Let me tell you about an author I know, Renee (that’s not her real name, for privacy). Renee felt called to write a book to help other Christians build a plan to make time for God in their lives. She had to write it. Her own relationship with our Lord became so much stronger after she learned to make more time for Him that she knew her mission was to help others get to that same place.
Renee wrote her book. She worked hard on it, and prayed daily while she wrote. And when it was done, she self-published it.
It was a watershed day for her. The book she’d been called to write was finished. It was out there in the world, waiting for any needful Christian to find it and find his or her deeper connection with the Lord.
But there was a problem.
No one bought Renee’s book.
No one knew about Renee’s book.
Renee had been called to write the book, but now her calling shifted. She needed to spread her words to the world.
Renee needed to market her book.
What Renee quickly discovered was that she was already starting from behind. She hadn’t considered how she would share her words with the world until after she published. It’s not that it was too late, she was starting later than she should have.
For Renee, and other authors who self-publish their books, the best time to start promoting their books is before the book is published.
You Should Start Your Marketing Efforts Before Your Book is Even Published
It seems counterintuitive, trying to sell people a book that you haven’t even written yet. Your goal with pre-launch book marketing—marketing your book before it’s done—isn’t to sell the book right then.
Your goal is to make sure people know your book is coming. You want them to learn your name. You want them to get excited about your book idea, to follow everything you say. You want them counting down the days until they can give you money for your book.
This is the same reason Hollywood movie studios release trailers for movies before they come out. They don’t want you to get bored on Friday evening, drive to the movie theatre, and then just pick a random movie.
They want you waiting all week for Friday night.
They want you telling your friends, all week, about the movie you can’t wait to see.
You want your new potential readers doing the same thing.
Start With Your Goals
Imagine what the movie trailer for your book might be. Exciting, right?
In order to get to that point, though, you need to slow down and refocus.
What are your goals for your book?
Renee’s goals were twofold: first, write the book and publish it. She achieved that goal. Her second goal—what she felt called to do—quickly shifted to sharing her words with the world. She needed to get her book in front of the readers who wanted to read it.
If those are the goals for your own book, you need to think about marketing.
The first question to ask is, who do I want to read my book?
If you’re writing your book for a small circle of people you already know, you probably don’t need to worry about this. If you’re going to be satisfied with selling maybe thirty copies of your book, you’ll be okay.
But if you’re like Renee, and want your words in front of the world, you have to go wider.
Your Book Determines Your Path to Success
If you’re at all like Renee, at this point you’re thinking some variant of “Okay, but what do I have that will get people excited about my book? How do I interest people in something that doesn’t exist outside my head?”
You have the answer already.
Why are you writing this book?
That reason is the answer.
Are you writing a novel? What kind? Is this a romantic book about two people finding each other and fulfillment through their faith? Is a thrilling adventure novel? A haunting story of a life ill-spent and redeemed in the end?
All of those books speak to a genre of fiction with rabid, loyal readers who expect certain things from their genre, and you can find anecdotes from within your book to entice them. What if you shared short passages of text on social media?
Or, what if you shared the dramatic real-world inspiration for your adventure novel in a small, bite-sized series of emails you trade to people in return for their email address? That way you’re training them to receive your writing and like it, you have their email address, and if they happen to write you emails back begging for more, you know all this is working!
And if your book is nonfiction? If your book is trying to lessen or eliminate a problem in your readers’ lives, you have it even easier. There will be people already out in the world, today, while you’re writing your book, looking for the solution you’re going to offer.
A book about living a godly financial life should lend itself to many examples you could make in small batches. Tidbits or stories you can share to gather interest and end with a call to action: “to find out how it came out, look for my book in a couple months!”
Renee’s book was about helping make time for God in one’s life. She began growing her potential reader audience by sharing small ideas from her book; a way to find more meaningful time on the weekend, or four tips on carving prayer time out of the busy workday. She used colorful social media posts to catch the eye, and made sure her examples were useful in their own right, even without the book.
She didn’t just put up a Tweet that said “Buy my book to find more time for God in your life.” She helped people actually find more time for God.
And those people were so grateful, or excited, or curious, that they began to buy her book.
Give Readers What They Want
Look again at the examples in the last section. Notice the attention I paid to what readers want from certain kinds of books. It’s important—perhaps even paramount—to remember that while you are the author of your book, and you get to make all the decisions, you are the not the audience for your book.
