How do you market a book when you don’t have a book yet?🤔
Grab your metaphorical tools and get ready for some metaphorical scaffolding construction🔨🏚️
Dear Pen Pals,
When should I start marketing my book? I’m still writing but am going to self-publish hopefully early next year. Should I already be talking about it on social media? Are there other things I should be doing?
Signed,
I Can’t Think of a Clever Name
Hey I Can’t Think of a Clever Name,
This is a great question, and I’m actually going to split the answer into two newsletters to focus on the two different stages of book marketing and their different strategies within self-publishing (for any traditionally-published authors here, that’s a different beast–if you have questions, you know what to do).
When I take on freelance calls for marketing and social media coaching, I often work with clients who are still in the writing stage–and for nonfiction, sometimes still in the proposal stage. Usually the first thing they ask me is how to start marketing their book on social media. And that’s when I need to find the gentlest way to say:
That might sound harsh, but as far as the general public is concerned, it’s true. They can’t buy it, and you can’t market something that isn’t available. You can put out teaser content, you can let people know that you’re in the process of writing–but you shouldn’t be using your best pitching material until your audience can act on their response to that pitch and be converted into a consumer.
So let’s get into what marketing should look like before your book is actually self-published:
Stage One of Self-Publishing Marketing: Building the Scaffolding
Listen, I’m a marketer but I’m also a writer, and if you haven’t caught on yet I love a metaphor. Think of your marketing campaign as building a house, and right now you’re building the structure. The scaffolding may not be pretty, but it’s absolutely vital to have if you want a future where you can show off your house with pride.
That said, this stage is basically the equivalent to the initial book-planning stage of writing. You need to have some sense of what you’re going to write before you start the writing process. Similarly, in marketing you need to have some base plan for your strategy before you can start the marketing process.
This stage can (and should) start early; social media presence should start as early as possible, the rest you should be thinking about one-to-two months ahead of time. This first stage of marketing will end once the Amazon page for your book is live.
The main points of focus during this stage should be:
Building social media and online presence
Basically everything I’ve been talking about so far in this newsletter. Social media and any online presence during this time should be used as a means to establish yourself within whatever space relates to your book. It’s also your chance to start building up your author image in general, allowing your audience to get to know you as a real person so that you’re not just an anonymous face behind a product (this can also be helpful for reviews–people aren’t as likely to be mean in reviews if they can put a face to the author).
This is also a great stage to bring your audience along with you on the writing process. Don’t mention a title yet because 1.) Until the cover is finalized, there’s always a chance it will change and 2.) You don’t want your audience to waste their Googling energy before there’s a book to find. Basically, keep your audience intrigued and invite them along on your journey, but wait until the right moment to give them any kind of call-to-action. You can and should share what the book is about, and even let them know when you’re going to be publishing it, but make sure they know it’s not available yet.
Building your network
The other core part of this stage is thinking ahead about what people you’d like to reach out to for collaboration. When I run campaigns for the traditional publisher where I work, I usually aim to send a book out to about 25 people on social media with varying ranges of followers. Obviously, getting people with big followings can be great, but make sure their audience matches the audience for your book. The best place to start is close to home with people you’re already connected to. And don’t discount micro-influencers! Big followings are great, but I also love finding smaller accounts–a lot of the time they have a more dedicated, passionate following that makes up for the smaller follower numbers.
Start keeping tabs on who you might want to put on that list to get a complimentary copy, but don’t reach out and ask until you actually have physical books you can send. This is the scouting and relationship-building stage. Like and comment on accounts you have in mind, make yourself known before you slide into their DMs. This is also a great opportunity for author friendships! “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” is the fuel of author communities–talk about the books and projects by people you want to work with, uplift each other!
This also applies if you’re someone that wants to appear on podcasts. Make a wish-list, track down contact emails, and start working on your pitch. Again, start close to home with friends and acquaintances that have podcasts. Don’t discount the little guys, just start getting yourself out there. You can start pitching podcasts before the book goes on sale if you have a PDF copy to send to hosts ahead of time, but bigger shows are less likely to prioritize a self-pub book that hasn’t proven itself yet. Usually, it’s better to save your energy for when the book has some reviews, sales, and (fingers crossed) maybe even a best-seller tag.
Researching Amazon book categories
When you self-publish on Amazon, you’ll have the option to choose two book genre categories (which you may have also heard referred to as BISACs). There are sub-categories within each category, and it’s important to be specific. Don’t just select Fiction/General if your book is a YA dystopian. The best way to get a sense of what category you should use is to look at your comp titles; find what’s working within your genre and use those same categories as inspiration.
Researching Amazon keywords
Honestly, I could do a whole post on keywords and Amazon optimization for books in general—and I probably will at some point. Within Kindle Direct on Amazon, you’ll have the option to use six keywords. Traditional publishing has the option of using way more keywords, so you’ll need to make yours count. Amazon has a good step-by-step guide to get started.
Creative assets
I strongly recommend hiring a graphic designer to help you out–unquestionably for your book cover, but also to create some assets for you to have on hand. Think about what graphics you might want to post on social media. A lot can be made in Canva, so at the very least have your cover artist send you a 3D digital model of your book, as well as your cover color palette and fonts. If you have the means, it’s great to have a graphic designer handle the rest, too, but having these assets will be a great jumping off point for anything you might want to make. Some graphics to consider making:
IG Story post book announcement
Designed book quotes (good for IG Stories, and also for the TikTok carousel feature)
Graphic with a QR code to your Amazon page (to keep on your phone and pull up for people to scan for whenever your book comes up in conversation with strangers–because trust me it will)
A flyer with a note-from-the-author and a QR code to your Amazon page (to post around where book people spend time–a lot of cafes have flyer bulletin boards; I also like sticking them in Little Free Libraries)
All in all, the period before your book page is live is your planning stage. These are my top-line recommendations, but this is a great time for brainstorming and laying that foundation so that you can hit the ground running once the book is on sale.
Shameless Plug
I don’t have one this week because someone isn’t being shameless enough.
(There’s a 99% chance you’re that someone).
I want to promote you!! The next newsletter is going to be from Emily, but the one after that will focus on marketing strategy after your book goes on sale and how to put your connections to use. Do you know what connection you have right now that you can use to get the word out about your book??? This section isn’t just about social media, it’s about whatever you want to get eyes on!
CLICK HERE AND BE MORE SHAMELESS.😡
I bully you because I love you and I want you to succeed.
Until next time!
Pip (he/they)
A Person with Very Little Shame
P.S.
I came across this video recently when I was feeling overwhelmed, and it was so helpful. Being an author, self-published or otherwise, takes a whole lot of work. Bookmark this one for the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by it all: