Wondering where to begin with book promotion?
Spreading the word about your book is an essential part of publishing. And frankly, no one way of promoting your book stands out as the best. But in the following article, I will show you a combination of methods for promoting your book that work extremely well when done together.
Write Articles / Blog Posts
Writing articles and/or blog posts is a valuable way to promote your book. The more of these you write, the better. You really can’t do too many.
One of the tricks with writing is to mix up where you post your work. If you have an author blog or book website, those are great places to post your work. But be sure to write for article directories too.
And probably one of the best (and hardest) methods for promoting your book is to get your article / post published on another popular blog in your niche or genre.
Be sure that the articles / posts you write have a link back to another of your works – whether that be another article, your book sales page, or your video trailer.
Video Trailer
More and more people consume information online through videos. Like it or not, it is a reality. So why not put your book in front of this huge audience?
Imagine the last commercial you saw for a new movie – it is a quick two to three minute “commercial”. Your book trailer should be the same. No more than three minutes long.
And you can leave out the special effects! A simple PowerPoint slide show that is recorded as a video will work fine as a book trailer. The main thing is to get your message across to the viewer. The video trailer should communicate the ‘hook’ that makes your book worth reading.
Make sure to mention the title of your book and a website or article where people can go to learn more about your book!
When the video trailer is ready, post it on YouTube and be sure to create a full channel description complete with a link back to your book sales page or your author website. YouTube will also give you a link so you can embed the video on your website or in a press release!
Press Release
Sending out a press release about your book is probably the most effective method of book promotion in this list. But it is made more effective when you have a great article or video trailer to link to or include with your press release.
A quick search for “submit a press release” will turn up hundreds of websites where you can submit your release. The price varies by site and distribution network. A press release on PRWeb will cost around $300 while Webwire will cost about $30. The difference is in who the release gets sent to. You can release your news free to your local newspaper too and I recommend doing that.
If you are tight on money, go with a press release through Webwire – the main thing here is to get your release about your book out through Google News.
Be sure to include your video trailer in the press release – some will let you directly embed the video with the press release. Others will not let you embed the video – but you can simply link to it.
Summary
None of these methods of book promotion are necessarily more important than the other. But if you do all of these things, they provide a solid overall promotion for your book. And keep in mind that linking these works together will make your book promotion even stronger.
Photo: Madzia Bryll on Flickr
