New Book Release Marketing & Promotion Guide for Authors

This New Launch Book Marketing Guide will walk you through everything you need to know to market and promote your new book launch

It is divided into the following 11 sections

1. Absolute Best Product Market Fit – Writing for the right market and marketing to the right market
2. Absolute Best Product – Making sure the book is polished and high quality
3. Absolute Best Marketing – Leveraging the best and most effective marketing and promotion channels for your book
4. Good to Great Value for Money and Time – Your Product must Offer Very Good Value for Money and Reader Time
5. Reviews – Making sure you have good reviews for your book
6. Coordination & Execution – Making sure everything is coordinated and well executed
7. Going for Bestseller Status – How to go for Bestseller Status
8. Long Term Capture – How to capture all the readers you promote to, and sell to, for the long term
9. Long Term Review Strategy – How to ensure your book keeps getting reviews
10. First 2 Weeks – Maximizing the First 2 Week ‘Honeymoon’ period your new book enjoys
11. Launch Month – Maximizing the Rest of your Launch Month
12. Long Term Success – The Things to do to Get Good Book Sales for the long term

Please resist the temptation to jump to the sections you think are important. Each section is important and the Guide will work best if you read each section in order

Absolute Best Product Market Fit – Writing for the right market and marketing to the right market

Finding very good Product Market Fit is by far the most important thing you can do

Product Market Fit – Finding the right market where there is HUGE DEMAND for your book

1. If you do this well, everything else becomes easy
2. If you do this BEFORE you start writing your book, then you can write for
   1.  A Market where there is huge demand
   2. A Market where there is low competition
3. If you do this DURING the writing of your book, then you can adjust your book’s genre to appeal to
   1. A Market where there is huge demand
   2. A Market where there is low to medium competition
4. If you do this AFTER the writing of your book, then you must make sure you
   1. Find what market your book is a very good fit for
   2. Promote and Market to that Exact Market
5. Remember, if you get Product Market Fit right, then everything else becomes very easy
   1. Conversely, if you get Product Market Fit wrong, everything becomes close to impossible
6. The Market ALWAYS Wins
   1. People only buy what they want to buy
   2. You cannot dictate to the Market
   3. You can listen to the Market and supply what it is Demanding. However, you can never dictate to the Market

As we are discussing Book Launch Marketing, it is safe to assume you are already done with writing your book and picking what market to write for is not an option. Keep this advice in mind for your next book – FIRST find a very good market to write in. THEN write for that market

For your current book

The Single Biggest Thing you can do to make your Book Launch successful, is

1. Figure out what is the best market for your book
2. Promote and Market to that Exact Market

After you have figured out what market your book is best suited to, it’s critical to make sure you have a very high quality product to offer

Absolute Best Product – Making sure the book is polished and high quality

A Top 3 thing you can do to ensure your book launch goes well is to ensure your product is very high quality

Most authors don’t realize that they are not selling ‘a story’, they are selling ‘A Product’. Treat it exactly as if you were selling a refrigerator/fridge or a laptop computer – it is not enough for it to do what it says. It must do it very well. It must be packaged very well. It must be marketed and sold well

A reader is NOT buying ‘a story’. A reader is buying a highly polished, well packaged BOOK

Your book is Your Product, and the product needs to be Excellent

1. The Product must be very high quality and well polished
   1. There should be no spelling mistakes or typographical errors
   2. The book must be well edited
   3. The book must have been rewritten 2 to 5 times to ensure the story flows smoothly
   4. The book must allow the reader to get into the flow of the story, and stay in the flow of the story
   5. Your book is A PRODUCT, and it needs to be a high quality, well polished product
2. The Product must be well packaged
   1. The book cover must be very well done
   2. The book cover must fit the genre the book is in
   3. The book cover Must Sell
   4. The book page and author profile must be well done and Must Sell the book
   5. Everything about the book, such as cover and author website and book page, is a part of the product packaging. This ‘packaging’ must be well done
3. The Product must be correctly positioned and target the right market
   1. The Last Section already talked about the Critical Importance of Product Market Fit
   2. This, selling to the right market, is the #1 thing you can do to succeed
4. The Product must deliver what the reader expects
   1. Firstly, reading pleasure and satisfaction
   2. Secondly, immersion into the story world and a break from the real world
   3. Thirdly, flow i.e. the reader can get into the flow of the story and does not get dragged out of it
   4. Fourthly, genre conventions i.e. the things that give the user satisfaction. A thriller must ‘thrill’. A romance must have a Happily Ever After. A Horror novel must scare
   5. Fifthly, a completely experience. The story must not be incomplete. The details on the characters must be enough to form a complete image of them
5. The Product must deliver good value
   1. Please see the section below on Good to Great Value for Money and Time

