Congratulations! You've published your book on Amazon KDP. You love it! From start to finish it was a labor of love, and you proudly call yourself a published author. What happens next?
Well, you could sit back, relax and wait for the purchases to fly in, but the truth is, the same day you published your book, so did approximately 4000 other authors. So, how do you sell your book? How do you market and advertise?
Writing a book and selling a book are two different objectives. In this short guide, I'll give you some strategies, tips, and suggestions to "get the word out".
Let's dive in!
Engagement
What makes some posts on Social Media go viral, and others flop? It's all about engagement. Achieving engagement means that you're interacting with a target audience, and giving them a teaser amount of information so you can close the deal and sell your book. If your current Facebook or Instagram audience is not your target audience, then you'll have to leverage social media in a more strategic way.
Create a dedicated FAN PAGE for your book and then start inviting your friends, colleagues, work associates, former high school principals, etc, to get them excited about your recent project. You'll need them to be your ambassadors. Ask them to help promote your project by posting on their wall and tagging some friends (maybe ask each to tag 5 friends) and invite them to your fan page
ORGANIC CONTENT. Mke your Fan page exciting! Look at your competition and see what they're doing to engage their audience - live chat? Do it! Q & A session? Let the questions flow. Your goal is to grow a dedicated fan base and keep them interested.
PAID CONTENT. It's not unreasonable to assume that you'll have to spend some money marketing your hot commodity. Once again, look at how your competition is sponsoring posts and content. (You can pay for advertising through social media channels, and Amazon)
RUN A GIVEAWAY. Gift your books to readers at a school, social event, etc.
CREATE an AUTHOR WEBSITE. Use this to promote your books, blog about content in your books, and keep readers engaged through online discussions about your work and mission. You can post excerpts from chapters, collect emails and start a weekly newsletter.
YOUTUBE. Set up an Author's Youtube channel - read sections of the book out loud, talk about your book, and invite our fans to post video content.
SHARE A BLOG. Find bloggers who have content that would complement yours and share each other's content. the more times your book is mentioned online, the more likely people are to find it.
REVIEWS. Send out free books and ask for honest reviews (don't incentivize reviews, Amazon will know and will ban you from the platform)
SCHOOLS. if your target audience is students (any age) arrange to read excerpts in school settings and encourage schools to add your book to suggested reading lists
AUTHORS' nights. Find bookstores, small home parties, etc. and read your book at these events (and then, of course, make sure you have copies to sell!)
BOOK GIVEAWAYS. You can run it on Amazon, and other places too - Goodreads, for example.
PODCASTS. Everyone and their sister has a podcast - find a great podcaster that would like to interview you about your newly published book
Leveraging Amazon
Amazon Keywords - use google keywords, etc. to get the best title
Amazon Description - write a KILLER description
Author Central - make sure you've updated your personal information to be robust and up to date
Amazon Advertising- You can pay for (PPC - pay per click) advertising
Free Promotions - whether it's just a kindle or ebook, or both - offer your book for free for a limited time (and you can use the countdown timer) to promote urgency
Sample chapters - Amazon allows you to "show" more of your book - this is an excellent teaser for people just browsing (this feature is available after your book is "live" and you will need to open a chat with Amazon to have the feature added)
Pre-Order - using the above promotional tools, have your book available for pre-order - this builds excitement!
Design & Editing
Make your cover WOW!! Hire a designer to help
Make sure the book is free of typos and editing errors - readers do not forgive sloppy mistakes
You're amazing! You've written and published a book. That's something that most people dream of, but are unable to follow through on. Now, it's time to show off the effort, emphasize your talent, and sell your book!
I hope that these marketing and advertising strategies help you with your mission. And if you need help getting your book published on Amazon KDP - reach out! I'm here for you!
Cheers!