{"id":330,"date":"2020-11-20T11:19:42","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:53:13","slug":"marketing-tips-for-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/marketing-tips-for-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Tips For Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You\u2019ve written a book. You\u2019ve got it all the way through production, either with the help of a traditional publisher or on your own, via self-publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And all that seemed like plenty of effort, did it not? You\u2019d think that you could now lie back in the warm sun of adulation as readers flocked to your books and asked you intense questions about just how you found your inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, you know. Reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a traditional publisher and you\u2019re lucky with them and the book, then things really can be like they were in your dreams. Huge retail distribution. Big sales. All that adulation. But even for traditionally published authors, those things are rare. The situation for most of us (and I\u2019m a hybrid author, both traditionally and self-published) is that we see our books \u2013 our beautiful, published books \u2013 languishing a long way from the happy sunlight at the top of the bestseller charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what to do? There\u2019s a lot you&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;do, in fact, and some of the tools are very potent indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here\u2019s the top 10 things to try when marketing a book. Some are more complex than others. Some cost money. Some are as free and easy as winter rain. So let\u2019s explore. We\u2019ll start with stuff that\u2019s easy, cheap and relatively low in effectiveness \u2026 and move up the ladder to stuff that\u2019s harder, but more potent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-Post-Something-On-Your-Blog\">1. Post Something On Your Blog<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You&nbsp;<em>have<\/em>&nbsp;a <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-start-a-writers-blog-the-basics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blog<\/a>, right? Preferably integrated into <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/do-professional-writers-need-a-website\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">your own website<\/a> that has a domain name of the form yourname.com. If you\u2019re not yet there, well \u2013 you need to get there. A decent looking website is necessary these days. These things can be put together for almost nothing these days, though if you\u2019re serious about your career, I think you\u2019ll do what you need to do to <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author-website-essentials-a-writers-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">create something of quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In any case, use your site to tell a story. Don\u2019t&nbsp;<em>sell<\/em>&nbsp;at the reader. No one loves to have stuff shoved at them. Your best bet is to tell a story that engages in some way \u2026 and then make it unbelievably easy for readers to buy your book if they want to. That means creating easy, obvious links to your Amazon page, at the top, front and middle of your piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Need to set up a website?\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.writersdigest.com\/online-editor\/step-step-guide-build-author-website\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Here\u2019s how<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Want to create a vlog (video blog) as well as a written one? This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.veed.io\/tools\/video-editor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video editor<\/a> might help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-Create-Author-Profiles-On-Amazon-And-Goodreads\">2. Create Author Profiles On Amazon And Goodreads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Readers hang out both on Amazon and Goodreads. Both sites want authors to claim their profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use a <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/tips-for-authors-getting-headshots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">photo<\/a> that feels personal. Write a short bio that feels human and engaged. If you want to reference your favourite authors (ones writing in a similar field to you, of course), then do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These things won\u2019t create readers overnight, but they are part of any modern author\u2019s armoury. Basically, you must do them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said that \u2013 don\u2019t misdirect your attention either. I have yet to meet a professional author who thinks that being&nbsp;<em>active<\/em>&nbsp;on Goodreads is a good way to spend time. It isn\u2019t. You need to create an attractive profile there, then leave it. Spending hours engaging with the community will not create sales. Advertising on Goodreads is a simple way to lose money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Create a good-looking author page&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/authorcentral.