Creating a very high quality product is something that is 100% Under Your Control

Your marketing budget might be limited. You may or may not be able to find the right market. However, you can definitely ensure you create a very high quality product

Creating a great product brings some amazing benefits

1. Good Reviews- which are the number 1 thing that sells books
2. Word of Mouth – still the most important sales and marketing channel
3. Internet Word of Mouth – fast becoming a top marketing channel
4. Repeat Customers – readers love your books and go on to buy your other books
5. Loyal Customers – not only do readers buy your other books, they keep buying your future books

A reader who loves your book will become a customer for life, and will bring in other readers

Absolute Best Marketing – Leveraging the best and most effective marketing and promotion channels for your book

After you have identified The Right Market for your Book, and made sure your book is very polished and high quality

You have to find the Best Marketing you can

Firstly, you have to find the best Marketing Methods for the Market you have identified as the best market for your book

1. Marketing is different for every book category
2. While there are some marketing channels and marketing methods that work for all book genres
   1. Every Book genre has its unique methods of marketing and promotion
   2. Every Book genre has marketing channels that work best for that genre
   3. Even within a book genre, there are sub genres and you must make sure that the marketing methods work for that sub genre
3. Marketing also varies from book to book

Secondly, you have to choose between all the methods and promotion channels and pick the best ones. Some of the best ones are

1. Facebook Ads that target readers in your target market
2. Book Promotion Sites, especially ones that have email lists or websites focused on your target market
3. Amazon Marketing Services Ads run on the pages of popular books that are in your target market
4. We will have a separate post on all the best marketing and promotion channels

Pick wisely and carefully. Make sure that you confirm the channels work for your target market

Thirdly, you have to arrange all the book marketing

1. Set a launch date based on the dates you can run your best marketing channels
2. Position everything around your launch date, and around your best marketing channels
3. Give a few days leeway. Remember that the book stores are experts at messing up dates and messing up price changes. Make sure that you discount and make adjustments well in advance of your main marketing dates

Below we have details on how to go for Bestseller Status

Remember that the best time to do well in book sales, and to do well in Bestseller Status, is during book launch and the launch month

Good to Great Value for Money and Time

An often ignored aspect of Book Launch Marketing is that readers are looking for Good to Great Value for their Money and Time

1. Readers are careful where they spend their hard earned money
   1. You must make sure they get very good value for their money
   2. This is even more important for new authors. If you disappoint readers, you will lose them forever
   3. On the other hand, if you give them great value for money, they will become your customers for life
2. Readers are even more careful where they spend their precious time
   1. You must make sure that they feel your book was well worth their time
   2. Always keep in mind that most readers only get to read one book a week, or one book a month
      1. If your book disappoints, they might not get any reading satisfaction until next week or next month
      2. That’s one of the reasons readers are very picky when it comes to new authors
   3. Readers are particularly upset when you make rookie mistakes that spoil their reading time
      1. Things such as spelling mistakes and grammatical errors make them feel you do not respect their time

This is one of the most important insights to take away from this post. The more respect you have for your customers’ time and money, the better your will do as an author

If you provide good value for money and for time – Readers will become repeat customers

If you provide great value for money and for time – Readers will become your External Marketing Team and get you sales via word of mouth and via good reviews

Reviews – Making sure you have good reviews for your book

All of your marketing will be two to three times more effective if your book has good reviews

So, your entire marketing strategy and launch strategy, revolves around

1. How many good reviews you can get soon after book launch
2. How soon after book launch you can get those reviews
3. How many of those reviews strongly recommend purchasing your book

Most authors use a ‘street team’ and ARCs (advanced review copies) and review sites (free book in return for a honest review)

1. Street Team is when an author gathers their most loyal readers and creates a ‘street team’ that will help with book launch, including reviews and word of mouth. In return, they get special benefits such as previews and free books
2. Advanced Review Copies are where an author will send out review copies to bloggers and reviewers before book launch, and request them to add a review soon after book release
3. Review Sites are sites that help you get reviews for your book. They usually work on a model where they have lists of readers. You offer those readers a free copy of your book, with the understanding that if they like the book, they will review it

