Different Ways to Market Your Book Online

These days it’s fairly common knowledge among publishers and people in the book business that authors need to do a lot of their own marketing if they want their book to be a success. Sadly, this simple fact is not known by most authors, who are just happy enough to finally see their book in print. After a couple of months, and hopefully some coaching and support from the publisher – the author wakes up and realizes that getting their book published was really only part of being a professional writer. Beyond writing, marketing one’s book is also a large component of an author’s job. 

So how does an author, someone who knows writing but not much – if anything – about marketing get started? An easy way is online. Most of the marketing ventures online are either free or cost very little. In fact, some authors have become so savvy at marketing online that they have rarely if ever ventured to market their books in more traditional outlets such as bookstores. Whether you want to concentrate all of your marketing efforts on the internet, or a combination of both, is up to you (the author), but the internet gives an author a great place to start. 

There are several ways to market one’s book online. If it is listed on Amazon, there are tricks and methods for getting your book to come up in particular search queries, or to get it paired with another better selling book. There are also ways to drive traffic to your book on Amazon. Beyond Amazon (the digital bookstore), there are many other ways to market your book online. Press releases, article marketing, search engine optimization, blogging, social networks, and book listing sites are just a few of the techniques available to authors – all for free or little money. 

So don’t be scared when you find out that your publisher is relying on you to do most of the marketing for your book. A great resource for beginning to figure out how the internet works – and to begin marketing your writing online – has been put together in a series of articles and websites to help. On the Marketing Your Writing Online page you will find links – and instructional paragraphs – to over 400 websites where you can begin marketing your book. By using the sites listed on the Marketing Your Writing Online page your book will be more easily found online. After you’ve spent some time marketing your book online, you can then judge based on the results whether you need to pursue other more traditional marketing arenas. Just a warning, many authors are finding that these techniques are all they really need to be successful in their book marketing endeavors. 

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Peter N. Jones has published two books, had several chapters published in edited volumes, contributed over 50 entries to three different academic research encyclopedias, and has published over 30 articles in various academic and popular journals. Currently he is Director and Editor of the Bauu Institute and Press, located in Boulder, Colorado. He is also Editor of Indigenous People’s Issues Today, a publication of Bauu Press and Publisher of New Great Books and Author Interviews.