How Authors Can Market a Book Before Release Date

If you're an author wondering how on earth do I grow an audience and market my book before the book is even written? I'm going to share four tips that are going to help you connect with your readers and market your book before you actually even finish writing.  

Step 1 - Understand the Phases of Marketing

There are essentially three phases to marketing: the Attraction, Promotion and Follow-Up Phases. 

The Attraction Phase begins the minute you start writing your book up until about two to three months before the release date. The Promotional Phase starts two to three months before your book releases until about two weeks after the release date. The Follow-Up Phase begins two weeks after the release date and beyond.

With the Attraction Phase you are connecting and attracting your audience on a human level. You’re not necessarily growing an audience as an author trying to promote something, because you're still in the process of writing it. When you can connect with readers as a human being who has similar tastes in books, similar interests, and who has different things that they want to connect with readers on besides their book, you're able to create a genuine connection. 

Readers can smell marketing a mile away. So when you can connect with people regarding things that you have in common, it’s a great way to build the foundation of your book marketing. 

With the Promotional Phase you have a bit more room to actually let them know you have a book coming out, share promotions, ask them to pre-order, and so on. 

The Follow-Up Phase is probably the most important. So many authors just focus on selling within the Promotional Phase. If the book doesn't sell really well right off the bat, many authors assume the book won’t sell at all and then move on to the next book. That is absolutely not what you should do. The Follow-Up Phase is where you're going to sell the majority of your books, so having a plan to continue to talk about the book and other promotional ideas in place in order to talk about the book is essential. 

Step 2 - Have a Better Understanding of Modern Marketing 

Modern marketing is all about connection - it's not about collecting a bunch of followers and being in constant promotional mode. It’s about connecting with readers as a human being. 

When we can take off our author hat and connect with people as human beings it is going to take us so much further in our marketing journey. We don’t want to be in constant promotional mode.  Connect with your Ideal Reader and create content that speaks to them. 

Step 3 - Share the Essence of Your Book 

Authors ask me all the time, “How can I promote or talk about my book without giving it all away.” My answer is sharing the essence of your book. 

So if you're a fiction writer, think about what topics and themes you discuss in your book. Think about character traits or flaws that you you can build conversations around. You don't have to come out right and say, “In my book I talk about X, Y, and Z.” For example, let's say one of your characters is just hopeless in love and has bad date after bad date. Maybe one of your posts can be sharing about a really bad first date that you had. Then you can invite your audience to share their bad date stories in the comments. 

For non-fiction writers, you can talk about the struggles, worries, and different issues your book addresses. Or think about the pain points your Ideal Reader has that your book helps with.

For example let's say your book is about dealing with anxiety. You can share a post that has three tips to deal with anxiety in a group setting.  You can share your expertise, prove that you know what you're talking about, and become the go-to expert in your field. 

Step 4 - Make Connections Offline 

Think about places within your community that you can start interacting with people face to face. That could mean going to your library and getting feedback from your local librarian, discovering writer's groups, local speaking events, and meetups you could participate in. You could go to your local bookstore, or talk to local book clubs. Investigate what you have within your own community that you can start doing “offline” to create those in-person connections locally and then spread out from there. 

If book marketing and social media feel a little overwhelming to you and you want a simpler approach, be sure to download the Book Marketing Blueprint. This FREE quick-start guide will help you finally see results with your book marketing and make authentic connections with your readers on social media. 

If you want to go a step further and get all of the tools, resources, and help that you need to market your book, grow on social media, and sell more books - join The Author Circle membership!