An organic marketing strategy for your book begins at the beginning. Once you have taken a comprehensive look at organically marketing your book, and have laid the groundwork for its publication, it is time for the next phase of your marketing strategy: your book launch.
Publishing your book is a major milestone. You have brought your book from concept to actuality. This alone is a personal achievement. You have created an online presence and cultivated a community that now anticipates your book’s arrival. Consider all your hard work as rehearsals and backstage prep for the main event. It’s show time!
Here are 16 organic marketing strategies for your book launch:
Create Author Pages. Create an Author website or landing page, an Author Central page on Amazon, and an Author Page on Goodreads. Be sure to include an engaging bio and photo to personalize your readers’ experience.
Engage People on Social Media. Use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to connect with potential readers, share updates about your book, and build relationships. Join book groups or communities that are related to your genre and engage with readers who might be interested in your book.
Continue to Create Content for Your Readership. Blog posts, articles, and social media posts related to your book’s theme or topic will attract potential readers. Share valuable insights and information that are relevant to your audience. This is known as content marketing.
Cultivate Brand Evangelists. These are people who love your work and create great advertising for you through word-of-mouth advertising. Encourage your early readers to leave reviews on platforms like Amazon and Goodreads. Positive reviews can help increase your book’s visibility and attract more readers.
Get Free Book Reviews. Send a review copy of your book to book bloggers reviewing books in your genre or topic. You can find book bloggers through social media, book blogging communities, and online directories of book bloggers.
Guest Post.Reach out to book bloggers or influencers in your genre and offer to write a guest post for their blog. This can help you reach a wider audience and promote your book to potential readers.
Get Free Press.Send your press kit to local media such as newspapers, radio stations, and local bookstores. Send to your local libraries, or request a meeting in person to discuss placing your book with them.
Conduct Email Marketing. Build an email list of potential readers who have expressed interest in your book or genre. Send them regular updates, sneak peeks, and exclusive content related to your book to keep them engaged and interested.
Add Your Book to Your Automatic Email Signature. Your email footer has your information. Add your book to it as another method of promotion and further your brand.
Request Influencer Marketing. Identify influencers in your genre or niche who have a large following and offer them a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review or social media post. This can help you reach a wider audience and potentially gain new readers.
Conduct Interviews. Reach out to podcasts, blogs, or other media outlets that focus on your genre or niche and offer to do an interview or be a guest on their show. This can help you promote your book to a wider audience and establish yourself as an authority in your field.
Participate in Book Signings and Events. Author readings or other events related to your book or genre can help you connect with potential readers in person, sign copies of your book, and potentially generate new fans and Brand Evangelicals.
Reach Out to Book Clubs. Or start your own and offer your book as a reading selection. This can help you generate buzz, get feedback from readers, and potentially gain new fans.
Apply for BookBub. This book discovery service introduces readers to new books and authors. The company’s editorial team selects and features free and discounted ebooks, book recommendations, articles, and updates from authors.
Enter Book Contests and Awards. This can be a great way to promote your book and gain recognition. Winning or even being nominated for an award can help boost your book’s credibility, increase visibility, and attract new readers.
Give Books Away. Offering giveaways is a great way to generate word-of-mouth advertising. Gift books to family and friends, critics & reviewers, and your online community.
[Conclusion]
This list is a compilation of the top 16 organic book marketing strategies you can employ, but it is by no means exhaustive. There are endless ways you can locate and connect with your target audience to create visibility and generate sales.
For more information contact us at Hansen Dyson. We are happy to discuss with you your publishing or marketing needs.
There is no shortage of ‘How To’ articles about organic marketing. Each has some insight and suggestions for once your book is published, but none take a comprehensive approach. When surveying the book marketing process from pre-production to publication, it is clear there are many things an author must consider from the very beginning.
Here is a comprehensive look at organic marketing for your book.
Why Book Marketing Is Essential
The importance of book marketing cannot be overstated. You have poured countless hours into your manuscript. You have slaved over syntax, dialogue, or character development. You have researched, interviewed, and indexed. You found a publisher (yaay!), an editor (yaay!), polished your work, and are ready to publish. But how will you make your work visible? Simply having your book available on different platforms will not be enough.
Without book marketing, your well-written, well-researched book still doesn’t exist. It is merely a digital file or a box of bound papers silently stored and waiting. In a crowded marketplace you will need the right promotional tactics, or your book will go unnoticed. Effective book marketing engages your target audience and gives you visibility.
Effective book marketing also begins at the very beginning. No matter who your publisher is,
you will need to engage your target audience early on, and throughout the publishing process, prior to publication. This gives you time to connect with future readers, grow your community, and promote your book’s debut prior to its publication date. Generating interest, anticipation, and pre-sales are important parts of a successful book marketing strategy.
What you can expect with eACH publishing model
Whatever publishing model you choose, your book marketing strategy will likely be the same. Here’s what to expect from the 3 main publishing models (traditional, hybrid, and self-publishing):
Traditional publishing has a colossal distribution system at its fingertips. This gives it an advantage over other publishing models. However, this is only in regard to book placement. Traditional publishers offer authors very little in book marketing. Though they generate interest through their catalogs, in general, they expect book marketing and publicity will be done by the author.
The other barrier to receiving book marketing help from traditional publishers is simply the barrier to getting in. Only 1-2% of authors are accepted and given contracts at traditional publishing houses.
Self-publishing is as it sounds. You must rely on yourself. Paid book marketing and publicity can run tens of thousands of dollars, so creating your own organic book marketing is the most cost-effective. The downside to this for many authors is that they spend 90% of their time marketing and only 10% of it writing.
Hybrid publishing, which is considered a “middle way”, is structured to help authors with book marketing from print to distribution. Hybrid publishers are more hands-on than their traditional counterparts and can provide print, distribution, retail store placement, and experience. The majority of hybrid publishers and their authors rely on organic marketing.
What Is Organic Marketing?
Marketing, the process of promoting a product, service, or brand, is an essential tool for all businesses.
Being an author is not the same as being a writer. Being an author is a business and a brand.
Organic marketing is marketing through non-paid or natural means, such as social media marketing, content marketing, book reviews, signings, and giveaways.
Organic marketing aims to attract customers by creating valuable content, building relationships, and establishing trust over time. It is a long-term marketing strategy that requires patience and persistence but can be highly effective in building a loyal customer base and establishing a strong online presence for your brand or business.
If you’re an author who prefers to spend more time writing than book promoting, creating content regarding your work, for example in blog posts, guest posts, and email newsletters, is more rewarding.
The 3 Stages Of Book Marketing
Organic book marketing starts at conception. Like content marketers who search for SEO keywords with which to craft their story, authors must be mindful of their market from the beginning.
In fact, SEO optimizing your book’s title, subtitle, and description with keywords that your target audience might use when searching for books online can help your book rank higher in search results and make it more discoverable.
Many book marketing articles omit pre-production and production issues and jump straight to post-production book marketing. After the book is printed is too late to begin thinking about your marketing strategy.
The 3 stages of book marketing are pre-production, production, and post-production (or publication). Each one of these stages is integral to your book marketing strategy.
Pre-production
Once you have decided to write your book you will want to conduct market research. Market research is a critical first step in creating a book marketing strategy. You should know everything about your genre, your target audience, and your competitors. Knowing your genre helps determine your category and your target audience. Doing a competitive audit helps you to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
Next, you will need to define yourself and your book. If your book is non-fiction, you must answer the question as to why your book matters, and why you are a reliable source of information. Readers will want to know why they should choose your book and what it will do for them. Your answer to this question is also your book marketing blurb. What qualifies you to speak about your book’s topic? The answer to this is part of your brand. Your brand is who you are, your story, and why others should listen to and follow you.
Now that you have researched and defined your book and its place in the market, it is time to begin cultivating an online presence to support it. You can do this with a website, blog posts, and social media. Use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to connect with potential readers, share updates about your book, and build relationships. Join book groups or communities that are related to your genre and engage with readers who might be interested in your book.
Production
As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The production phase of your book is all about making a striking first impression.
Your book’s introduction is visual. It will need a great cover design, and a great author photo, along with a great book synopsis and marketing blurb. As a physical object, you will want to ensure that every design element of your book, from the color scheme to the layout and paperweight, is enticing and professional.
You should also create a beautiful press kit. Your press kit will need the same pleasing and professional content and design quality.
Publication
Your book is stunning. Every design element and marketing copy detail has been considered. You did your market research, identified your genre, target audience, and competitors, and crafted your book accordingly. You have established an online presence and following, promoting your work, and your brand to like-minded communities. What you need now is to maximize the potential of what you have already established.
This is where most ‘How To’ articles about organic book marketing begin. While it is true that there are quite a number of things you can do to successfully and organically market your book once it is published, it is also clear there is a lot to consider and do beforehand in order to lay the groundwork for success. Our blog post ’16 Organic Marketing Strategies For Your Book Launch’ lists the many organic marketing strategies you can employ once your book is published. Altogether, you have a comprehensive view of organic marketing for your book, from start to finish.
Conclusion
Our comprehensive overview of organic book marketing from pre-to-post production is not exhaustive. There are endless ways authors can locate and connect with their target audience to create visibility and generate sales. Organic book marketing takes time, but so does developing a community. This is the true aim. The authentic and lasting connections you create are also investments in each future endeavor.