These are all excellent methods. You should incorporate as many of these as you can, especially the ‘street team’ concept

We will stress once again, that the best way to get good reviews is

1. Writing very well i.e. creating a very high quality product
2. Finding the Right Market i.e. generating sales in the right book market, as that is where readers are most likely to appreciate your book
3. Asking for Reviews
   1. Readers do not know that you need reviews to sell your book
   2. You Must ASK FOR REVIEWS

It is up to you to ensure that you have at least 1 good review, and ideally 10 to 100 good reviews, within 1 to 3 days of launch

All your book marketing and promotion should start either on launch day, or on a date soon after. As reviews are absolutely critical, you have to make sure the reviews are also ready and added by launch day, or soon after

Coordination & Execution – Making sure everything is coordinated and well executed

Here are a few of the things you have to make sure you coordinate

1. Launch Date
2. Reviews on Launch Day, or soon after
3. Promotion that starts on Launch Day, or within a few days of launch
4. Pricing discounts and store changes done at least 3 days before book marketing starts
5. Responding to reader feedback
   1. There are always things that go wrong. You have to be ready to respond quickly and solve issues
6. Responding to ebook store issues and promotion channel issues
   1. Again, there are things that go wrong. The store gets pricing wrong. A promotion channel stops working. You have to have emergency responses planned out
7. Your free time. It is best to have some off days from work available around launch time
   1. It’s also very important to not have personal or work issues going on. There are always launch headaches and you don’t want to have multiple things going on
8. Measuring everything
   1. You have to measure what is going on. What is working. What is not working

Do not trivialize this

All the work you put into your book. All the money and time and effort

To ensure you make the most out of it

1. You have to coordinate everything
2. Things inevitably go wrong – you must be prepared to handle things

Best of luck! You will need it!

Going for Bestseller Status – How to go for Bestseller Status

First kind of Bestseller Status you can go for – New York Times Bestselling Author, USA Today Bestselling Author

1. This is incredibly tough to do. Not recommended for new authors
2. You have to get 10,000 to 20,000 sales in a one week period
3. At least some of the sales have to be from outside Amazon Kindle Store
   1. That means it is not possible to have Amazon Kindle exclusivity and still get Bestseller Status unless you can get a bunch of paperback sales
   2. As getting paperback sales is very difficult, you basically have to have your book available in Apple iBooks and B&N Store, in addition to Kindle Store
   3. You also have to get sales from these other stores. Which is tougher as marketing for these stores is tougher

We will write a separate post on this. It is difficult and unless you have a good amount of money, a decent amount of experience, and a very polished book with reviews, we would not recommend trying for this

Second kind of Bestseller Status you can go for – Bestseller in a big category in an ebook store

1. This is quite tough
2. You need to have a very well written and very well polished book
3. You need to have good reviews
   1. If a new launch – you need to make sure you get reviews in early. Else the whole plan will fall apart
   2. If an existing book, make sure there are lots of good reviews
4. You need to get a lot of marketing channels lined up and get a good, healthy number of sales
   1. For larger categories
      1. You will need 1,000+ sales to get to the Top 3 positions in the genre bestseller lists
      2. You will need a few hundred sales to get to the Top 20 positions in the genre bestseller lists
   2. For medium sized categories
      1. You will need a few hundred sales to get to the Top 3 positions in the genre bestseller lists
      2. You will need a hundred or more sales to get to the Top 20 positions in the genre bestseller lists
5. You can also approach it from a different direction (discussed below)
   1. Figure out sub genres of the big and medium sized categories where it is easier to get a bestseller rank
   2. However, we do not recommend this as the real value of becoming a bestseller is when you do it in your main category

For new authors, even this can be rather difficult

Third kind of Bestseller Status you can go for – Bestseller in a small category

1. This is the best target if you are a new author, or if you have a small marketing budget
2. Again, you must have a very well polished book
3. You must have a few good reviews
   1. If it’s a new launch book, then make sure reviews get added soon after launch
   2. Do not use fake reviews. Readers are now used to telling when reviews are fake
   3. If it is an existing book then make sure it has good reviews and a review rating over 4 stars. Below that will not work
4. Do proper market research and find sub genres which
   1. Are relevant to your book genre
   2. Will benefit you when you say ‘Bestseller in X Category’
   3. Are easy to get bestseller rank in. They must be small categories
5. Get a bunch of good marketing channels
   1. For small categories
      1. 100 sales in a day will get you a Top 3 position in the genre bestseller lists
   2. For very small categories
      1. Even 10 to 30 sales in a day will get you a Top 3 position in the genre bestseller lists
   3. If you can’t get the marketing channels to get all sales in one day, you can also get bestseller status by getting a steady 10 to 20 sales a day for 3 to 7 days in a row

