Do authors need to market their books? In a world where millions of books are published every year, authors struggle to stand out and sell a mere 100 copies. Shockingly, 80% of all published books sell less than 200 copies. Such facts underscore the need to understand book marketing. Such include book digital marketing, book on network marketing, book affiliate marketing, and book promotion websites, platforms, and firms.
This article articulates critical secrets on implementing issue-based marketing and stopping you from being a bad book marketer.
Understanding Book Marketing
First, what is book marketing and how should authors market their books?
Book marketing is the process of creating awareness to reach readers and book lovers and make them preorder, buy, and distribute your launching or launched book. Two types of book marketing involve organic and promoted marketing.
The difference is where a book naturally sells due to topical and contextual issues in a particular market. Organic is the best way to sell a book rather than push budgets to reach a market.
One of the quick facts is that most authors are not good marketers and most marketers cannot have the time to be good authors.
Good marketers only have time to provide good high converting platforms while fusing conversion terms for sales. It is a pure and simple business language. Good authors should keep to their lane of writing good quality books for the marketer and build the funnel.
Understanding Issue Based Marketing
Have you seen a person who posts their book covers every day?
It is the quickest way to fail in marketing your book. That is the quickest way to get people tired of you and your monotonous book covers.
Statically, such people get more post reactions on their first post and eventually, the reactions decline over time. Remember when you announced you were launching a book on socials, how many reactions did you get? I’m sure you were super happy. Can you compare it with today’s reactions?
STOP working so hard to kill your hard developed brands and understand issue based marketing for conversion.
So, what is issue based marketing?
Issue based marketing involves picking relevant topical issues in your book and creating helping and relating conversations that your audience finds necessary as a solution or worth their time.
The importance of issue based marketing is that in today’s social world full of social sites, people are drawn to logic and fun conversations not static book covers forced on their faces every morning.
That is why young consumers are running away from Facebook which displays the same image for days.
Why should the same consumers buy your book yet they know nothing about your book?
Align your conversations to your book contents.
This is what I do with my LinkedIn posts and easily make sales without bogging my viewers with the book cover. I wrote ‘Real Growth Hacks’ book addressing issues I like talking about and my readers love my tried diverse growth strategies like you are loving this article.
It is one of the key growth strategies in achieving logical reactions leading to book sales.
If your book is on Parenting, speak about topical issues on parenting. Not posting the beautiful baby face on the coverage every other time.
Moreover, add links, go for forums, be passionate, and don’t force issues. No one likes a stone pellet in their food. So how do you implement issue based marketing to achieve better results?
Implementing Growth Strategy in Book Marketing
Did you know issue based marketing impacts a larger society beyond what your book can do?
1. Book Digital Marketing
One quick way to implement issue-based this is through optimizing your book’s digital marketing platforms. This is using social media channels to discuss topical issues in moderation.
One mistake in book digital marketing is overdoing topical issues by posting and overindulging in the same conversation.
A good dancer knows the exit conversion strategy, let them enjoy the juicy stories and desire the book. It is called creating ‘Taharuki’, suspense for conversion.
In book digital marketing, put links to your books, create questions, hashtags, and all sorts of good energy. Modern society wants to know their problem in a fun easy way and find a solution. Can your conversations show this and direct them to the book?
2. Explore Book on Network Marketing
Through book digital marketing explore online and offline book network marketing platforms and events. Network marketing involves finding book-related platforms and events to offer conversations, learn, and share topical issues in your book.
Offer the event attendees an opportunity to critically hear the topical issues in your book rather than forcing them to buy. Do indirect marketing by bringing out issues and directing solutions in the book.
The key mistake while exploring a book on network marketing is pushing the book to the network. Pushing means telling the audience to buy your book, letting them see the need, and buying voluntarily.
Good brands do not force themselves into a market. The solution traps and calls.
Remember offering talks to events related to your book on network marketing can get you paid much more than selling books commensurate to the number of event attendees.
3. Book Affiliate Marketing
One way to build book affiliate marketing is through building good relationships in the events you attend related to book-on-network marketing. So what is book affiliate marketing?
According to Authority Hacker (2024), book affiliate marketing involves promoting a book using affiliate programs that help other people and platforms earn a commission from each book sale.
Therefore, book affiliate marketing allows you to find people and platforms that can promote your topical issues and sell more through affiliate markets.
A key mistake in book affiliate marketing is using poor-quality affiliate programs or mismatching affiliate programs to promote your book. You don’t want to offer your good Pesticide book on a good family affiliate program.
4. Book Promotion Website
There are book affiliate programs that relate to book promotion websites. But what is a book promotion website?
A book promotion website involves having a website that brings out issues relating to your book, creating book events, conversations, conversions, and distributing your book.
The main advantage of having a book promotion website is that the website allows building a brand around the book, and its solution to a point where you can create a program and course.
A book promotion website gives you the freedom to write articles, post videos, graphics, and all sorts of materials to deliver quality content as you find fit anytime. Wicef is an example of a book promotion website relating to Real Growth Hacks and its business model of growing innovators.
A key mistake in book promotion websites is copy-pasting your book content on that website. Write issues of the book, not post the copy-pasting. Observe strategic Search Engine Optimization strategies to have a high impact.
5. Book Marketing Firms & Platforms
The reason authors should not be marketers is that there are book marketing firms and platforms to promote and distribute books.
But what comprises good book marketing firms? A good book marketing firms provide you with an opportunity to fairly market your book and honor the contract of engagement.
This means the book marketing firm promotes your book at events, their social media, and their website and whenever a conversion is made, they give you the agreed money without unnecessary push and pull.
The best book marketing firms have online wallets you have an account to see sales and withdraw the money to your account at your comfort.
One of the best book marketing firms in Kenya is Nuria. However, Reedsy can help you to internationally identify a marketer.
Nuria not only wins awards for being the best online book store but also offers opportunities for Kenyan authors to market and attend buildup events organized by the firm.
One advantage Nuria has is that it promotes issue-based marketing by encouraging authors to convene and discuss topical issues in their respective author books.
Therefore, pick up and use issue-based marketing and avoid the above hitched if you have to market your book.
Conclusion
Above all, authors should purely write and not market their books. In the profound words of Gabriel Dinda Founder of Writers Guide Kenya, “Authoring a book is biblically enough.” Your book is enough to say you have done your part, ‘faithful servant.’ The rest should automatically come if the book is good enough.
Want to take your marketing to the next level? Align your strategy with relevant topical issues. My team and I can help implement the strategy for you.
Get My Book from my Favourite Firm, Marketer & Honest Store – Nuria
