Marketing Your Book

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern Writers Magazine   

We all wish that marketing our books was warm and fuzzy. The reality is marketing is not warm and fuzzy.

However, it doesn’t have to be as difficult as we make it sometimes.

You are not at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing your book. Why? Because you know your book better than anybody. This automatically sets you apart.

While it is important you get a message out about your book realize you do that with everything you say and do when talking about your book.

Hopefully you know what niche your book fits into. If so, you can move forward. In your book, what elements have your brought together? What types of people would have an interest in the story of your book? Once you determine who and where, you then move to how you can engage them in being interested in your book.

One is to focus on the uncommon things your book has to offer in that niche.

Showcasing what you know is important to grow your reputation and promote your book and yourself with informed opinions. A great way to do this is to take a survey among your fans/readers. Gain knowledge by their answers on what they feel is relevant to reading your book. How did it make them feel? What questions did it conjure up?

You want to get your name in front of people. You want the title of your book in front of people. The more you position yourself as an expert––contributing articles and blog posts whenever you can, the more people you reach. In time you will find you are building yourself as an expert. Make sure it is valuable to your readers.

The more information you gather, the better marketing tools you will have.