According to a 2016 report by Amazon, the daily average number of ebooks sold was 1,064,000. With competition like that, you can’t leave selling your book up to chance. You and your book have to be visible to your would-be buyers, and you need to have a good marketing strategy for promoting it. So, now it’s time to create your book launch and promotion plan.

You’ll need to find out where your target readers hang out online, and decide how you’re going to engage with them, let them know about your book, and finally draw them in and persuade them to buy.

In the previous module we looked at building your sales funnel and methods for getting traffic to your funnel. Now, we’re going to look at some essential marketing strategies you can use to promote your book and get more traffic into that funnel.

Price Your Book

Start by setting a price for your book. Choosing a price for your book isn’t an exact science, and there is no formula to follow. However, there are a few factors you can take into account when pricing your book. These include:

• The length of your book/the page count.
• The competition. How much are your competitors charging for similar books?
• The buyer. How much is your reader prepare to pay?
• The value your reader will get from the book’s content – how well it solves a problem, and helps them reach a goal etc.

Amazon. Compare low and high prices of books like yours on Amazon. What’s the average price? Look at page counts to see how they compare to yours. If you’re able to, use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to see the table of content, chapters, etc. and consider how much value in terms content you think they offer compared to your book.

If you price your ebook on Amazon between $2.99 to $9.99, you get 70% of the profit. Outside of that, you get only 35%. But if your content demands it, don’t be afraid to price your book outside of the Amazon price box.

Kindle books written for lead generation tend to be priced between 99 cents and $2.99, so definitely avoid that price range. Your book is considerably more than a lead generation tool and pricing it too low will dilute its perceived value for potential readers.

Generally speaking, if something is priced higher, people will see it as being of higher quality.

Charm Pricing is a psychological marketing strategy based on the theory that some prices have greater psychological impact on buyers than others. In this case, it refers to prices that end with 9 or 99 – you’ve probably seen and bought products priced this way many times. For example, when you see $2.99 and $3.00, the theory is your brain focuses on the $2 in $2.99 and so you see the product as costing $2 rather than $3. Whether or not you find this convincing, it’s a very common pricing strategy for books and is something you should consider.

Consider Your Goals. When choosing a price for your book, it’s helpful to consider your goals for your book that you set in Module 2. If one of your key goals is to increase revenue, then of course that will influence your choice of price for your book. Do you want to make as much money as possible or to get your work out there and establish your place as an expert? For most people it will be somewhere in between. Where does your goal for your book fit into that range?

If you try a price and your book isn’t selling, try setting a different price. It’s easy to do this on Amazon.

About You

Your Author Website is where your readers get to know you better and you can build relationships with them. Traffic to your author site can translate into sales, as you engage with your would-be readers and convince them of the value your book will provide. If you don’t yet have an author website, consider setting one up, especially if you see yourself writing further books. It’s a valuable opportunity to focus attention on your expert book, and help readers find you and your book easily.

If you don’t have a dedicated author website, create an author bio page on your main website or blog.

So, what can you put in your author bio page?

• Have a distinctive photo of yourself that you use across all your profiles.
• Include links to your positive book reviews or endorsements.
• Describe any qualifications or experience relevant to your book topic. These will help position you as an expert and build trust in you and your book.
• Add some personal details so people can get to know you better.
• Talk about your background and how you came to write your book.
• Add a link to where visitors can buy your book, or learn more about it.

Here are some more ways to make the most of your author site:

• Have a sales page on your site with links to buy your book.
• If you have a blog, use relevant keywords for your book in your content. Enable comments on your blog posts, and be active and helpful so you build relationships with your existing and potential readers.
• Create a dedicated book description page, with links to where visitors can buy your book.
• Have pages for reviews of your book, and any testimonials or recommendations.
• Add buttons/links to your social media profiles so readers can connect with you there as well.
• And, of course, have your book funnel opt-in form in a visible place – to lead potential customers through to the ultimate goal of buying your book.

Market Your Book on Amazon

The key to success on Amazon is being visible amongst the competition. So, how do you go about maximizing your book’s visibility?

Select your book category carefully to make it easy for people to find you. Drill deeper into the category lists when you’re choosing the category for your book. The smaller and more specific the category, the easier it is to be found, and the easier it is to make sales.

Around publishing time, get some early good reviews from readers. One way to do this is to give away copies of your book to your email list in return for honest reviews.

Optimize Your Amazon Author Page.

Your Amazon Author Page will be a key part of your author platform. Once your book is published, you will be able to set up your page on Author Central. You’ll be able to add a biography, photos, events, and videos. And you’ll be able to add your social media and your website information so people can connect with you outside of your Amazon profile. You can even add your blog feed so your page is automatically updated with your latest blog posts.