This is something that is relatively straightforward to do. Just make sure you cross your t’s and dot your i’s

Long Term Capture – How to capture all the readers you promote to, and sell to, for the long term

Now we are going to start looking at some Long Term magic you need to do, when doing a book launch

First, Long Term Capture of Readers

1. You are reaching all these readers during your book launch
2. You are getting a significant portion of them to your book page
3. Some of those are buying your book
4. Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could capture these readers on to an email list or blog. So that the next time you have a book launch, you can reach them directly
5. Well, there is

Here are the steps to ensure you do a Long Term Capture of readers you reach during your book launch

1. Whenever possible, send readers through a landing page that offers a free short story or free book if they sign up for your email list. Do this BEFORE sending them to the book page
   1. You can also offer things such as free hardcover to the first 100 readers who buy my ebook
   2. You can offer a free book to anyone willing to review the book
   3. You can start building your street team
2. Inside your book, on the first page, and where the book ends (on the very page where the last paragraph of the book is), ask readers to sign up for your email list
   1. Always offer them something, such as a discount or a free book
3. Some promotion channels, not all, will let you gather reader emails
4. Do a bit of research and find all possible ways to capture these readers (your potential customers) on to your email list and blog or website
5. The value of a reader you capture on to your email list is TEN times that of a normal reader
   1. With the added huge advantage that you can reach them for cheap or free, when your next book comes out

In summary, every place you can gather readers, you must gather readers

1. The first page of your book
2. The last page of your book (the page on which the book ends, not the page after it)
3. Your landing pages
4. Your social media accounts
5. Your blogs
6. (If the store allows it, some don’t) Your book page in the store
7. (If the promotion channel allows it, most don’t) Your promotion with a promotion channel

Capturing a decent number of readers on to your email list can make a promotion successful, even if your book sells only decently well. Because now you can reach those readers every time you have a new book, or a book offer, for them

Long Term Review Strategy – How to ensure your book keeps getting reviews

Reviews are absolutely critical to get good book sales, and extend the lifetime of a book. Here are some very powerful things that will allow you to create a Long Term Review Strategy and consistently get reviews

1. You MUST ask for reviews
   1. While authors are aware that reviews really help, most readers have absolutely zero clue that a review will help the author
   2. You must ask them nicely to leave a review if they like a book
   3. Please do not beg or bribe or write sad sob stories. Just ask politely
2.  You should ask for reviews from your most loyal customers
   1. Asking at the end of a book is better than at the beginning. Though you should ask at both places
   2. Asking people who are repeat customers is better than asking first time customers. Though you should ask both
   3. Asking people who are signed up for your email list is better than people who are not. Though you should ask both
3.  You should ask for reviews at the point of Maximum Reading Satisfaction
   1. What do you think that point is?
   2. Yes, that’s right. It’s at the moment that they have finished your book
   3. The best place to ask for reviews is on the very last page of your book. The page on which the story ends. On that page itself
4.  You should always qualify what you want
   1. If you want feedback, then ask for feedback to your email address
   2. If you want reviews from people who hated the book (if for some reason you think this is a good idea), then ask for that specifically
   3. If you want reviews from people who loved the book, specify that when asking
5. Don’t ask for too much
   1. You can ask for – recommendations (please tell other readers)
   2. You can ask for – sign up for email list (please sign up for special offers and book deals)
   3. You can ask for – reviews (please add a review if you enjoyed the book. thank you)
   4. Of the three, reviews are most important. Email List sign up is 2nd most important. Recommendations are not that important because they will tell other readers anyways. It’s the reviews and the email list sign ups that you want

You should set a target

1. To get 10% to 20% of people who read the book to leave a review
2. For every 100 paid sales, roughly 40% will read the book. 10% of that is 4
   1. Aim for 1 to 4 reviews, for every 100 paid sales
3. For every 1,000 free book downloads, roughly 20% will read the book. 10% of that is 20
   1. Aim for 1 to 10 reviews, for every 1,000 free book downloads

Number of reviews you get also depend on the quality of writing

If you are getting less than 1 review for every 100 paid sales, then you need to drastically improve the quality of your writing

