Marketing your book requires time and effort, but it is doable. While it is always best to try to do things on your own, sometimes we prefer to have the guidance of others. Simply put, we need help — and who better to turn to than the experts?

Authors, you want to make sure you are taking all the right steps in your marketing plan, and without a little push in the right direction, how will you know what’s best? It takes watching the moves of others, taking cues from the professionals, and mimicking their techniques.

Our marketing experts have compiled a list of the tips they find most useful.

1. Amazon is one of the best-selling platforms for books. Stand out with these three easy steps: get book reviews, use keywords to tag your book, and make sure you author page is complete and compelling.

2. Getting your book into the library market makes for great exposure. Do this by making sure you are in the specific library supplier’s catalog so the library is able to actually order it.

3. Use buzzwords to entice readers to engage with (i.e, join your e-mail list, follow your social media accounts, or purchase your book.) Buzzwords can be tags or keywords, popular hashtags, or anything really that will jump out at your audience.
 
4. Attending literary conferences, book fairs, writing conventions, etc. is a great way to get a kick of motivation, inspiration, and maybe even score the deal of a lifetime. Three pieces of advice to get the most out of your experience: be organized and make to-do lists, create the perfect pitch, and stand out amongst the crowd.
 
5. You don’t necessarily have to be at a book fair — only your book does! While attending a book fair is a great experience for any author and will allow them to learn more about publishing and to network with other writers, sometimes it is financially difficult. The good news is that if you have a good rights agency representing you your attendance is not necessary.

6. Twitter is the “live-feed” of the social media world. Use it to interact directly with your followers and send them a link to your author website, Amazon page, or any other website where your book is featured. Twitter is great for instant communication
 
7. Facebook is great for announcing and promoting events such as book signings and conferences you’re attending. You can use this social media platform to network with other authors and publishing professionals, connect with your readers are a more personal and individual level, and stay in the know about relevant industry news.
 
8. Pinterest is another great tool. You can show off any and all images you have of your books. Pin the covers and if you have pictures in your book, pin those as well. You can also create boards for your other interests too. Again, your social media presence is a way for your readers to really connect with you and feel like they know you.
 
9. Ebooks are a great way to widen your audience and increase the visibility of your book. Having an eBook allows you to offer your audience a new way of reading your book. Nowadays it seems just about everyone owns a tablet or some kind of eReader and prefer to read on these devices. Get started on your own eBook right away.
 
10. Make sure you have an enticing cover design and title. A visually stunning cover can help you stand out in a very crowded field of new releases and online listings for millions of books. A title that is unique and clever may be more memorable and stick in someone’s mind.

To your success,
​MG

CREATING
Get Started Writing Your Book!
5 Must Do's to get you going

1 – Figure out what you want to write about.  This sounds very easy, but it’s not.  You need to figure out what book YOU were meant to write.  The book that no one else could write.  Four years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on YouTube.  Remember this was 2008, and there were very few social media books at the time.  I was really excited at the prospect of having my own book for about 5 mins, till I realized that I wasn’t really interested in writing a book about marketing on YouTube.  And I also didn’t want to tour the country speaking on the topic.  I was pitched on a couple of other book ideas over the next couple of years, but I finally decided that 7 Keys of a Queen was the only book I wanted to write.

2 – Figure out why your book is unique and fills a market need.  Once you figure out the topic of your book, you’re then going to realize that your book’s already been written several times.  You need to figure out what you bring to the table that hasn’t been discussed before. The point is, you’ll need to figure out what your ‘hook’ is.  What are you going to bring to the table that’s unique, but that will still have value for your readers?

3 – Find 3-5 books that you think are similar to your idea.  For each book, you need to explain what your book offers that the competing title misses.  And try your best to pick newer titles.  If you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books that were all written in the mid 1990s, that tells the publisher that your idea is dead, otherwise someone would have written about it in the past 15 years!

4 – You need to create an outline and table of contents for your book.  This is where it starts to get serious, and we find out if you really want to write a book, or if you are just toying with the idea.  This will be a lot of work, but you’ll have to show this to a potential publisher, plus it will make the writing process much easier once you have a game plan to follow.  It will also be incredibly beneficial to you because it will force you to flesh out your idea into several chapters, which will help you better structure your book’s message.

5 – Write the first 1-3 chapters.  This is another good test to prepare you for the process.  If you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1-3 solidly-written chapters, you’re making an excellent case for why your book needs to be published.  And writing those chapters will give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book.  For example, if it takes you 3 months to write the first chapter, that could be a big red flag.
Granted, writing a book is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work and, most of all, perseverance. But that’s where we can help.

To Your Success, 
MG