Marketing Ideas That Can Help Authors Increase Sales: Prepare Your Book Marketing Assets

Write a killer elevator pitch. Write a concise, snappy elevator pitch that shows what the book is about, what kind of world readers will be immersed in, why readers should care, and what accolades the book and author have received. A strong elevator pitch will make your book more enticing to readers deciding whether or not to purchase.

Poll your audience to test marketing copy. Use polling software like PickFu to test variations of description or marketing copy and see which variation your audience likes better. Always test and optimize to discover what copy will resonate best with readers.

 A/B test marketing copy. Unlike polling, A/B tests give you quantitative data (i.e., the number of clicks). Use your email service provider to run A/B test emails and see which copy has the highest click-through rate, or use ad platforms like Facebook to A/B test your copy.

Get blurbs from reputable authors in your genre. Blurbs can effectively catch readers’ attention, especially if they’re familiar with the quoting author or publication, and can help entice them to make that final purchasing decision. Our tests showed that book descriptions including blurbs got an average of 22.6% higher click-through rates than those without blurbs.

Create images for teasers and quotes. You can easily turn your quotes into vibrant images using free apps like Canva. Publish these teasers to your website and social media accounts in the weeks and months prior to a book’s release.

Read more at BookBub

Marketing Ideas That Can Help Authors Increase Sales: Prepare Your Book for Effective Promotions

1. Make book samples end on a cliffhanger. For example, on Amazon, users can download the first 10% of a book for free or read it on-site via the “Look Inside” feature. This gives you the opportunity to score a sale if the reader wants to continue after the sample. 


2. Cross-promote books in the back matter. Include a list of all your titles in each of your books’ back matter. Update this back matter whenever you launch a new release. If you have the time, create a version of your book for each retailer with retailer-specific links to each book. 


3. Include an excerpt in the back matter. Immediately after the acknowledgements, include the first chapter of the next book in the series, or one of your popular backlist books. Bookend this excerpt with links to purchase that book. 


4. Link to your mailing list in the back matter. On your “About the Author” page, encourage readers to sign up for your mailing list. If they sign up, you’ll be able to contact them any time you want to promote your backlist titles, new releases, giveaways, price promotions, etc. 


5.  Optimize your book description. BookBub’s A/B testing shows that descriptions that include quotes from authors, awards, and language that caters to your audience (e.g. “If you love thrillers, don’t miss this action-packed read!”) have higher engagement rates. 


6. Include target keywords on product pages. Narrow down a list of 5-7 keywords your audience typically searches for, then incorporate these words into your description headline, description copy, and keyword sections on each of your retailer product pages.


7. Choose relevant subcategories on retailer sites. By targeting the most relevant sub-genres for each of your books, you’ll increase your chances of being on the retailer bestseller charts for a specific category, which could drive higher sales volume. You’ll also avoid disappointing readers who were expecting something different. 


8. Tie different versions of your book together. Different authors and platforms use different systems, but find a way to connect your print edition with your ebook, audiobook, and international editions. This ensures that visitors to your product page can easily purchase the format they prefer. 


9. Link series books together by name. If you’ve published a book series, create a master name for the series and add it to the product’s title on retailer sites. This will help retailer sites make automated recommendations within the series, and help readers find more books in the series to read. 


10. Make books available for pre-order. On the retailers that allow them, you may want to get your future titles up for pre-order as soon as possible. This way you can include the cover of the next book in the back matter of your existing books with a link to the pre-order page. 


11.  Make books available internationally. With growing book sales and millions of readers, international markets can be attractive targets for authors and publishers looking to expand their potential readership. Optimize your cover design for each region and reach out to relevant local bloggers who can help spread the word. 

Read more at BookBub

Marketing Ideas That Can Help Authors Increase Sales: Prepare Your Book for Effective Promotions

1. Make book samples end on a cliffhanger. For example, on Amazon, users can download the first 10% of a book for free or read it on-site via the “Look Inside” feature. This gives you the opportunity to score a sale if the reader wants to continue after the sample. 


2. Cross-promote books in the back matter. Include a list of all your titles in each of your books’ back matter. Update this back matter whenever you launch a new release. If you have the time, create a version of your book for each retailer with retailer-specific links to each book. 


3. Include an excerpt in the back matter. Immediately after the acknowledgements, include the first chapter of the next book in the series, or one of your popular backlist books. Bookend this excerpt with links to purchase that book. 


