How can you promote your book politely? Book promotion is not easy to master.
Like many people, I get flooded with ‘please read my book’ and ‘check out my new book now’ requests by email, contact messages, and social media platforms.
Therefore, I thought it might be a good idea to jot down some hints on how to market and promote a book for new self-published authors.
There was a temptation to title this list of hints, ‘Don’t annoy people before they have discovered your book,’ but I won’t.
Tips To Promote Your Book Politely
There is a fine line between promoting your books aggressively and annoying people.
USING CAPS AND SCREAMING is not on the right side of the line.
Nor is posting 100 messages per day linking to your book on Amazon.
Using the imperative is also on the wrong side.
Yelling, BUY MY BOOK, and CHECK OUT MY BOOK are definitely out.
There is no science or guaranteed formula for successful book marketing and promotion.
But there are some actions you can take that can have either a positive or negative effect.
An essential factor in promoting your book is to understand how people will react. If you tell them to buy your book, you stand almost no chance of success.
You need to create a lot of interest to attract readers, which is not easy in a crowded book market.
But to help you on your way, here are some basic do and don’t book promotion strategies.
Don’t use direct messages
Asking people directly to read your brilliant new book is guaranteed to annoy people.
You stand to lose a lot of potential readers or book buyers in an instant (message).
One-to-one messaging is not for selling books.
Engage with people on social media
The rule of social networking is to make contacts, make friends, make fans, and make book buyers.
Don’t ever think there’s a shortcut to this formula.
People who discover you on social media will take an interest – if you engage and communicate with them.
Have a blog and a website
Your blog or website is the most suitable place to promote your book titles, book trailers, buy links, and book reviews.
It’s a little bit like having your own bookstore. But make sure you have lots of excellent content to show off your writing skills.
Yes, your writing skills need to be front and center. You could post some short stories that you can then share on Facebook.
Maybe you could start building a mailing list to let your readers know about your new articles or free books you might offer.
Readers are very selective, so they will never click and buy your book without a good reason.
Attract their interest in your writing. It’s the best way to promote your book politely.
Always cross-promote your writing
Use several social media platforms, and add your blog content anywhere and everywhere you can.
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Linkedin are all musts.
But here’s a little tip: Flipboard is a new and huge traffic driver for me.
Guest blogging
Writing a post for a popular blog is always worthwhile, so ask, ask, ask.
Then there is the reverse situation. Invite bloggers to guest post on your blog to build up your amount of content.
Don’t pretend
Be yourself, and be honest, no matter what. You’ll only succeed if people are interested in you because you are genuine.
There is no point in telling people you are a New York Times bestselling author when you have only sold three copies of your book.
It’s not even an exaggeration. It’s simply not true.
Be careful how you respond to book reviews
When you write a book, you want to get great book reviews. But be careful how you react to them.
Perhaps you can quickly thank book bloggers, but directly and not in the blog’s comments.
You can click yes to ‘Was this review helpful to you?’ for an Amazon review, which helps add a little weight to your good review.
However, never respond to bad reviews. No matter how upset you may be, you will never change a reviewer’s mind.
Leave them alone and ignore them. Any reaction from you will only inflame or create an argument and directly harm your author’s reputation.
Don’t flood the Internet with your book
The Internet is flooded with books already, so who will notice yours?
Learn to define your potential market and target this niche with your book promotion.
You can always invest a little in book promotion. Here are some book promotion sites that you could consider.
Use bookmarking sites and social media to promote your blog
A well-written and topical blog post can potentially go viral on social media.
This is the very best way to get some real attention, but be careful. Don’t overdo it.
You can use Facebook and Twitter. But Pinterest is another platform that is ideal for promoting books.
I post most days, and perhaps once a month, a post really goes well. Be patient, and again, write well.
You can also use guest posting on other blogs to show off your writing skills and attract a new audience.
Learn how to format anchor text in your links
Nothing looks worse than posting a web address link like this. ‘https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007jL5C424’
Learn how to add links to text and images that will help you attract clicks.
Don’t write a clichéd author bio
You’re supposed to be a writer. Use your imagination when you write your author bio, and avoid overused clichés.
If you find writing an original bio about yourself difficult, look for someone who can help.
Or you could hire a copywriter to do it for you.
Choose the best Amazon categories and keywords
Never forget to check your two categories and seven keywords on KDP regularly.
This should always be aggressive work in progress.
If your book ranking is heading south, change them.
Research new keywords that not only suit your book better but find ones that will get your book into less competitive sub-categories.
Even if you have a few good keywords, search for more to replace your weaker ones.
Use KDP book promotions tools
If you are in KDP Select, use every single day of your free ebook promotion and Kindle Countdowns to help your sales rank.
You can even use Amazon ads if you have a few dollars to spare.
But Amazon KDP offers many other free book promotion tools you can use.
Try Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are a lot cheaper per click than Amazon Ads.
Although a little more scattergun than Amazon ads that appear on Kindle book pages, they are still good value.
Don’t overdo it, though, and stay within your budget. A little can go a long way with Facebook Ads.
Pay for Facebook Likes
As a change from using Facebook Ads for your book, you can advertise for Facebook Page Likes.
You can get a lot of additional Likes for quite a modest price per like, at around $0.15.
Be patient
On average, most overnight successes take about 30 years, so don’t rush it.
Learn to walk before you start to run.
It takes time to attract attention and build your author platform.
Always keep thinking
Never believe that today will be like yesterday or that tomorrow will be like today.
Always be ready to change, adapt, and aggressively experiment.
You can aggressively promote your books and yourself as an author in many ways without upsetting the world.
But always remember to channel your determination intelligently and productively, and you’ll not only keep your friends, but you will also sell your books.
Ultimately, learning to promote your book politely is about being communicative, informative, imaginative, and very determined.
If you’re still reading, there are, of course, many more ways to improve your book promotion.
But this quick list will get you started on promoting your book politely and keeping your friends.
Use your head and think about how people will react before you try a new online promotion idea.
My golden rule is: how would I react if I came across myself and my book marketing?
You can’t sell a book to anyone using pressure and direct methods.
You need to create interest in yourself and your book and wait for people to buy it.
Related Reading: Promote And Advertise Your Ebooks Without Social Media
Love these suggestions. It’s so easy to annoy others – friends included – when you are hyped up on the rush of first publishing!