaction with you at all. They simply gain access to your book through whatever service you use.

The review services that have worked for me—though albeit on a small scale (less than 10 reviews from each)—are listed here:

• BookSirens (does only ARC reviews)
• NetGalley (I signed up for only one month through Xpresso Tours—much more economical than trying to do it yourself)
• BookSprout

Works: Some review services like those listed above. These were all very economical too.

Doesn’t Work: There are some other review services that I didn’t try as they looked a bit sketchy to me. Be sure to do careful research on what is required before you sign on.

Workshops with Book Signings

These can be extremely successful but they do require a lot of work.

First, you have to create a dynamite workshop—one that has a lot of helpful information that your audience needs, and that will convince attendees that they’d like more from you.

Then, you need to call attention to the books that you have available at the event, and offer to sell them at a discount (if self-published) or perhaps to give one away to a lucky winner if you’re traditionally published.

Most times that I’ve done this on an in-person basis, I’ve sold out of my books—meaning that I sold 10-15 at the event to attendees. (The events were small and included no more than 30 people.) If you’re lucky enough to book a larger venue and have more attendees, you may be able to sell more.

I haven’t tried this on a virtual basis because I prefer in-person events. But it’s possible you could do something similar.

Works: Dynamic workshop in which you mention your amazing book at the end—go here for more information! Or, check out my new release!

Doesn’t Work: Lackluster, boring presentation in which you fail to mention your new book.

Book Signings (In Areas Where You Have Connections!)

Unfortunately, in-person book signings, by themselves, just aren’t the events they used to be in the old days.

Most people have too much to do and too many other things vying for their attention to take the trouble to go to a book signing for an author they don’t know.

Therefore, the old idea of traveling from city to city doing book signings is not likely to be profitable for you. (But it could be fun!)

Instead, limit your in-person events to those locations where you have connections. You need people in the area who will a) come to the signing themselves, and b) help you get the word out so that other people will come.

I’ve had success doing book signings this way, but it all depends on your connections and how much they are willing to help you.

Works: Book signings in areas where you have connections that can help spread the word and get people there.

Doesn’t Work: Book signings in areas where you are essentially a stranger. No one knows you so why should they come? And they probably won’t.

Social Media Posts (for a Limited Time)

Believe it or not, I have seen sales result from my social media posts about the book (usually Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram). But this works only for a limited amount of time, typically when during the initial launch.

Your loyal connections and readers who know you and care about what you’re doing will be happy to hear that you have a new book out. They may go and buy a copy when they see the news on social media.

About a month after launch, this tactic loses its effectiveness. Of course, you can and probably should continue to post about your book—particularly if you get new news about it (contest win! special price!). Running a price promotion and announcing it on social media can be a good way to inject new sales into an older book.

Works: Social media posts that include graphic and video teasers about your new book throughout the launch period—about a month or two before and a month or two after the release.

Doesn’t Work: Endless social media posts about your book. (It turns your connections off.)

Book Promotion Sites

Speaking of price promotions, what about book promotion services?

I learned only fairly recently that there are several companies out there that promote books that are on sale. If you’re running a free, 99-cent, $2.99, or any price promotion that is under $5/book, you are likely to qualify for at least some of them.

Like book review services, book promotion sites offer your book up to their dedicated stable of readers. It’s a way to increase awareness of your book while it’s on special, and hopefully boost sales.

I’ve tried these only with my latest release. With some I saw immediate results—more books sold. Others didn’t seem to move the needle at all.

That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t for you, however. I think each service does well for a certain genre of book.  As mine is rather of a cross-genre, it’s a little harder to place. Timing matters too I imagine, as well as your deal price.

These are the ones I’ve tried so far, but keep in mind that there are a lot of them out there. Kindlepreneur has a comprehensive list here.

Worked for Me:

• Bargain Booksy
• Book Barbarian
• eReader IQ

Didn’t Work for Me (But May Work for You?):

• LitNuts
• Digital Book Today
• Discount Book Man
• Best Book Monkey
• Book Sliced
• Awesome Gang
• Pretty Hot

Bookmarks

They’re such a simple thing, but I found this last time around that they can be very effective!

I designed some cool bookmarks, then carried them around with me everywhere. I gave them to friends, acquaintances, and even strangers who seemed interested. Many of these folks later bought books.

The trick is to use the bookmark like a business card. Make sure your website is on them (where the person can go read more about the book), as well as all the places where they can buy the book. I also included an early blurb which I think helped.

Works: Bookmarks, when you hand them out like business cards.

Doesn’t Work: Bookmarks that you print but then use only when giving away the book.

Book Marketing Tips that Did Not Work For Me

In addition to those listed above, there are a few other marketing tactics I tried that definitely did not work.

Big Fancy Giveaways

It could be that I just don’t have the magic sauce for these yet. (If you do, let us know!) But every time I’ve tried a big giveaway to my subscribers—such as adding an Amazon gift card or other gifts to my book giveaway—it’s fallen flat.

This could also be because of the way I set up the giveaway. I’m still looking into that.

So I haven’t figured this one out yet. Not saying it wouldn’t work for you? But I’ve found it easier to simply run a giveaway for the book itself and let it go at that.

Press Releases

My publishers have released these for my traditionally published novels, but as far as I could see, they didn’t result in any sales or interest in the book.

Book Marketing Tips that May Have Helped?

For the rest of these, the jury is out. Did they result in book sales? I don’t know. I do know that they helped raise awareness of the book, which sometimes is good enough.

Podcasts

Getting interviews on a podcast can get your name and your book out to readers who don’t know about you. This is part of increasing your overall author brand and I think is worth doing, even if it doesn’t result in immediate book sales.

Getting Blurbs

This can be a nerve-wracking process, and I don’t know if it helped boost book sales, but it definitely helped give the book that important social proof even before it launched.

I wrote about this in another post if you’d like more information on how to do it. I highly recommend it and will be doing it again for my next book.

Goodreads Giveaways

I’ve tried these myself (back when they were free!) and my publisher also ran a couple for The Beached Ones. I don’t think they resulted in any book sales, and I haven’t seen any reviews from them either. But they did raise awareness of the book.

Contests

If you place in literary contest, it gives your book more social proof and a little extra clout too. Will it increase book sales? I don’t know. I haven’t seen any immediate sales after announcing contest wins. But I’ll continue to enter as I believe a win does help convince a potential reader that your book is worthwhile.

If you have book marketing tactics that worked for you, please share in the comments.