This month I’ll be discussing launching your book, the importance of timing, and the type of launch that’s right for you. Firstly, do you need a book launch? There are different ways to launch a book as well as different reasons for doing so. Here are a few of the most common types: A small gathering of family and friends as a more casual social launch An online launch through one or more of the online bookstores A large launch designed to attract your audience and influential individuals such as booksellers who can help raise the profile of your book An event for raising awareness for the cause you champion A fundraising event Let’s look at these a little closer: The small gathering. These launches are usually held in restaurants, independent bookstores, libraries or anywhere else an author might want to stage one. It’s usually a casual affair for the author to celebrate the publishing of their book with family and friends. The online launch. It...

Over the last ten months we’ve discussed the following ways of marketing your books: Mysteries and myths of book marketing Preparing for your marketing campaign Creating a mailing list Attracting subscribers to your list Finding your audience Engaging with your audience Your newsletter Using social media to market your books Paid advertising Getting reviews Managing your brand Now that you have a grasp over some of the options open to you for your marketing campaign, it’s important to understand that if you are aiming to create a successful career as an author, you’ll need to run all aspects of that career like a business. There will be costs involved, so be prepared for a pre-revenue stage where you’ll be carrying (investing) your own time and money into your project, just as any small business owner would. Be patient. Work out a marketing strategy that’s right for you, but don’t be afraid to try things out and discard them if the...

This month I wanted to revisit a topic we touched on briefly in an earlier article: Your author brand. Building your brand is arguably the most important step in becoming a successful author. Developing a well-known brand among your target audience is the first step, but managing it is essential for maintaining audience engagement. Here’s a quick recap of what it means to build a brand: What do you think of when you see the Coca Cola logo? That’s right, a brown fizzy substance that, apparently, can clean your floor as well as taste great with Jack Daniels. But in author terms, Stephen King is a great example of a brand. He writes horror novels, and he has millions of followers who love his books. When he releases a new title, fans don’t even need to know the name of it, they can simply go into any bookstore and ask for the latest Stephen King novel. And because they’re buying the brand, they know exactly what they’re going to get, a spine-chilling cha...

Arguably, having positive reviews written and posted where potential buyers can read them is a very important marketing tool. In some cases, even negative comments can boost the sales of certain types of books. When we think of reviews, most of us are probably thinking about the reviews we see in our local newspapers at the weekend. Unfortunately, these are rarely available to the lesser-known or self-published author. In reality, the newspapers are bombarded with titles to review so with limited space they’ll usually only consider traditionally published titles or titles written by celebrities and well-known authors. So how can we get reviews for our books? It’s surprisingly simple, we use the online stores. Using Amazon as an example, here’s how it works: Place a link in the back of your book that reads something like this: I hope you enjoyed reading (book title).
If so, I would really appreciate it if you would consider posting a review at the store that you...