Book marketing for self-published authors

What book marketing matters most for self-published authors?

1. The book page: cover, title, description, keywords and categories. Every other effort sends readers here.
2. An email list: the one audience you own, whatever happens to a store or a platform.
3. The launch: a plan for the weeks before and after release.
4. Reviews: honest ones, asked for, never bought.
5. Ads and promotions: once the page converts, with a budget cap.
6. The next book: readers who finish one book are the most likely to buy another.

How do you make the book page sell?

• Cover: it should look at home next to the bestsellers in your genre, and read at thumbnail size.
• Description: KDP allows up to 4,000 characters and suggests about 150 words. Open with a hook, not a summary. Format it with the KDP description formatter.
• Keywords: fill all 7 boxes with phrases readers type. Plan them with the KDP keyword planner.
• Categories: choose 3 where your book can be found, not just the biggest ones.

Why do authors build an email list?

Store algorithms and social platforms change; an email list stays yours. Put a sign-up link in the back of every book, offer something useful in return, such as a bonus chapter, and write to readers when you have news. A few hundred readers who opened your last email can do more for a launch than thousands of followers.

How do you plan a book launch?

Pick a release date, then work backwards: final files, early reader copies, pre-orders, newsletter dates and ads. KDP ebooks can take pre-orders up to 18 months ahead. The book launch timeline builds a dated plan from your release day. After launch, set up your Author Page so readers find your bio and other books.

When should you run ads for your book?

Once the book page converts, because ads only send people to it. Start with a small daily budget, track the advertising cost of sale (ACOS), and pause ads that cost more than they earn. Break-even ACOS is your royalty divided by the list price: about 29% for a $14.99 paperback and 66% for a $4.99 ebook. Work out your own with the ACOS calculator.

Do price promotions and Kindle Unlimited help?

Enrolling an ebook in KDP Select puts it in Kindle Unlimited for 90-day terms, in return for selling the ebook only on Amazon, and unlocks free and discount promotions after release. A short discount, announced to your list and to deal newsletters, can lift a book's visibility. Promotions work best on a series, where a cheap first book leads readers to the rest.

When should you get help with book marketing?

When you know what you want done and would rather spend the time writing. Ask for a written scope, work in your own accounts, a budget cap and plain reports. Our book marketing services work that way; nobody, us included, can promise sales.