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/help?topicID=200620850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">following Amazon\u2019s own recipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-Create-An-Author-Page-On-Facebook-And-Connect-It-To-Your-Blog\">3. Create An Author Page On Facebook (And Connect It To Your Blog)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t want to mix your personal page with your professional one, so set up a yournameauthor page on <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/a-simple-guide-to-social-media-for-authors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>. Maintaining that page as well as your blog will drive you crazy, so make sure that when you post on your blog, that post pops up both on your Facebook author page and on your Goodreads one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is that probably no one may read your blog much in the first instance \u2013 these things take time to grow and even major authors don\u2019t necessarily have huge volumes of site traffic. But readers do congregate on Goodreads and Facebook and they do like to see some personal, engaging material on authors they may happen to stumble across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So create the material on your blog. Pipe it over \u2013 automatically \u2013 to those other sites. If you can\u2019t do that by yourself, then pay someone to do it. You\u2019re an author not a tech-expert, so it\u2019s OK to pay others when you need to \u2026 and there are cheap or free ways to automate these things, so paying someone to make the connections shouldn\u2019t cost you much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read up on more&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.standoutbooks.com\/professional-author-facebook-page\/\" target=\"_blank\">tips<\/a>&nbsp;for your author page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-Open-Yourself-Up-To-Twitter\">4. Open Yourself Up To Twitter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, I know. If you like <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/a-simple-guide-to-social-media-for-authors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, you\u2019re already on it. If you\u2019re not, that\u2019s because you hate it and can\u2019t see the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I hate Twitter. I don\u2019t like the zero-attention-span, weirdly formatted, near-impenetrable texts that the damn site is full of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also: you cannot sell stuff via Twitter. Yes, this is a post about marketing your work. Yes, I am recommending that you join Twitter. And yes, I have just told you that you cannot sell on Twitter. It\u2019s not just me that thinks that last thing. The digital marketing manager at a major publishing house told me the exact same thing. I\u2019ve also seen data that calls into question the degree to which even a really \u2018successful\u2019 Twitter campaign can influence sales. The only real exception is where you are already established enough that you don\u2019t have to sell your book, but you can notify people that it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All that said, you still need to be on Twitter because numerous people that you may want to connect with (bloggers, other authors, marketing types, industry folk) may not publish an email address, but are publicly and easily available on Twitter. For that reason, Twitter remains absolutely central as a way to connect with these industry types (a technique known as <a href=\"https:\/\/affise.com\/blog\/ultimate-guide-to-prm-marketing-strategy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PRM in marketing<\/a>, where PRM = Partner Relationship Managament.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you want to reach those people, you don\u2019t just need to be signed up to the service, you do need to follow some people, and get followed back, just so that you don\u2019t look like the only naked one in the room. It\u2019s a faff, yes, but you\u2019re marketing your books and you can\u2019t ignore Twitter just because you&nbsp;<em>#hateit<\/em>. And \u2013 once you\u2019ve signed up, and got properly started \u2013 then start to contact the people that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And remember that conversations on Twitter are like conversations anywhere. You don\u2019t just barge in and shout and try to sell stuff. Be courteous, interested, and \u2013 when you have a relationship \u2013 you politely enquire if Person X might be interested in your very fine Y. Out of those relationships, come invitations to appear on blogs, to get book reviews, to do Q&amp;As and all the rest of it. There are other ways to reach those people \u2013 email works, and there are some great groups on Facebook \u2013 but Twitter is still the easiest way to make that first knock on the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Need more on getting started? Find out more&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.constantcontact.com\/the-first-10-things-to-do-when-getting-started-on-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from these people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-Use-Your-Ebooks-As-A-Platform-To-Sell-Your-Ebooks\">5. Use Your Ebooks As A Platform To Sell Your Ebooks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have more than one ebook, then make sure that your ebooks are properly set up to sell each other. That means that in the back of each e-book you have a proper listing of your titles \u2013 updated, please, as new books come out. That listing shouldn\u2019t just list the actual titles, you should also include some enticing sales copy and think about including a book cover too. The point is to catch readers when they\u2019ve just finished your book \u2013 when they\u2019re still half in love with your character, still giddy with the excitement of your ending \u2013 and get them to&nbsp;<em>buy more stuff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So put that stuff under their noses, and make it very attractive, very engaging and very buyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s only step one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You also, crucially, need to make it unbelievably easy for people to buy the books they\u2019re looking at. That means (for most indies) a simple link to Amazon in your mobi files \u2013 or rather three, as you\u2019ll need different links for the .com, .ca, and .co.uk sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditionally published authors can\u2019t \u2013 for complicated reasons to do with their publishers\u2019 contractual situation \u2013 place the same easy links to Amazon. So what you need to do is create a kind of \u201cchoose your e-store\u201d page. That page will basically just bounce people&nbsp;<em>from<\/em>&nbsp;your ebook&nbsp;<em>to<\/em>&nbsp;the reader\u2019s choice of e-store. You can see a fine example of such a page&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrybingham.com\/book-titles\/the-dead-house-ebook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right here<\/a>. Notice that although that page exists on my own website \u2013&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrybingham.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">harrybingham.com<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 it\u2019s shorn of&nbsp;<em>all<\/em>&nbsp;in-site navigation. That is, once you arrive on the \u2018choose your estore\u2019 page, there\u2019s absolutely nothing to do except choose your estore and move on. Also \u2013 obviously \u2013 the links are to&nbsp;<em>your<\/em>&nbsp;page on the various estores, not just the home page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting your ebook to sell effectively at the end of the book is essential and it\u2019s a free and easy way to make additional sales. The best way to understand what the back end of an ebook should like is to look at an ebook that has been carefully designed to sell an entire series. My own ebooks do just that, like the back of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Dead-House-Fiona-Griffiths-Thriller-ebook\/dp\/B01BKS2X28\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Dead House<\/a>. Notice the author\u2019s note, the series listing, those \u201cchoose your estore\u201d links, and the multiple email sign-up opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-Get-Clever-With-Your-Bisac-Codes\">6. Get Clever With Your Bisac Codes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your BISAC codes or \u2018browse categories\u2019 tell Amazon where to shelve your book. (Find out more&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/kdp.amazon.com\/help?topicId=A200PDGPEIQX41\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.) And mostly, you\u2019ll want to shelve it in places that actually collect some traffic \u2013 so \u201cRomance\/Historical\u201d say, rather than \u201cFamily and Friendship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s hard to climb far enough up those major categories to really find eyeballs \u2026 and one brilliant, if sneaky, little trick is to choose one BISAC code that\u2019s so minor you just don\u2019t need to make many sales to hit that #1 position. And once you have that #1 position, Amazon tags your book with a sweet little #1 bestseller icon \u2026 which is a wonderful lure to anyone stumbling across your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, in any case, remember that your BISAC codes are infinitely malleable. If your original choices aren\u2019t working for you, then change them. Mess around and see what works. That\u2019s free and it\u2019s easy. If you\u2019re traditionally published, then you won\u2019t have direct access to these codes, but do ask your publisher what they\u2019re doing, and test their answer. Make sure they have a strategy and are revising it if need be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-Get-Clever-With-Your-Keywords-And-Subtitles\">7. Get Clever With Your Keywords And Subtitles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Try typing something into Amazon now. Just type the first two or three letters of whatever you\u2019re searching for and Amazon will quickly offer you a dropdown list of things it guesses you might be seeking. Sometimes, it\u2019ll offer you the name of an author (\u2018Harry Bingham\u2019). But often enough it offers you thematic-type searches \u2013 things like \u2018psychological thriller\u2019 or \u2018historical novels\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those thematic search terms are great to use as <a href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-increase-amazon-book-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">keywords <\/a>for your book \u2013 just make sure they pop up on those Amazon dropdowns, because if they don\u2019t, then no one is searching for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And once you\u2019ve chosen your keywords, do shove them into your series titles or subtitles, because use of a keyword&nbsp;<em>with<\/em>&nbsp;subtitle\/series title support always beats an equivalent book which lacks that support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re self-published, you already know about this and are probably already doing it. If you\u2019re traditionally published, you may well think that this is all complicated stuff and your publishers presumably know their onions. Except they may not do. A huge proportion of traditional publishers have been trained and brought up in a world of bricks and mortar print. Editors who came into the industry because they wanted to edit books may simply not want to deal with the minutiae of keywords and series titles. Results: some huge and supposedly sophisticated firms can be blithering morons when it comes to online visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So ask. Understand the answers. And ask again. Do not let this one get away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ebooksuccess4free.