It is possible to get traction for your books without spending a lot of money, however creating a book marketing plan without money means you’ll sacrifice your time to get there.
Even $50 a month can help promote your book and bring it into view faster than organic efforts (non-paid). With Amazon Ads, you can set a daily budget based on keywords which can help your book show up in the search on Amazon.
If you would rather dedicate the time instead of money, this post is for you.
The main reason many authors do their own marketing is because they don’t yet have the income to promote their books. This makes sense considering most of us aren’t rolling in the dough and getting book offers. We are writing for the pure joy of it and hoping that someday it will pan out.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have readers. (Your mom and siblings don’t count). To help with this process, here are some ideas for how you can promote your book when you are on a tight budget.
Getting Reviews
Reviews are an important part of your book marketing plan, as well as ranking. Reviews help someone decide if they want to invest in reading it. There are many ways you can get reviews. The first way to get reviews is with ARC Readers. You usually build an ARC team while writing your book. When your book is ready (but not published), you send out advance copies to the ARC team to read the book before you publish it, hoping to get reviews. On launch day, you send out emails reminding your ARC team to review your book, which pushes the book up in popularity on Amazon and other websites.
To learn more about ARC teams, visit this blog post.
Let’s look at some other strategies for getting reviews.
Amazon Book Marketing Plan Resources
Amazon has a few different programs you can use to get more readers for your books. Here are some currently available.
KDP Select
If you enroll your eBook in KDP Select, you can reach more readers through Kindle promotions. Once enrolled, your eBook is automatically included in Kindle Unlimited (KU) and is eligible for Free Book Promotions and Kindle Countdown Deals. Kindle Unlimited is a service where readers can “borrow” books for a monthly fee. If your book is one of the books available through KU, you will earn royalties for every page read by a member. KDP Select is free.
Free Books
As previously mentioned, one strategy is to offer your book for free and hopefully the reader will review your book. If you have a budget, you can also offer the book for free and then coordinate that with a paid email blast or promotion. Check out this extensive list of free book promotion sites on Kindlepreneur.
When I released my first book, I got a few reviews this way. However, I paid about $100 to BooksButterfly to promote the book and didn’t feel like the promotion was worth it. You could try using some free promotion sites using the list above and see if they are worth the effort. If you only care about making money from the book, this might not be a good option. But thinking long term, having those reviews up and posted probably led to more book sales.
Price Promotion or Free Book Promotion
With Amazon, you can either run a price promotion or a free book promotion. You can only use one at a time. These promotions run for a short period to increase interest. For instance, a free book promotion can only run up to 5 days every 90 days it is on Amazon.
A+ Content
With A+ Content, Amazon allows you to add extra details to your product page to engage the audience. This might include images, text, and comparison tables to give them more information to buy your book. To use any images, make sure you have permission. A+ Content is only available for published KDP books. You cannot use pricing, customer reviews, or time-sensitive information on your A+ Content page. Learn more on Amazon KDP.
Prime Reading
Prime reading is an invitation-only program for titles enrolled in KDP Select. Once enrolled, your book will remain available for sales and royalty earnings during your Prime Reading promo period. Learn more at Amazon KDP.
Kindle Deals
This is a limited-time discount deal offered on eBooks only. It can last from one day up to multiple weeks. Customers can see the original price and the promotional price on the book product page. Amazon recommends nominating your most popular titles that have been available for at least 90 days and haven’t had a deal in that time. Books priced between 2.99 and 9.99 are eligible.
Giveaways
Another option for getting eyes on your book is to offer a giveaway. You can promote your giveaway on your website or social media account. The most common type of giveaway is when someone likes, comments, or follows your social page. You can also have them tag a friend or use a specific hashtag. There are limitations on some platforms to what you can and can’t do for a giveaway, so you should always check the platform rules before posting a giveaway.
It’s also fun to collaborate with other authors and host a giveaway. This helps both authors find more readers because you are sharing the content with two audiences.
To select a winner, use a tool that makes it easy. Here are a few you can try.
- Wask – A free Instagram and Facebook Comment Picker and Giveaways tool.
- Giveaway Pick – Works with Instagram to select a winner from the comments.
- Woobox – Select a Facebook post to pick random comments and reactions to your Facebook giveaways. Also available for Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter giveaways. Note: Free accounts are only limited to 100 participants over the past 30 days.
- RaffleKey – Offers a free plan for hosting Instagram Giveaways. Currently, all plans are free for a limited time. Only available for Instagram and Twitter (X).
Before you run a giveaway, consider what the benefits are. For most people, they aren’t going to boost their sales because people are always looking for freebies without ever wanting to invest in more. Non-fiction authors also don’t do the best for giveaways as their books are niche. But, if you run a giveaway, some benefits could include:
- The potential for reviews of your book
- You can personalize the book (you should send a print copy, not an ebook) or sign it
- You can find the right readers who might be influencers, which can give it more publicity
When running a giveaway, consider the costs as well. You’ll need to pay for the print book (you can get author copies which are less expensive), shipping, and any marketing costs for the giveaway.
