How to Plan a Book Promotion

You've written a book. You’ve probably spent months or even years of your life writing and editing, have gotten the cover designed, and getting everything in place to publish. 

But now you have to think about how to actually promote it - how on earth do you do that?! So if you find yourself struggling to figure out the promotional process or how to breathe new life into your books, we are going to tackle that today. 

To make the process a bit easier to understand and digest, we’re going to focus on three main sections of book promotion. 

Section #1: Reviews 

There are different kinds of reviews that we can get. There are media reviews that are featured in magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other online outlets written by a journalist or other professionals. 

The other kind of reviews come from customers that are featured on Amazon or other book seller websites. 

Major media reviews can help with spreading the word or giving you a broader reach, but customer reviews hold a lot of clout. Customer reviews provide peer feedback that holds a lot of weight for buyers and is a reference when someone is considering buying your book. 

So getting reviews rolling in as soon as possible - especially on Amazon - is important. So having a review plan in place will be key. 

What this means is creating a list of people that you have connections with or who want to support you to help get the ball rolling with your reviews. What I would suggest is thinking of a group of people (you can do as few as 10 and I’ve had some authors go as high as 100) that you can reach out to to ask if they would be interested in receiving an advanced PDF of your book and leaving a review the week your book is released. 

If they say yes, you can email them a download of the book and then send them a reminder to post their review the week your book is released. This will help you get the ball rolling. 

But something you need to remember is that asking for people to review your book will be an ongoing process. I know you might get sick of asking - especially after the release - but prompting people and reminding them to leave a review will be key. You can do this in your social media captions, in your newsletter, at the end of interviews - whenever you can pop that reminder in. 

Section #2: Pre-Orders 

Creating a pre-order campaign is a great way to get readers excited about your book and see a nice boost in sales. A pre-order campaign involves coming up with some added bonuses that a reader will automatically get when they pre-order the book before the release date. 

These bonuses can be a collection of resources that you already have like downloads, checklists, pre-recorded videos, bonus chapters, a special short story - the options are endless. The key is to think of something that will spark interest in your ideal reader. 

The pre-order campaign provides added value for your readers. 

What most authors do is offer the pre-order incentives about a month before the release date and then cut it off about a week after the release date. This provides a sense of urgency and exclusivity for the offer. 

But lately I’ve seen multiple authors keeping their incentive up indefinitely. It’s adding more value to their book and giving them something beyond the $10 they spend on the book, which just adds to its value. 

The duration that you have your incentive up is completely up to you. But having something to add excitement and value to your release is important. And it gives you something more to talk about with your release. 

Section #3: Continued Promotions 

One of the biggest missed opportunities I see both traditionally published and self-published authors make is only focusing on promoting their book around the release date. But here’s the catch - the majority of your book’s sales will come in after the release date.  

So often I see authors put all of their eggs in their promotional basket around the release date. If the book doesn’t do well right out of the gate, they think the book is a failure. But that could not be further from the truth! When we stop talking about our book and sprinkling in promotions after the release date, we are missing out on additional sales.  

Many times I see authors schedule all of their podcast interviews, paid ads or promotions, discounts, blog tours, and every other promotional idea during their launch. This will not only stress you out and run you ragged, but it’s also limiting your continued reach. 

What I would suggest is that you list out all of the promotions you’d like to do and focus on one or two during your release. Then with the remaining promotions, spread them out over the six months following your release date. 

This will enable you to keep your sales up, have something new to talk about, and keep momentum going. 

So remember, if your book doesn't skyrocket to the top of the charts the minute it releases, it is okay. Your book still has a long life ahead of it and you can keep promotions going after the release date to keep things rolling. 

If you need some added help with your book marketing and would like more guidance to move your writing career forward, I’ve got something for you. Download my FREE Book Marketing Blueprint - it will help you get things in order and simplify the marketing process.