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/03\/7-tips-for-amazon-keywords-and-best-selling-books\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn more<\/a>&nbsp;about keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"8-Pricing\">8. Pricing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So easy, this, but I\u2019ve relegated the matter of price to a long way down this list because unless you have other ingredients of your marketing platform well-set in advance, the impact of a pricing tweak will dissipate far too fast into the cloudless blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But once you are happy with your author platform, once you have optimised your ebooks, once you do have your keywords and your BISAC codes and all the rest of your metadata straight, then press the pricing button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dropping your price from $4.99 or $2.99 down to $0.99 will give you an immediate strong but relatively short-term boost to pricing. All the same, that boost gets more readers into your series and gives you the chance to make full-price sales of later books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"9-Email-Lists\">I do also recommend the use of Amazon\u2019s useful pricing tool, KDP Pricing Support (available via&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/kdp.amazon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kindle Direct<\/a>), locked it would seem in permanent beta. The tool shows you the impact of pricing on both readers and revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You want revenues, of course. That\u2019s your aim. On the other hand, nearly all authors want to grow their readership in the hope of earning even larger revenues down the road, in which case you\u2019ll want to price somewhat to the left of that \u2018revenue maximising point\u2019. Dipping down to $0.99 or $2.99 to raise visibility, then jumping back to a higher price point makes great sense. If you live at the lower price levels all the time, you\u2019ll find that you don\u2019t secure any extra kick staying there. You\u2019re better off with a kind of yo-yo strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-1024x804.jpg\" alt=\"marketing tips for writers\" class=\"wp-image-459753\" width=\"833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-1024x804.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-600x471.jpg 600w, https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-768x603.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash-640x503.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"9-Email-Lists\">9. Email Lists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t keep an email list, you need to create one. If you do have one, then you probably know how to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for a whistle-stop tour of why you need one and how to make one, then here you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A.<\/strong>&nbsp;You need your readers\u2019 email addresses so you can contact your customers directly when you have a new product. It\u2019s like when you buy a new dress from an online retailer: they\u2019ll be in touch later to say, \u2018Hey, you like dresses. We\u2019ve got some more dresses. How about it?\u2019 That tactic was and is the best marketing tactic ever invented. You\u2019re basically talking to customers who like your stuff and have been ready to buy it in the past. They\u2019re the very first people to go back to when you have more products available to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>B.&nbsp;<\/strong>You collect readers email addresses by setting up a \u2018Readers\u2019 Club\u2019. People want to be part of a readers\u2019 club attaching to a series or author that they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C.<\/strong>&nbsp;You can\u2019t just take stuff (an email address), you must give, too, and what you give has got to be a lot better than one email address. But you\u2019re a writer, yes? And readers are committed to writers. Write a long short story or a short novella and give it away&nbsp;<em>for free<\/em>&nbsp;to anyone who signs up to your club. The story should be exclusive, for subscribers only. If you sell the thing on Amazon, you\u2019re demeaning the gift, so don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>D.<\/strong>&nbsp;In terms of techie stuff, you need an email provider \u2013 most likely Mailchimp \u2013 and a sign-up page. If that sentence frightens you, then pay someone to do the necessary. Your aim is to have a landing page that functions&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrybingham.com\/lev-in-glasgow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">like this one<\/a>. There\u2019s no in-site navigation, big obvious sign-up buttons, plenty of use of the word \u2018free\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, and don\u2019t ask for an email straight away because that seems grabby. Only ask for an email address in direct response to a customer\u2019s request. Only when a user on my website clicks the \u201cGet my download now\u201d button do I ask for an email address. In other words, let them give the orders. You only ask for the address to fulfil that command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>E.<\/strong>&nbsp;Where do you get your email sign-ups from? Well, yes, from the website, except that realistically the only people who come to your website with the intent to join your Readers\u2019 Club are people who have just read and enjoyed one of your books. The real source of sign-ups is&nbsp;<em>from within the ebooks themselves<\/em>. I have graphic calls-to-action in the front and back of my ebooks&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;text-only links underneath&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;a call to action in my author\u2019s note&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;a further one in my series listing. That sounds horribly overdone, except that it seems perfectly natural when you have the book in your hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And get this: I get about one email sign-up for every five ebooks I sell. That\u2019s a very good ratio, which means I can reach at least 20% of my readers by email whenever I want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>F.