4. Link to your mailing list in the back matter. On your “About the Author” page, encourage readers to sign up for your mailing list. If they sign up, you’ll be able to contact them any time you want to promote your backlist titles, new releases, giveaways, price promotions, etc. 


5.  Optimize your book description. BookBub’s A/B testing shows that descriptions that include quotes from authors, awards, and language that caters to your audience (e.g. “If you love thrillers, don’t miss this action-packed read!”) have higher engagement rates. 


6. Include target keywords on product pages. Narrow down a list of 5-7 keywords your audience typically searches for, then incorporate these words into your description headline, description copy, and keyword sections on each of your retailer product pages.


7. Choose relevant subcategories on retailer sites. By targeting the most relevant sub-genres for each of your books, you’ll increase your chances of being on the retailer bestseller charts for a specific category, which could drive higher sales volume. You’ll also avoid disappointing readers who were expecting something different. 


8. Tie different versions of your book together. Different authors and platforms use different systems, but find a way to connect your print edition with your ebook, audiobook, and international editions. This ensures that visitors to your product page can easily purchase the format they prefer. 


9. Link series books together by name. If you’ve published a book series, create a master name for the series and add it to the product’s title on retailer sites. This will help retailer sites make automated recommendations within the series, and help readers find more books in the series to read. 


10. Make books available for pre-order. On the retailers that allow them, you may want to get your future titles up for pre-order as soon as possible. This way you can include the cover of the next book in the back matter of your existing books with a link to the pre-order page. 


11.  Make books available internationally. With growing book sales and millions of readers, international markets can be attractive targets for authors and publishers looking to expand their potential readership. Optimize your cover design for each region and reach out to relevant local bloggers who can help spread the word. 

Read more at BookBub

How to Design Your Book’s Cover

Hire a cover designer. A great cover design can have a major impact on your sales numbers. For example, romance writer R.L. Mathewson went from selling five or six copies per day of her novel, Playing for Keeps, to over 1,000 per day by updating her cover design. It’s usually worth hiring a professional to create a polished cover that appeals to readers in your genre.

Test cover variations with your audience. Have your cover designer create multiple variations and use data to choose your cover design. Test two variations against each other using tools like PickFu, UsabilityHub, or Playbuzz.

Unify cover designs in a series. Create consistent branding between books in a series to make purchasing decisions easy for readers. A unified cover and title style often helps readers recognize connected titles and encourages them to purchase subsequent books.

Re-launch a book with a new cover. Redesigning a book cover can be a great way to reinvigorate book sales. It gives you the opportunity to “re-launch” your book according to the ever-evolving tastes of genre readers.

Add a blurb to your cover. If you’ve managed to secure a blurb from a well-known author, consider including it on your cover design. Try to use a short blurb so it’s easy to read and you don’t clutter your design.

See more at BookBub

8 Ways to Create Your Online Platform

1. Create an author website. Your site should be a marketing tool that serves as the hub of all your online activity, from blogging to selling books to emailing a newsletter to participating in social media. Use a platform like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix to easily build a site.

2. Set up a blog on your site. Provide a “behind the scenes look” for readers by blogging once or twice a month. Fans will love the insight into your personality and writing process, and anything you post is fodder for your next email to subscribers.

3. Link to your published books. Create a site page linking to your books to make it easy for readers to discover all the titles you’ve written. Include cover images, brief elevator pitches, and links to multiple retailers so readers can purchase your books wherever they shop.

4. Brand your homepage with your newest release. Publicize your latest work on your website by updating the header or banners of your homepage so readers who visit will become aware of your new release.
Consider including blurbs instead of a synopsis to intrigue visitors.

5. Build a mailing list on your site. Include a simple form on your homepage, your website pages, and/or your blog’s sidebar asking for visitors’ email addresses. Collecting email addresses lets you build relationships with people who want to hear from you.

6. Welcome new subscribers with an email autoresponse. When people subscribe to updates from you via your website, send them a welcome email including either a link to a permafree ebook, sample chapters, or some sort of freebie as a “thank you” for signing up. 


7. Claim your social media profiles. Grab your username on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, LinkedIn, and About.me. Even if you don’t have active profiles on each site, at least claim your name and direct people who visit to your most active social media profile instead.

8. Create a video blog. Upload videos to YouTube and embed each video in a blog post. In these videos, you can answer fan questions, partner with another author to interview each other, list book recommendations, or do a short reading from an upcoming new release. Experiment with a few simple videos to see if you’re comfortable vlogging before focusing on production quality.




See more at BookBub