You’ve done it. You’ve prepared your manuscript, edited it like crazy, had it tested by beta-readers, and edited it some more. Now your manuscript is ready to become a book that people will buy and read and love. But what do you do now? How do you publish it? How do you sell it? How do you get your book to the people that want to read it? Here are some strategies that a self-publishing author can employ to market their books successfully.
Publish your book in multiple forms.
The first step is to publish your book in at least two formats: hard copies and eBooks. These multiple formats, fundamentally hard copy and soft copy, ensure that you can market your book on various platforms. The more platforms you sell your book on, the more available you make it for purchase to your audience.
Printing Hard Copies
The hard copy versions would target the segment of the market that enjoys purchasing and reading traditional books. You should absolutely take your time in choosing the printer or publisher that will be handling your manuscript. According to AlphaGraphics, you should trust a printer that will offer you “formatting and design, professional binding and finishing, assistance with ISBN number acquisition, and complete marketing and distribution options.” These are all essential services. Some printers will also offer in-house editing; you should absolutely take them up on this opportunity to get your book looked over by an extra set of professional eyes. Even editors need editors, as they say.
You should definitely budget as much money as possible for printing costs. Generally, the more copies you order to be printed, the cheaper the cost is for printing per book, and the more money you will be able to keep from each sale. You must be very cautious with your pricing. Set the price too high in order to cover costs of printing, and customers won’t be willing to pay. Set the price too low, and you won’t be able to cover the cost of printing another round of books to sell.
The price you sell your book for, as a rule of thumb, should be at least double the cost of printing in order for you to be able to print any more (let alone make a profit). So let’s say you order 500 books at a cost of $5 each. You will need to save at least $2,500 up front to pay for printing costs, and you will need to sell each book for a minimum of $10 if you only want to sustain the cost of printing. If you want to make any money on the side, you will probably need to charge around $15 dollars a book.
Making an Ebook
If you market your heart out, publishing an ebook will definitely be the more profitable of the two options. Publishing an eBook usually requires you to save money to pay for a printer to convert your manuscript file into an eBook, and often the printer will charge another fee for distribution of your book to sellers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. The printer will usually format your file, but if you format it yourself, you may be able to save some money; the same goes with supplying your printer with your own cover design. You will still also have to cover the cost of an ISBN number, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to most other publishing costs.
Your printer may offer you advertising or marketing packages, and depending on the services offered, you should seriously consider this option. When it comes to setting a price point for an eBook, the options are more flexible, but the rule of thumb about doubling printing costs still stands. Beware of publishers that take a fee from the profit of the book sales, and take that into consideration when setting a price point.
The eBook soft copy version of your book will target the now-expanding electronic readership that exists on kindles and eReaders. Many people have eReader apps on their phones, such as Amazon Kindle, which allow them to purchase eBooks without having a dedicated eReader device, so be sure to research the kinds of eReader apps that you want your eBook to become available on.
Advertise your publications.
The next important step to take after publication should be getting your product out there for the market to see, sample, and buy.
Prep your elevator pitch. Now, normally we think about the elevator pitch in the terms of business, but it’s crucial to apply this principle to your book if you want to have a hope of marketing it. If you want more specific, detailed instructions about constructing the perfect elevator pitch for your book, check out this article.
Once you have your elevator pitch down, put it everywhere. Advertise on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, even Instagram and Pinterest. Put pictures of your book or posters of your cover everywhere online that you possibly can. Get a website for your book, and push that out as far as you can; put a blog on your website with interesting information that you frequently update in order to attract traffic to your site. Be frequent and consistent with your advertising. Don’t just send out one tweet one time; keep up a sustained effort to get your book out there in the public eye.
You could even reach out to local media (news, magazines, podcasts, bloggers, etc.) about writing a piece on your book or conducting an interview. If you’re really brazen, invite a reviewer to read your book.
If you really want to boost your sales, you should enlist the help of a marketing service that will take some of the marketing burden off your shoulders a. A marketing company can run adds for your book, help manage your website, manage your blog, manage your social media, conduct email marketing, and a lot more.
Build a network and regularly promote your publications.
As a self-published author, it is important that you remain active and in touch with your customers. This is another critical reason why you need a website for your book—a website with a blog and a link to your Twitter and your YouTube and your everything else. Reaching out to your customers and posting content on social media is part of how you generate interest in your book.
Regularly promoting your book helps keep the demand high, and there are many ways to do it. You can post content online, as mentioned above, but it is crucial to build real-world connections, too.
Plan a book launch, and get people hyped about it. Go to your local bookstores with copies of your printed book. Ask to set up a book signing event at their shop, and ask them for advice on book marketing. Ask if they would be willing to stock and sell copies of your book in their store. Make connections with the people who own and work in those bookstores.
Go to local schools, high schools, or colleges, and hold events to advertise your book to the readers there. Reach out to your local libraries, and offer them a copy of your book to keep permanently on their shelves. Ask them about setting up events to advertise your book.
Go to local events or Cons for authors, printers, publishers, editors, artists, and others who work in the publishing industry. Get a booth at one of these events and sell your book. Attend lectures and take workshops. Be an active participant in those lectures and workshops; meet as many new people as you can. Tell those people about your book and about your goals, and ask about internships or job opportunities. Build a writing group with other authors.
Self-publishing is an option that more and more authors are choosing. It comes with a lot of freedom, but also a lot of responsibility. The challenges of self-publishing and marketing can be overcome with lots of hard work and creativity.
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