Today organic book marketing has outpaced traditional paid advertising, and the democratization of publishing has brought authors and readers closer. Readers prefer to
Hybrid publishingis the fastest-growing business model in book publishing, yet many authors have still never heard of it. Here’s an introduction.
What is hybrid publishing?
Hybrid publishing combines the best of both traditional publishing and self-publishing. It offers the selective curation, editorial oversight, professional design, marketing, and distribution services of traditional publishers, while also providing the creative freedom, shorter time frame, ownership, and higher royalties of self-publishing.
With traditional publishing, an author’s book is produced, marketed, and distributed at no cost to the author. Authors, however, have limited rights, low input, and receive a very small share of the profits.
Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows authors to exercise full control, and retain all of their rights and profits. It also puts all costs and know-how on the shoulders of the author. The author then risks producing a book of poor quality with high production fees and a low return on investment.
Hybrid publishing rests in the middle. It is often referred to as a “middle way” or “third way”. It is essentially a partnership that ensures professionalism, quality work, effective marketing and distribution, and a much higher percentage of royalties.
Is hybrid publishing the best choice for you? Here are 7 reasons why it is, and why it is the future of book publishing.
1. IT’S AUTHOR-CENTRIC
Hybrid publishing, also known as partner publishing, co-publishing, or author-centric publishing, prioritizes the author’s vision and intent. By valuing a diversity of voices, hybrid publishing fosters greater creative freedom for authors. In contrast, traditional publishing tends to prioritize profits and appeal to a wide audience, often resulting in the rejection of niche or unconventional works.
Traditional publishing lacks diversity. Lee & Low Books conducted a survey in 2019 that found 76% of employees in the publishing industry are white, 97% are cisgender, 88% are heterosexual, and 92% are non-disabled. The result is traditional publishing continues to furnish like voices.
Furthermore, traditional publishing’s massive consolidations have led to conglomerates like the Big 5, making the system even less adaptable in a rapidly changing publishing landscape. Many authors within the traditional publishing system feel like commodities in a factory rather than creatives in a supported creative space.
Hybrid publishing emerged as a solution to these issues, welcoming unconventional authors with niche, “too-literary”, or iconoclastic works, and those without a platform. It offers a nurturing environment for authors to publish their work while maintaining creative control.
2. CREATIVE FREEDOM
In Hybrid publishing, authors have a say in every aspect of their book’s production. From the cover design to the marketing plan, authors are involved in the decision-making process, and have more agency than is ever afforded them in traditional publishing.
In contrast, traditional publishing houses typically own, define, and control an author’s book. During the editorial phase, editors may significantly change a manuscript to appeal to a wider audience. The publishing house decides on the book’s look, layout, marketing plan, and distribution, with little creative or strategic input from the author.
For traditional publishing houses, full control is a safeguard to recuperating their investment, relying on their own expertise. However, by defining every aspect of the book, they not only define what success looks like for them but for the author as well.
Hybrid publishers coproduce. They use their expertise as a guide and co-pilot. Ownership stays with the author. The entire process is personal and collaborative, so authors can make decisions that best serve their work, and maintain their artistic integrity.
3. QUALITY WORK
In traditional publishing, the quality of the work is not enough. The author must also meet external conditions, such as having a large platform or work that appeals to a broad audience.
Meanwhile, self-publishing companies will publish anything for a fee, with no vetting or oversight. Payment is their only criterion. As a result, a proliferation of unprofessional and unprofitable work floods the market every year, leaving millions of hopeful new authors with no audience and no return on their investment.
Hybrid publishing is selective and personal. Submissions are carefully chosen by professional editors. Authors are assigned a primary person who works closely with them to polish and perfect their work.
Hybrid publishers prioritize quality work. A considerable percentage of their income is from book sales, not fees. Fees enable hybrid publishers to do the work and provide authors with much higher royalties. However, book sales are the goal for both author and publisher. Hybrid publishers are keenly selective and produce quality work to ensure success.
The Independent Book Publishing Association (IBPA) also created publishing standards to distinguish reputable hybrid publishers from vanity publishers. Any reputable hybrid publisher will meet these criteria.
4. LEGITIMACY
Traditional publishing houses offer an author status and legitimacy. They confer greater visibility and credibility. However, the author needs to waive their rights, receives a small percentage of royalties, and often has limited support for marketing and promotion. The association with a reputable publishing house is a powerful endorsement, but it is also a trade-off.
Many authors who have not secured a traditional publisher may not feel competent to undertake the significant task of self-publishing. They seek a “middle way”. Hybrid publishers provide the same level of expertise and credibility as traditional publishing houses, while also offering authors more control and higher royalties.