Marketing is selling. Marketing is convincing. Marketing is convincing people that your book has what they want. Not—and I want to be very clear—that they want what is in your book.
We talked about sharing on social media and sending emails. There are many ways to get in front of your audience–start your own blog, or write on someone else’s, buy advertising, speak in public, hand out flyers, or go to open mic nights at your local café.
All of these things may work, but what will work is going to be different for every author, book and reader. One tactic may fail, but another succeeds.
Pay attention to your successes and failures. These are insights into how your potential readers want to be communicated with. If you find that posting an excerpt on Facebook, gets a lot of likes and shares, keep going. Your people are there.
Conversely, if you try to create something to capture email addresses and no one signs up, that’s not a good offer. Try something different.
What you offer should adhere to the same rules. If you share a sample from your Chapter 1, don’t switch to an essay or a blog post. Your new future readers want more from your book—dribble out just enough to keep them interested until the book is ready!
Renee’s social media success came after she failed at email. She’d read about the power of email lists, but she hadn’t found any way to gain subscribers to her list. Even though she had written great, thought-provoking emails, there was no one to send them to.
So instead, she tried social media. And it worked.
Be Mindful and Keep Their Information Safe
As you starting finding success in your pre-launch marketing efforts, recognize the trust you’re accepting. These people are interested in what you offer, yes. But they’re also trading you their personal information—their Facebook or Twitter account names, email addresses, maybe even phone numbers or home addresses—for the word when your book is finally ready.
Recognize that you’re entering an agreement with them when they do that.
It may not be as formal as a contract, but it is certainly an implied contract. Treat their information, and their trust, with respect.
If you’re using email to gain interested potential readers, don’t stop emailing them as soon as they sign up. If you’re using a giveaway or a promotion to drive those signups, don’t not reward people for doing what you ask.
These people are going to be your book readers when your book is ready. You want them excited, not angry or disillusioned.
Remember the Golden Rule, in other words.
Renee got busy with life after a few months of effort, but she recovered. She found that she enjoyed the process of coming up with new and original tips for her readers so much it inspired her to start working on a second book!
Reward Those Who Invest In You
Think about how you consume the books, shows or other forms of entertainment that interest you. Think about the ideas and topics you’re passionate about. When you find a new one, how do you want to be treated by the people who produce it?
Imagine your favorite television show that has a new episode each week. How would you react if the showrunners, for no apparent reason, decided just not to have shows for the next three weeks, but started up again weekly in week four? You wouldn’t be happy.
Now imagine you’ve been attracting new potential readers by sharing excerpts of the chapters you’re writing on your Facebook account. Or you’ve been sending character snapshots once a month via email. What happens to those potential readers if you stop doing that?
They won’t be happy, either.
And unhappy readers don’t buy books.
You want to keep them happy all the way, until your book is ready.
What You Might Expect to Happen
It’s important to make one statement right now: there is no one sure path to success with book marketing. And anyone who tells you there is, is lying to you.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are many strategies and tactics that have worked for many authors. In general, attracting an audience of interested people works the same for everyone: you need something people want (your ideas or your book) and a way to tell those people about it (marketing).
It’s not easy. It takes work.
Most times, it’s slow. The lightning strike of finding that one easy thing that gets you hundreds or thousands of readers in a week is just that: one in a billion.
Renee is working on her second book and doing her pre-launch marketing as she goes. Her social media accounts are still her primary publicity method, but now she uses social posting to drive subscribers to her email list. And when her new book is ready, she’ll reward that email list with a link to buy the book from her website before it’s available anywhere else!
When she began, her email subscriber count was 3 (herself, her husband, and their daughter), but the last time we spoke she had several thousand people she was emailing, all interested in finding more time in their lives for the Lord.
You can do the same thing. It takes time, effort, and prayer, but it can be done.
What To Do Next
If this sounds interesting to you, I strongly suggest you pray on it. Ask for guidance about how you can best succeed in doing this.
Are you interested in reaching out to people on social media? Social media is a powerful way of connecting with people, building off the connections you already have.
Maybe you’re interested in a more robust marketing plan? Even while you’re still writing your book you can develop strategies like these for ideas you can implement early.
If you’re writing and you’re not sure how you even want to publish your book yet, you should absolutely read WestBow Press’ guide to book publishing and see if supported self-publishing is the right path for you!
Which tactics have you tried, and which work best for you? We’d love to know and share with others.