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Marketing & Publicity

Good marketing is an art. Knowing your audience is critical. Get the word out about your book in a compelling and interesting way.

Steps in Marketing & Publicity

  • How to craft your message
  • Social media
  • Search engine optimization
  • Go local
 

How to Maintain Your Book-Selling Passion

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 30, 2021

 
Every year over 1,000,000 ISBNs are assigned to books, but a year later, how many of those authors are still actively marketing them? I would venture to say very few. When initial high expectations and valiant effort result in few sales, most authors quit to pursue other ventures. Their attitudes become exhausted, like a ball dropped on a basketball court. If left unattended, it will bounce lower and lower each time until it finally rolls to a stop. 
 
Authors’ attitudes fade similarly. Those who do not reinflate their mindsets allow their actions to roll to a stop. Their books are still on Amazon, but the passion behind them is not. If you are in that position, here are three things you can do to reignite the fire you once had. 
 
Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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5 Features of Effective and Engaging Author Websites

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 23, 2021

Congratulations! You’re a published author and that makes you a public persona. Even if you spent hours in your youth imagining yourself as a famous author walking and talking with Barbara Walters as a camera trailed behind you, capturing your infinity pool and the sun setting over your horse barn, you may still be adjusting to what exactly that means. 

In a digital world, your author website is your calling card and your platform. Spending some time evaluating your current website — or planning for the one you’ll set up after you finish this post — is time well spent. 

Look at it from a reader’s perspective. Because, to them, author websites show them who’s serious and who’s not, they establish which authors seem to be in it for the long haul as well as which authors they should feel comfortable investing their time and money in.

So let’s talk about 5 important features that separate successful author websites from unsuccessful ones.

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Four Tips for Negotiating Large Book Orders

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 16, 2021

Have you ever bargained with a potential employer for a job offer? If so, you already know the basics of negotiating a large, non-returnable book order since there are many parallels in the two situations. 

For example, when discussing employment compensation, you probably did not focus on a specific salary, but on a total package that included salary, benefits, vacation time, annual reviews, etc. After summarizing your unique skills, knowledge and positive attitude, you asked for the job. Similarly, when discussing compensation for the sale of your books, you do not focus on the price, but on the total package consisting of variables such as cost, returns, payment terms, shipping dates, customization, possible referrals and the likelihood of recurring orders. Here are four tips to help you prepare to ask for — and get — an order for your books.

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Mindset Adjustments for Indie Author Success

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by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 2, 2021

It’s hard to get your book out there — I know this firsthand! — and you get desperate to come up with book promotion ideas to solve all your problems. When my first book published 18 years ago, I was terrified. One night I had a dream that my book had so much global hate that readers were chasing me down the street throwing my own book at me. It was bad. But fast forward, and go figure, I’m now able to design book promotion services that really blow past these typical author insecurities to put the focus back where it belongs — on pinpointing and executing book promotion ideas that get books in hands.

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Seven Secrets for Successfully Selling Books

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 23, 2021

 
My recent article (Why It Can Take Months To Sell Books To Non-Retail Buyers) described how the trek to special-sales success can be long, arduous and frustrating – but profitable. Through it all, a strong and determined attitude can serve as your GPS on your path to success. There are several basic axioms in book marketing in general — and special sales in particular — that may have a negative impact on your attitude. If you can know in advance that these are going to occur, the negative impact on your attitude may be reduced.
 
  • Rejection is a way of life. Be forewarned that you will be rejected far more times than you will be accepted, and this may wear away at your attitude. But do not take rejection personally. That is easy to say, but it can be done if you accept rejection as a challenge to learn, improve your strategy and tactics and thereby increase the likelihood that you will close the sale next time.
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Why It Can Take Months To Sell Books To Non-Retail Buyers (But it is worth the wait)

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Feb 17, 2021

Many independent publishers try to sell their books only to bookstores and other retailers. Their efforts consist primarily of securing distribution partners to funnel books to retailers who put them on their store shelves. There the books remain, nestled among their competitors for a quick comparison of benefits and prices. The point-of-purchase sales process may take 10 minutes, since the risk of making a wrong decision is low. If the book does not meet expectations it is returned, and eventually makes its way back to the publisher. 

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Irresistible Bonus Content & Giveaway Ideas for Indie Authors

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by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Feb 2, 2021

One of the greatest gifts afforded to indie authors is the opportunity to get creative when generating our own book promotion ideas. Yes, sometimes it can seem tiresome, and too often it feels like a chore, so if you resonate with this, I encourage you to dive into the new year with a new book marketing approach! 

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Ask the Right Questions and Increase Your Sales

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jan 19, 2021

 
Many independent publishers ignore non-trade sales because they do not know where to start selling. Their definition of non-trade marketing is selling books “outside of the bookstore.” However, that only suggests where not to sell books; it offers no direction, insight, or instruction about where or how to actually do it. 
 
Here are some questions to answer that can help you define and expand your target readers, leading to new ways to sell your books and new places in which people can buy them. The questions themselves are universal and apply to all subject areas, but as examples I have focused on how they relate to a publisher trying to market a career or job-search title. 
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Five Easy Ways to Upgrade Reader Engagement

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by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Jan 12, 2021

It’s one thing to write and publish a book; reader engagement is a whole different ballgame. Reader engagement gives you longevity and helps you sell more books, so it should really be the driver for all of your book marketing. But I’ll be honest, it’s also really hard, especially when you’re just starting out.

I’ve collected a few tips to jumpstart reader engagement, but really the key to book marketing isn’t doing everything, it’s doing what works for your genre and your reader market. It will take some trial and error before you sell more books in response to your efforts, but it will be worth it because reader engagement is the key to a long and prosperous publishing career.

An added bonus is that developing and encouraging reader engagement also creates a community of likeminded souls who can keep you connected and grounded during the very strange times we’re currently living in. And that may be an even bigger win for everyone involved!

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Marketing & Publicity
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The Measure of Marketing

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Dec 29, 2020

 
The question most publishers periodically ask themselves at this time of year is, “Did I achieve the goals that I set?” The numbers are easy to measure and compare — you either reached your sales objectives or you did not.
 
Due to this perceived simplicity, publishers stop there and recalculate their objectives for next year. The problem with this process is it measures something you cannot control — sales and revenue. If you could control them, then reaching goals would be a given. But you can only influence the attainment of those metrics by the actions you take. 
 
Publishers can significantly improve upon this process by seeking several questions, such as, “Could sales have been higher? How? Did sales maximize my revenue and profit?” And if objectives were not achieved, “Why not?”
 
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Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

Thu, November 13

FAQs about ISBNs

Fri, October 24

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, September 10

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Fri, September 05

Do You Have the Write Stuff?

Wed, September 03

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