If you are getting 2 to 5 reviews for every 100 paid sales, then you need to improve the quality of your writing quite a bit

More than 5 reviews for every 100 paid sales is very good. You should still look to improve

First 2 Weeks – Maximizing the First 2 Week ‘Honeymoon’ period your new book enjoys

Please Note: This changes quite often. Sometimes there is a 2 week honeymoon period for a new book launch. Sometimes there is a month long honeymoon period for a new book launch

Regardless, what is important is that the time period just after you launch a book, is the best time period to promote the book

There are some similarities between ‘Going for Bestseller Status’ and ‘Maximizing the First 2 Week Honeymoon’, so please be sure to also read that section (it is a few sections earlier)

Here are all the things to know about the 2 Week Honeymoon period that every new book enjoys

1. When a new book launches, the store keeps an eye on it for the first 2 to 4 weeks, to see if it is a ‘hot new release’ or a ‘trending book’ or a ‘category bestseller’
   1. Why? Because the store wants to sell books and the store wants to keep readers happy
   2. So it is in the Store’s best interest to figure out which books are selling well, and to show them to more readers
   3. Hoping that when a book that is selling well is shown to more readers, it will sell more
2. The above should give you an idea of what you can do in the first 2 to 4 weeks after you launch a book
   1. Get some sales via book promotion and marketing
   2. If you have an email list or a website or social media presence, then leverage that to get more sales
   3. Hope that the store algorithms notice your book is selling well and start giving your book more publicity
      1. A few things are automatic. Each category has Hot New Releases and Bestseller Lists. Sales will automatically get you on to some of those lists
      2. A few things are semi automatic. You may or may not trigger these. To ensure you get these, you have to promote heavily after launch
      3. Some things are curated. However, getting book sales during launch month will put you on the radar. This will slightly increase your chance of getting into lists such as Editor’s Choice
3. This honeymoon period also means that
   1. The earlier you can get in reviews, the better
      1. Because reviews are the biggest driver of sales
   2. The more of your marketing you can schedule during the first 2 to 4 weeks, the better
      1. Of course, marketing works much better if you have reviews
      2. So, ideally, you first want to get reviews in (within the first few days after launch)
      3. Then (or in parallel), you want to start doing book promotion and marketing
   3. The potential reward of getting picked up by the Store Algorithms is very high, and worth trying for
      1. This is the best time to try and get picked by store algorithms
   4. The potential chances of hitting a Hot New Releases list, or a Bestseller List, are highest right now

As you can see, this 2 week honeymoon period is critical

Read up as much as you can about it. Read up on what works for your book categories

Make the most of this opportunity. The four things you should strive for are

1. Hitting Bestseller Status during this honeymoon period
   1. This is most critical as you can use ‘Bestseller’ label on all your books
2. Capturing as many readers as you can on your email list and your blog or website
   1. This is joint most critical as you can market your other books to these readers
3. Getting good reviews during this honeymoon period
   1. This is 2nd most critical as reviews will help your book throughout its ‘lifetime’
4. Getting good sales during this honeymoon period
   1. This is important but not critically important

Everything you do for your book, in terms of marketing and getting reviews, should be focused around this 2 to 4 week honeymoon period

Launch Month – Maximizing the Rest of your Launch Month

If possible, continue to promote during the entire launch month

This month is the best month you will have. A month when the store will help you if you help yourself

1. If you have a limited budget, then focus on the first two weeks
2. If you have a medium budget, then focus on the first two weeks
3. If you have a large budget, focus first on the first two weeks. Then focus on the rest of the Launch Month

Long Term Success – The Things to do to Get Good Book Sales for the long term

This post would have given you a good idea of the things you should keep doing to ensure Long Term Success

Here is a refresher list

1. Keep Improving Your Product Market Fit
   1. That means keep finding very good markets that have high demand, low competition, and for which you can write great books
2. Write More Books
3. Keep improving your writing quality and your book quality
4. Keep improving your marketing skills
5. Capture as many readers on emails as you can
6. If you get a shot at taking Bestseller status, take it
7. Keep collecting reviews
8. Ask for Reviews
9. Ask for Reviews from readers most likely to give good reviews
10. Find out what marketing channels and what marketing methods work for your book. Utilize those
11. If you get a hit, write more books for that market
12. If you don’t get a hit, the FIRST thing to check is whether you are in the right market

Those are some of the things that will get you long term success