I published my first novel in December 2022. I didn’t have any followers or subscribers at that moment, so I did everything from scratch. So here’s my strategy that you can steal to find your first readers and make your first book sales!
It’s not hard and even if you’ve never promoted anything, you will understand what to do. So let’s dive.
Explore other authors’ book promotion strategies
I started by studying the strategies of other authors: the easiest thing is to subscribe to writers on Instagram and see what and how they post, plus, of course, watch their tutorials on YouTube.
I’ve learned a lot from Mandi Lynn:
Book Promotion Strategy
So here’s what you need to do step-by-step.
1. Create an advanced reader copy (ARC). When you’ve finished your book, and your beta readers and editor have read it, you’re ready to prepare your publishing. Create a copy of your book for your first “official” readers. ARC readers are people who will see your book first before you publish your book. They will leave the first reviews later when you have your book published.
2. Send it to reviewers. You can find them on special sites such as Bookspout, or manually search for them on social networks. Reviewers are usually bloggers who have book blogs on Instagram and/or TikTok (they can be your ARC readers too). I just used a search tab on Instagram and DM’d several reviewers.
3. Plan a book tour. This is when all reviewers post about your book at the same moment a week before the release. There are several companies who can organize a book tour for you, or you can create a street team from your beta and ARc readers and reviewers you’ve already interacted with. You can find them in Facebook groups with readers and authors of the books in your genre.
4. Send a book to all kinds of literary magazines. You must do it six months before the official release, in order to get a review from a reputable magazine and write a quote on the cover and in the description (these editorial reviews are paid). The most popular are Kirkus Reviews and Publisher Weekly Reviews.
5. Ideally, collect pre-orders, so the book will rise higher in the first days of release, and there will be more sales.
I had an obsession with releasing the book in 2022, so I didn’t have the time (and knowledge) to plan, and we just published it as soon as we edited it.
Then I sent copies to the found reviewers who had the opportunity to read it fast (the big ones are booked for six months in advance, I chose those with up to 2000 subscribers), and someone just reposted the information about the release. It was very sweet!
Your author’s social media for book promotion
Use your social media to spread the word about your book and get your first sales. I made posts with quotes and tried Reels and TikToks. But the main source for promoting books, as it turned out, is Facebook. According to the survey, 69% of readers use Facebook to search for recommendations! It was unexpected because I was sure that Instagram worked better in this regard. But the fact is that after I mentioned the book in several recommendation groups on Facebook, I had my first book sales.
So show your book, cover, and parts of the book on Instagram, shoot funny videos for TikTok and Reels, and recommend your book in readers’ groups on Facebook where it is allowed (don’t spam!).
If you are a non-fiction writer and want to promote and sell non-fiction books from scratch, do the same on Twitter and LinkedIn because you’ll find a more relevant audience there. Share your process and chapters in posts and join communities with your target audience (for example, if you write about marketing, find some groups and pages with marketers).
Another good way is using promo sites. I looked for sites that divide lists by genre and bought a place on their mailing list—it cost me about $30 for each promo, but it depends on your genre. So far, this is the most effective way. My favorite promo site for selling my books is WrittenWordMedia.
It’s better to build your own mailing list: you can do it by using sites like StoryOrigin where you find other authors from your genre and participate in group promotions.
It’s a quick overview of the most popular ways to promote your book and get your first sales. Good luck with your promo!