3 Crucial Marketing Tips for Self-Publishing Authors – Damon Freeman | Guest Post

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When it comes to self-publishing authors, marketing your book becomes just as important as writing a fantastic page-turner. The ability to sell yourself may seem difficult, but with some crucial tips, it is easy to do. With proper marketing, you can spread the word and convince people to purchase your book.

Designing Your Book Cover

According to the American Psychological Association, first impressions contribute to decision making. You do not get a second chance to make a good first impression. It is up to you to make sure that your book cover offers an impactful first impression. You want to make the kind of impression that encourages readers to purchase your book. Fortunately, designing your book cover is not that hard.

Know Your Audience

First, you must know your audience. If you are writing a romance novel, it is safe to suggest that your audience will consist of a large demographic of female readers. Romance Writers of America reports that 35.1 percent of romance novel readers are 20 years or older. Therefore, you want to market your book cover toward women who are within that age group.

Decide what type of novel you are going to write. There are genres, and then there are sub-genres. Make sure you have a book design that sufficiently portrays the theme or genre of your book. Of course, not all writers are artists. Fortunately, you can hire a cover design company to assist you. With a cover design company, you can create a memorable first impression for potential book buyers.

Pay Attention to Your Background

Make sure you pay attention to the book’s background. It is always best to avoid a white background because they often disappear when viewed from a bright white screen. Instead, try to use a colored background and colored text. Of course, an illustrated background works better than a plain colored background.

Analyze Text Size

The text size on the cover of your book needs to be legible. Reduce the picture of your book cover down to thumbnail size. Typically, books sold online through companies like Amazon show thumbnail sized photos of books. If you cannot read the title at thumbnail size, you will need to increase the size of your cover text. Try out different scripts so the cover still looks edgy or elegant, but not obnoxious.

Everything you do with your book cover should ensure that it is highly visible to your potential audience. Design the cover accordingly, use a captivating background, and make sure that buyers can read your cover text. If you combine all those elements into the cover of your book design, you should have decent success marketing your book, so it sells.

Building Up Your Brand

Many people have dreams of becoming an author. Of course, the idea of becoming a famed author may seem like a longshot if you consider self-publishing, right? Wrong. Many well-known authors have self-published in their lifetime. Both the Huffington Post and Self-Publishing Advice report that authors such as Stephen King, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy self-published at one point.

If you are considering self-publishing, do not let the idea deter you from your dream of writing the next best-selling novel. You can get your name out there among the public by building up your brand as an author. All it takes is a little know-how and dedication toward yourself and your book.

The Power of Social Media

Social media offers incredible brand building power. In many instances, you can start building your brand for free. Begin with your friends and family and have them spread the word. You want people to know who you are and what you are doing. Post updates about your book writing on social media to keep people intrigued.

As your audience expands, consider making an author page on social media sites like Facebook. Creating an author page that is separate from your personal page allows you to improve your self-image and brand. Encourage your friends and family to share your author page so that you can gain a larger audience. Pew Research reports that 7 out of 10 Americans use social media, which is a potentially large audience.

The Benefit of Proper Delivery

Consider how you deliver yourself and your brand to your audience. Does your audience prefer to read blogs, watch videos, or both? Delivery who you are with snippets of enticing information about your book through both blogs and video updates. If you are not familiar with the proper blog and video formatting, you can always hire a professional to assist you.

The way that you deliver yourself can have a significant impact on your success as a self-publisher. Taking the appropriate delivery steps allows you to market yourself to a much larger audience. Blogs and video content are all shareable pieces of media. In other words, if your blogs and videos are interesting enough, people will share them.

By sharing blogs and videos about who you are and the book you are writing, you can gain a decently large following. It is your followers that are the ones who will likely pick up your book and read it. Even if you do not have a large following, do not panic. An audience of any size is good because your followers can spread the word. Just make sure you always deliver news and information about your book writing.

Releasing Your Work on Amazon

The best platform you will find for self-publishing is Amazon. Amazon offers incredible ways for self-publishers to succeed among what seems like an already full-to-bursting market. Just because many people have jumped on board the self-publishing train does not mean you cannot succeed. Understanding the best ways to release your work through Amazon can help.

Give Something for Nothing

You may often hear the phrase, “Nothing in life is free.” However, as a self-publisher, it doesn’t hurt to offer something for free. That is not to say that you should offer your entire book for free. Of course, you want to make money off your work. Although, you should provide a least the first few chapters for free.

Providing the first few chapters helps engage potential readers by capturing their interest. If your book is well-written, readers will want to keep reading, which means they will buy the book. It is not uncommon for authors to offer a preview of the first few chapters to intrigue readers. In doing so, they know that they can entice readers to buy their book.

Author Earnings released a report in which they stated that self-publishing authors make just as much, if not more, than famed writers with prestigious contracts under their belt. The data, which they collected from Amazon, included Amazon published books, Big Five published books, Indie published books and more. One way to achieve the same success is offering a snippet of your book for free.

Make Use of the Tools

Amazon offers plenty of helpful tools for self-publishers that allow you to control the process from beginning to end. You can retain the rights to your book all while releasing your work of art to the public.

Thanks to Amazon’s tools, publishing your book is fast and easy. You do not have to wait days, weeks, or even months for a response from an agency. Consider using tools that allow you to release your book in paperback, hardback, and e-book version. Many people prefer the convenience of e-books over paperback and hardback, so focus on this market first and foremost.

By combining all the helpful tips and information given above, you can rise above and become a very successful self-publishing author. Strive to fulfil your dreams and dedicate yourself to your book. Through your dedication to marketing, you can easily sell your book to a very eager public. Even after the release of your book, make sure you stay on top of your self-marketing approach.

 

BIO

Damon Freeman is the founder and creative director behind Damonza, an international book cover design company that provides beautiful covers to authors worldwide. With over 18 years of experience in the design industry, Damon began creating covers in 2011 and has since worked with everyone from first-time authors to New York Times bestsellers.
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One Comment;

  1. Duke Vukadinovic said:

    Guys from Canva done a splendid job creating a free online book cover maker so I strongly suggest your readers go and try it out! It is known that first impressions are those which contribute to decision making.

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