I’m a book designer who frequently listens to webinars (and podcasts) about book marketing and publishing. They keep me up to date. I’ve been listening and watching for many years. Most of the information is not new to me. However, it reinforces book publishing concepts every author should learn.
Recently, I attended an excellent webinar “5 Key Tips for Profitable Book Marketing” promoting Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula Launch Pad. It covered five topics:
- Choose your genre
- Marketing research
- Marketing execution
- Mailing list
- Do what works – Launch Pad
My notes from the webinar
1. Choose your genre: Make your book cover easily identifiable and clearly defined. The cover must fit the genre. Your book cover has to tell readers at a glance, what they’re going to get. It’s important to research your competitors to see what’s trending.
Your book description: Understand the role of the book description or blurb. It’s not easy to write. Research other books in the same genre. Read up on how to write a book descriptions. Spend time and don’t rush the process. Check out services such as Bryan Cohen’s Best Page Forward. Understand stand the role of the blurb—it does the same thing as the cover—it reinforces the genre and it’s a reason to read the book.
Tagline: Write the tagline before you write the book. Do this so you’re clear in your mind what genre it is. Again, it reinforces the genre and it suggests a conflict (especially for fiction).
Front and back matter: Convert a casual reader into a fan. Do this at the end of the book with a URL or email. Offer a small giveaway.
Co-host James Blatch said, “Get these things right!”
2. Marketing research: Who is your reader? Know your target audience. Research competitive titles, authors, and keywords. (You can find keywords in your competitor’s book descriptions.) You might want to advertise your book to gain audience data.
3. Marketing execution: Paid ads are key. Start small and scale. Get assets from your designer for your ads and social media. (Assets are photos or graphics that are on your book cover.)
4. Mailing list: make sure to have a giveaway / lead magnet, such as a free novella. This adds value for your reader.
5. Do what works: Launch Pad is a comprehensive masterclass for authors who want to elevate their writing hobby into a full-time indie-author career. Mark Dawson has helped thousands of authors.
Launch Pad sounds fabulous, but I did not sign up for the masterclass. The course is designed to help authors build a platform and market books; thus, I’m not sure it would be helpful for a book designer.
As a book designer, I emphasize these takeaways with my authors: Define your genre; know your target audience; write a compelling book description; research your keywords; and convert at the end of the book. I want to help my authors and see them succeed.
There is a lot of book-marketing advice available to help authors with one of the hardest parts of the book writing/ publishing process. Much of it is free. Avail yourself of what experts are willing to share with you. No one writes a book alone. As a matter of fact, “it takes a village” to do it well. You don’t have to reinvent the process others have already refined and perfected. Just listen to and watch what they say.