“Promote your upcoming or already published book with these tips!”
Here are some very helpful tips from Helen Scheuerer– author of the Oremere Chronicles and the founder of Writer’s Edit and Talem Press. Helen also has a Bachelor in Creative Writing, a Masters in Publishing and has always been focused on writing. *We pulled all of her marketing tips from our latest interview. Read the full interview here.
Writing has always been my dream. I remember having my first story “published” in the school newspaper when I was about ten, and I’ve been writing ever since. In high school I was told to pick another career path, that being a novelist wouldn’t pay the bills and such, but… I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
As you mentioned, I formed the online writers’ resource and learning platform Writer’s Edit as well. It’s become a wonderful community of writers 🙂
Marketing tips and strategies for getting you and your book known:
The first thing I would say is to know your audience. So many authors don’t do their research when it comes to learning about their target market. They expect to publish a book and for it to sell, but once their friends and family have bought it, the title stalls.
So with that said, here are a few of my tips…
- Target specific reviewers who read your genre
- Start your promotional campaign well before your book’s release date! (I usually start 6 months in advance).
- Diversify your content – you need more than just ‘buy my book’ posts. Show people behind-the-scenes, bonus content, and be honest about your processes.
How writers can best use social media to engage the public and/or grow numbers:
On Writer’s Edit, I always try to remind people the purpose of social media – it’s to be social, to be part of a community. That’s the first key. You shouldn’t be on Twitter just to grow followers, you should be on Twitter (or whatever your chosen platform) to connect with like-minded individuals.
Secondly, I’d say you need to be careful of how ‘self promotional’ you are. People can see through that pretty quickly, and if all you do is post about your book without giving anything back to the community, it’s the fast-track to a high unfollow rate.
Thirdly: choose one or two different platforms and do them well. One of the mistakes I see people make is that they try to do ALL the different channels at once and spread themselves too thin. You’re far better off perfecting one or two, and genuinely engaging with readers across these.
Extra elements that can be useful for promotion:
Creating a ‘street team’ is definitely something that’s an incredible help for book promotion.
A street team is a group of readers/bloggers who loved your book who help you promote it.
Our Writer’s Edit Editor, Claire Bradshaw, recently wrote a fabulously in-depth post on how to put together an indie author street team. It’s a great read for any authors (indie or traditional) who are looking for solid ways to promote their books.
Helpful tactics that fans and family/friends can do to help:
I wrote a really in-depth article about this over on Writer’s Edit, ‘13 Ways to Help an Indie Author With Their Book Release’.
When I released Heart of Mist and people asked me that exact question, I shared that post and it was incredibly helpful.
Some of my favourite takeaways from it are:
- Leave reviews (these are so so important for authors)
- Share a book photo on social media
- Give the book as a gift to relevant friends
Do you have any other questions about marketing or promotion? Please ask and we will ask more authors, editors, and agents to get some answers!!!
Thanks for reading!
Signing off, Nova
The Spinning Pen 