Write your biography using the keywords that you want you and your book to be associated with. Pick a few, and don’t go overboard. First and foremost, your bio is meant to tell readers about you in a compelling, interesting way.

Leverage Your Social Media Networks

We mentioned in the previous module that you can use social media to get traffic to your book sales funnel. And, making use of your online social networks is an important part of your book promotion.

When it comes to marketing your book on social media, remember that it’s social. Avoid dumping links to your Amazon book page and being too promotional.

Here are some tips for three big social media platforms, including the more business-oriented platform, LinkedIn.

Twitter

Twitter is one of the most popular social networks and is popular with authors and readers alike. Its search function makes Twitter a great way to make both your book, and you as an author, discoverable.

Optimize your Twitter bio section for your book description and author status to attract like-minded people, and those who will be interested in your book topic. Use relevant keywords within your profile, and also include, “Author of _________ (title of your book).” Make sure you add a link so people can find out more about you and your book. Your author website, or Facebook Author Page are good options here.

Tweet about your new book. Remember to tell your would-be readers what they can learn from your book and how it will benefit them. Don’t just leave a link and a book title.

Tweet useful links to other people’s content relevant to your book topic. Become known for that topic, as well as for generously sharing others’ work.

There will inevitably be Twitter hashtags that are relevant to your book topic. Search for those, and use them to become discoverable for that topic.

Support other authors by using the hashtag #fridayreads to share the book you’re currently reading. Perhaps they will reciprocate.

Find and follow people who might be interested in your book topic by searching for keywords in bios that are relevant to your topic.

Search the hashtag #bookreviews to find Twitter users who may be interested in reviewing your book.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform, so it’s a great resource for spreading the word about your book. Authors are already making the most of its enormous audience to reach more readers and sell more books, and you should too.

Facebook doesn’t yet have an ‘Author’ template for pages, but the Shopping template is a good option as you can create a shopping tab from which you can sell your book. You can add your book title and description, and a link to where people can buy your book.

Once you’ve created your Facebook Author Page, here are some tips for promoting your book:

• Post content that encourages engagement. Photos, questions, and quotes are all good options. So are Facebook Live videos – you could talk about issues related to your book content.
• If you have the budget, make use of Facebook ads, as we mentioned in the previous module. This can include ads that encourage clicks to a website, such as your Amazon book page.
• You can also create Lead Ads that grow your email list from within Facebook. In these, you offer your lead magnet to a targeted, custom audience. Facebook will show your ad to the audience you defined, and they will click on your link to receive your opt-in in exchange for their email address. All without leaving Facebook!
• If you have ambitions to be published in print by a publisher, it’s important to grow the number of readers you have as nowadays publishers expect authors to have a ready-made fanbase for promoting and selling their book.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the social network for professionals, and could be the perfect place to position yourself as an expert and promote your book.

• Optimize your profile for your keywords to attract attention to your book. This makes it easy for people like journalists and publishers to find you.
• Write a compelling description that tells people that you’re an expert in your field. You could even add, “Author of (title of your book).”
• Look for and connect with other experts in your field, as well as book reviewers and publishers.
• The Publications section of your profile can feature your book and have a link to your book sales page.
• You can add documents and slideshows to your profile that show off content relevant to your expert book.

Create Your Book Marketing Plan

Your book marketing plan spells out the marketing activities you will implement and the dates by which you will carry them out. It’s your plan of action to ultimately get readers to buy your book.

Ideally, you will have pre-publish and post-publish marketing activities as it’s not a good idea to leave everything until your book is published. Setting up your book sales funnel was one example of a pre-publishing activity that you’ve already planned by now. Some of your other marketing strategies can be set up now and others scheduled for later, so you’re as prepared as possible when your publishing date comes around.

Think about which marketing activities you can start now, and which will have to wait until you have published your book.

For example, things you could do before you publish your book include optimizing your social media profiles and growing your numbers of connections and fans. Set up your author bio on your author site, create a Facebook Author Page and start to populate it with relevant content before you publish so you don’t have an empty page on your publish date.

When choosing your marketing activities, think about how you will use them strategically to contribute to reaching the goals you set in Module 2. For example, if you know a lot of potential readers are on Facebook and your goal is to engage with them and build trust so they are more likely to buy your book, you might choose to focus on marketing activities based around your Facebook Author Page. If your goal is to build awareness of your expert knowledge on LinkedIn because you know it’s a platform with professional contacts who will be interested in buying your book, add optimizing your LinkedIn profile to your marketing plan. If one of your goals is to use your book to build your list, focus on strategies that direct traffic to your sales funnel.