Goodreads offers a giveaway program which currently costs $99. The benefits of running a giveaway with Goodreads is that those who enter the giveaway need to add your book to their “want to read” list. For Goodreads giveaways, it’s best to give 5-10 copies away. You can sign the books and ask for reviews, but Goodreads will also email winners and ask them for a review too. Goodreads handles selecting the winner by choosing them at random. (On a personal note – I’d much rather spend $99 running Amazon Ads than using a giveaway. Most people on Goodreads are just trolling for free books. Not sure it’s worth the investment, at least for non-fiction.)
When considering running a giveaway, think about your niche or genre, your budget, and the time you want to spend marketing your book.
Book Marketing Plan with an Author Platform
Your author platform consists of your website, your social media presence, and any places you exist online. It is a way for your audience to get to know you. Obviously, you’ll want to craft your website and social media pages to highlight your work and showcase what you offer your audience.
If you are just starting out and haven’t set up your social media yet, you should check out Brand Snag to see if the name you want is taken. If it is taken, you should consider using a name that is unique and not used by anyone else.
Search Your Name on BrandSnag
While your website is great to have, don’t forget other sites that will point back to your landing pages. Here are a few to research and create your author pages.
Goodreads
We discussed Goodreads previously, but if you don’t have a Goodreads Author Platform, you should sign up. It’s free and offers some benefits for authors. Your Goodreads account must be associated with your official author email address. Use Goodreads to promote your books, interact with readers, and create a profile that is up-to-date.
Amazon Author Central
Amazon offers a platform that hosts your books and allows people to follow you. It’s called Amazon Author Central. You’ll also get a unique author page that looks like this: amazon.com/author/michellebuck and you share it on other platforms. This is helpful when you list your books for sale on Amazon. If a visitor clicks on your name as the author, they will see your Author Central page.
Medium
As an author, you can apply to the Verified Author program through Medium. To sign up, you need to claim your book and include the details like your book ISBN, title, description, and publisher info. Medium will review your application and get back to you in a few weeks. Once verified, your profile on Medium will include the official Medium author badge and feature your book.
Other Sites
For non-fiction, consider publishing LinkedIn articles as a part of your book marketing plan. If you are writing for businesses or professionally, this is one of the best places to find other readers. You could also participate in groups. Some groups even allow you to share your content.
For fiction, consider websites like Wattpad, where you can build an audience and get real-time feedback.
Book Marketing Plan with Email
One of the best ways to get readers and keep them is by having an email list. If you have a website, you can sign up for an email service. I recommend Mailerlite because it’s free if you have under 100 subscribers. Once you build your list, the paid platform isn’t expensive. Overall, I find Mailerlite is easy to use and doesn’t require a PhD to learn.
Once you have an email system, you can create “lead magnets” or free offers that your readers will sign up for. Create forms and once they sign up to your list, they will receive the free offer. Then you can use your email list to strategically market to them using a welcome email campaign.
Join my 7 Day Email Course & Learn how to improve your blog and content to attract your readers!
Podcasting
There are two ways you can use podcasting to market your book and get more readers.
- Become a podcast guest
- Create your own podcast
Creating your own podcast could involve a financial cost for software and microphones. You could create episodes based on your book themes and invite guests to talk about those topics. This, of course, is an option, but for just starting, I would focus on becoming a podcast guest.
Research other people in your genre and find podcasts in your area of interest. Reach out to the hosts of those podcasts and see if they’d be willing to interview you or locate their website and see if they have a page to be a guest. Pitch your idea for a podcast topic, focusing on your book topic or area of interest. If they invite you, prepare talking points and any relatable stories that you could share with their audience.
You could also partner with podcast hosts and offer a giveaway or signed copies of your book. Bundle your book with other gifts from the host for podcast listeners. Engage and reply to comments regarding the podcast after it has gone live. Guest podcasting can reach a bigger audience and increase the sales of your books.
Guest Posting
Similar to guest podcasting, you could try guest posting for your book marketing plan. Select blogs with similar interest that have a good ranking and lots of followers. When you guest post, you will pitch your idea to the blog author. Many websites have sections on their website that talk about guest posting and how to guest post for their website. Follow the guidelines and read other posts on the blog before pitching your idea.
Not only does guest posting get you in front of a new audience, but it also provides backlinks that can boost your website SEO. The better the blog ranks, the more it pushes your site up in relevancy and position. That’s why it’s important to only guest post on blogs that make sense for your book or theme and that have a good rating with Google.
Try SERPs to see how a blog is ranking.
Book Marketing Plan for Authors
If you are unable to afford ads or other marketing, you can dedicate your time to running giveaways, using Amazon promotions, researching guest posts or podcasts to be featured, and using an Author Platform. In addition, you should have a social media presence that stands out and your name is easy to find. Once you publish your book, make sure reviews are a part of your strategy.
Even if you can’t do all the things listed here, pick one or two for your book marketing plan and keep at it. Your hard work will pay off!
Hey there, savvy reader! Just a heads up: some of my links are the magical kind that might sprinkle a few pennies my way if you decide to buy something cool (in other words, affiliate links). Don’t worry, though – it doesn’t cost you an extra cent, and my piggy bank does a happy dance!
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