Literary agents also seek out hybrid publishers to help their clients achieve greater legitimacy and visibility in the market. Self-publishing cannot create a comparable publishing experience and has a relatively negative reputation regarding quality and professionalism.
For new authors, assistance and credibility is often the driving force in choosing a publisher. For seasoned authors, celebrities, influencers, or nonfiction authors with successful careers, having the professionalism and credibility of a hybrid publisher, along with higher royalties from their larger platforms can be more enticing. The derivative income of consulting, speaking engagements, and other educational venues is also supported by this professional standard of quality and credibility. Having the legitimacy of a reputable publisher altogether elevates their profile.
5. MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
A traditional publishing house’s greatest asset is its’ colossal marketing and distribution machine. No self-publisher can compete with the extensive structures in place to promote, sell and distribute books to an expansive retail market.
Hybrid publishers also provide their authors with marketing, publicity, distribution, and sales channels. Though they do not have distribution structures on par with major traditional publishing houses, hybrid publishers have the competency to produce the professional look and feel of traditionally published books. They can assist with print runs, and brick and mortar retail placement. With self-publishing, distribution is at best very challenging, with little to no access to bookstores.
The playing field will be even more level in the future. Print On Demand (POD) and online book sales are changing the way books are printed and distributed. In the US today, Amazon is responsible for more than 50% of all book sales, both print and electronic. Marketing at large has gone digital and social. Small presses are more adept at creating and managing social media campaigns, and other avenues of organic marketing. As a result, authors who publish with hybrid publishers have a better chance of cultivating strong organic marketing strategies and results, reaching wider audiences directly.
6. TIME
Hybrid publishing offers a faster route to publication. Unlike traditional publishing houses, hybrid publishers are smaller and more nimble, allowing them to respond quickly to current trends and topics. They can take a manuscript from edits to market within a matter of months, which can be critical to a book’s success depending on its subject matter.
In contrast, traditional publishers have a protracted timeline that can take up to two years from start to publication. This delay can be injurious to any book whose topic may lose relevance by the time it’s released. Additionally, as the old adage goes, “time is money.” Hybrid publishers can produce high-quality books in a fraction of the time, helping authors to save on both.
7. MONEY
Traditional publishing houses are not only slow to publish, they are also slow to pay. Royalty payouts to authors are typically between every 6 months to a year. This timeframe can be even longer if an author has received an advance, but hasn’t met the sales threshold.
Additionally, the royalty rates for hardcover and paperback books are 10-15% and 8-10%, respectively, while ebooks usually offer 25%. Authors are required to do a significant portion of their own publicity and often have to forfeit their rights in order to sign a contract. If an author decides to work with an agent, the agent will also take a fee. These are all additional losses and expenses.
Self-publishing may then seem like a better option, but authors must be very cautious. Although authors keep their rights and receive 100% of the profits, self-publishing companies charge production fees and self-publishing platforms take anywhere from 30-70% of the author’s royalties. Without the guidance and professionalism of a committed publishing house, or the ability to have wider distribution, sales typically suffer. Naturally, sales are the goal, and without them, benefits like higher royalties are rendered meaningless.
In contrast, hybrid publishers offer the best of both worlds.
They pay their authors monthly and offer royalties of up to 50%. These regular and significant payouts are for a book that has been professionally crafted and produced, with marketing and distribution assistance that increases the probability of sales. Although authors are still required to actively participate in publicity efforts and organic marketing, hybrid publishers have invested in their author’s success by virtue of their collaborative business model. They cannot afford the large advances or write-offs for losses like large publishing houses, and they don’t rely solely on author’s fees with zero interest in the book’s actual success.
Hybrid publishers’ small rosters of authors enable them to work closely and carefully to develop authentic quality work. This type of work brings diversity and value to the marketplace. The joint venture hybrid publishers make with authors means their financial and personal success is shared.
CONCLUSION
Hybrid publishing is revolutionizing the publishing industry, providing a new alternative for authors seeking greater creative freedom and profit. It rivals the status quo, honoring and promoting diversity and authenticity. It empowers authors by way of offering them guided participation in every aspect of the publishing process. This partnership structure of mutual investment and collaboration also fosters camaraderie and mutual respect.
IBPA standards for quality and transparency further establish hybrid publishings’ legitimacy and create a framework for what authors should expect. And while traditional publishers may have greater resources for marketing and distribution, the marketplace is rapidly changing.
Hybrid publishing provides authors with a new path to fulfillment and success. The future of book publishing is cooperative.
For more information, or to get started on your book publishing journey, contact us at Hansen Dyson today.
