For authors around the world, marketing any type of book can be harder than actually writing it in the first place. Learning to market your book to the masses is crucial if you want to succeed as a self-publishing author. Marketing your book does not always have to be a complicated thing to do.
There are thousands of books that are published every day, and not all of them get the popularity the author is expecting them to get. It can be due to many reasons. One of the biggest reasons that authors do not get the popularity is because they make certain marketing mistakes that sway them away from the path to success. If you are someone who wants to know about the mistakes that should be avoided when marketing your book, then this article will be helpful to you. In this article today, we are going to share with you common marketing mistakes that self-publishing authors make so that you can prevent them when you market your book.
Thinking Your Book Is For Everyone
Book buyers have become more sophisticated than they were in the past. They have discovered different types of tools they can use to find books that they want. So before you even consider marketing your book, you need to find your target audience, the right outlets to stock your book, and the right group of people.
Also, if you are using Amazon to sell your book, make sure it is placed under the correct category in the books section. You may be writing a book using a free trial ebook creator and marketing it for the first time, so it is a great idea to keep things in check. Find your target audience and market your book accordingly to make it sell like hotcakes.
Having A Badly Designed Website
While many things have changed in the last decade when it comes to marketing any type of product, the use of a website has not. All successful authors have functional and optimized websites that people find easy to navigate and place their book orders.
However, some self-publishing authors do not take this point into account. It is especially true for first-timers that have a poorly designed website that looks amateurish or is very hard to navigate through. It is a good idea to keep things simple. Design a website that features details about the author, an author’s event calendar, a blog section, a section where you can place an order to buy books. Many first-timers fail to include these things on their website, which drives people away from buying their books.
Not Blogging
Blogging has picked up fame during the last decade, and everyone is doing some kind of blogging on the internet to share their views about various topics. Blogging on your website or other platforms is a great way to get the word out about your book. Blogging should be done consistently, and the content you write on your blog should be short, concise, and to the point.
Also, blogging will allow you to get the word out on social media. Facebook and Twitter is a great way to share blogs about your book and you as an author. Some authors do not want to go through the hassle of blogging, and they expect that their books are going to sell well with only a few posts on their website. Keep everything fresh and write new material every day on your blog, and hopefully, your book will sell by the dozens.
Not Treating It Like A Business
Writing a book, publishing it, and marketing is all part of a business. After all, your book is a product that you are trying to sell to people to expand and grow and become a successful author. When selling a book, you should adopt all the same practices that a business person uses to sell anything else. Come up with a business plan, research your competitors, and follow a marketing strategy.
So, to sum, we can say that you should stop marketing your books by using the same old techniques of publishing it online and placing it on Amazon. Look outside the world of traditional book marketing strategies and follow the rules of business that people use to sell any type of product, whether it be a book or a motorbike.
Not focusing on Distribution
It is a common misconception that when you self-publish a book, you can just focus on writing and the marketing will take care of itself. This is not true. In order to sell your book, you need to have a distribution plan in place from the very beginning. There are many different ways in which an author can distribute their book. One of these ways is through online retailers such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble. These retailers have websites where they sell books to customers who want them shipped to their homes for free. Another way is through brick-and-mortar stores such as Chapters or Indigo Books. In order to save time and distribute to both online and brick-and-mortar stores, you should consider working with self-publishing platforms like PublishDrive that offer a global reach when it comes to distribution.
Designing The Cover Yourself
You may consider yourself as a creative writer, but that does not make you a creative book cover designer. Amazon is full of books that have amateurishly made covers. You might design a cover that may seem perfect to you, but how can you be so sure that it will look great to your audience as well. Your readers might include people who have some sort of designing knowledge, and they will spot whether your cover looks good or it looks like the work on an amateur.
Your book’s cover is the first thing that people will see once they go to your website or a local book store. So, it is a good idea to work with a professional book cover designer if you want your work to look professional. This way, people with some form of design sense will take you seriously as a writer and a publisher.
The Final Words
Whether you are a seasoned author or a newbie writer, you need to use specific marketing strategies to get the word out about your book to readers everywhere. Marketing your book should be taken seriously, just as if you would have invented a new product, and you are looking to market it to your target audience. Many mistakes are made during this critical time, due to which your book ends up in the category of a flop instead of a top seller. Today, we have shared with you some marketing mistakes self-publishing authors make. So, it is a good idea that you consider them and hopefully avoid them when its time to market your book.