<\/strong>&nbsp;How do you use the email list once you\u2019ve got it? Answer: as little as possible. People will just unsubscribe if you blast them with unwanted crap, so keep it very light. I reckon that two emails a year is (in most cases) plenty. One to announce when a book goes up for pre-order. Another to nudge people when that book is published or enjoying a special and temporary price promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>G.<\/strong>&nbsp;And, to be clear, the real beauty of the email list is not the fact that you can collect however many hundred sales. It\u2019s that because those sales are densely focused around the time you send the email, you can instantly jump into the bestseller charts, at which point Amazon\u2019s own algorithms will start giving you a ton of visibility \u2013 then, consequently, a whole heap of additional sales. The email list isn\u2019t there to sell to the people on the list only, it\u2019s there to multiply your visibility whenever you choose to do it. Lovely!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"10-The-Joy-Of-Facebook\">10. The Joy Of Facebook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>And finally, the simplest way to promote a book and get sales is the most traditional way of all. Advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Placing ads is not particularly hard or technical or difficult. You simply go into Facebook and click the little down arrow on the right-hand side of the top navigation bar. You\u2019ll get a drop down with \u2018Your pages\u2019 at the top. You want to click on \u2018Create Ads\u2019 a little further down that list and you\u2019re off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The things you really, really need to know about Facebook advertising are as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, Facebook-world distinguishes between Campaigns, Ad-sets, and Ads. The Campaign might include all the ads you use to promote a book. The Ad-sets are defined by budget and audience. The ads themselves are defined by the text and images that you use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The five great keys of Facebook advertising are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Start with small budgets<\/strong><br>\u00a310 a day is fine. When you get a sense of what works, add money cautiously to the ad variant(s) that is\/are working. And don\u2019t woosh the budget up from \u00a310 to \u00a3100, as that can throw sand in Facebook\u2019s ad gears. Go up in 50% increments, even if you\u2019re impatient. Watch what works \u2013 and the key metric here is cost per click. How much does it cost you to send a qualified, interested reader through to your Amazon page?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Test, test and test again<\/strong><br>Try varying audiences, headlines and either image or ad text. Once you evolve your best audience, your best headline and so on, you can pile your resources in there. And don\u2019t vary everything all at once. You need to be able to compare ads that are basically identical except for one thing changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Always include an emotional reason to buy<\/strong><br>What will your book make the reader feel? What mood do you want to convey? You need to make sure that your image, your text and your headlines are all in sync with that mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Always include \u2018social proof\u2019<\/strong><br>People are \u2013 rightly \u2013 suspicious of ads, because those ads want to take money off the reader. So include \u2018proofs of excellence\u2019 from whatever source you can. I have nice reviews from well-known newspapers and bloggers, so I tend to use those. Others will use things like \u2018Over fifty-five-star reviews\u2019 or \u2018Readers are saying that \u2026\u2019 Whatever you do, make sure that your ad is conveying the idea that&nbsp;<em>other people like this book<\/em>. That way, no one is dumb for forking out a few dollars for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Always include a rational reason to buy<\/strong><br>People know that they can go to Amazon any time they want to pick up books at full price, so an ad that says, in effect, \u2018Here\u2019s just one more full-price book on Amazon\u2019 will struggle to achieve real traction. So discount your book. Slap something on the ad that says, \u2018Now only \u00a31.99\u2019 (or similar). Your ad has got to make people feel (i) Oooh, I like the sound of that, and (ii) better get in there now, before the price goes back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And \u2013 of course \u2013 start modestly. Track results. Stick to budgets. And be quick to pull out or pull back if things don\u2019t go the way you want. It\u2019s easy to spend a ton of money on Facebook \u2013 and that\u2019s fine&nbsp;<em>only<\/em>&nbsp;if you\u2019re making two tons of money via Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that\u2019s our top 10 marketing tips for authors, self-published or traditionally published. The last two of these tools are extremely potent but do work best if you\u2019ve done all or most of the other things first. Good luck, and happy marketing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve written a book. You\u2019ve got it all the way through production, either with the help of a traditional publisher or on your own, via self-publishing. And all that seemed like plenty of effort, did it not? You\u2019d think that you could now lie back in the warm sun of adulation as readers flocked to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[28575],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publishing-industry","category-self-publishing","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read our guide for valuable advice on how to promote a self-published book. 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